Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Evaluate the role of the Electoral College and explain why it has not been reformed

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Luke Elias

27th October 2004

Evaluate the role of the Electoral College and explain why it has not been reformed

The Electoral College is a mechanism of Presidential elections that was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as a compromise for the presidential election process. At the time, some politicians believed a purely popular election was too reckless, while others objected to giving Congress the power to select the president. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution.

Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. senators (2 in each state) plus the number of its U.S. representatives, which varies according to the state's population. Currently, the Electoral College includes 538 electors, 535 for the total number of congressional members, and three who represent Washington, D.C., as allowed by the 23rd Amendment. To become President of the USA, you need to gain at least 270 of the votes, in other words, more than half.

...read more.

Middle

The Electoral College seems to be working at the moment, and why should you fix something that isn’t broken?  Even with the horror and outrage over the disputed election in 2000, in which George W. Bush won, despite fewer votes than Al Gore, the shock died down very quickly following Bush’s inauguration, especially after 9/11.  

Despite these advantage, weaknesses are also apparent.  The over- representation of states is clear amongst the smaller states.  Wyoming has 3 ECV’s for its population of 500,000, which is 1 ECV for every 165,000 people.  California, on the other hand, has 1 ECV per 617,000 inhabitants.  This disproportionate way of the system gives smaller states a greater say than the deserve, or bigger states get less ECV’s than they should.

The winner takes all system has been criticised for distorting the result of elections.  As the Electoral College system isn’t a representative institute, as a candidate can get the popular vote without actually winning the Presidency, it has distorted the results of many elections.  The 1824, 1876, 1888 and the most recent 2000 election has left the winner of the popular vote without the honour of becoming president.  And, the College can also distort results by seriously allowing giving a candidate more than they deserve.

...read more.

Conclusion

To actually reform the current Electoral System would be a long and tiring process.  It would require a constitutional reform, which is hard to achieve as smaller states favour the current system as it gives them a greater say than they might actually deserve.  This factor has a huge importance on the decision of changing the Electoral College system.  To achieve a constitutional amendment, 2/3’s of the states need to agree, but this would seem unlikely.  Also, due to the fact George W. Bush and the Republicans came to power in 2000 due to the Electoral College system, it seems they would be reluctant to admit it needs changing, which therefore would undermine Bush’s legitimacy.  The last factor is there is little agreement on what to change it to.  With many ideas and proposals being put forward, it is unlikely that a decision which all states could agree on will ever be put forward.  Most of the current suggestions have flaws and weaknesses, which would be silly to put a critical proposal into place.  At the moment, despite controversy surrounding the Electoral College, it seems a suitable replacement hasn’t been found.  By leaving the College as it is, it seems that it is the sensible option to leave it as the Founding Fathers had made it.

...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our University Degree Computer Science section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related University Degree Computer Science essays

  1. The project explains various algorithms that are exercised to recognize the characters present on ...

    The Process Image and Reprocess Image functions of an algorithm require maximum computational time. These functions are optional features used to create the visibility of results on the TV screen and may be ignored during Performance Analysis. Hence, the overall performance estimated for image recognition part for the remaining five functions is 40 ms approximately.

  2. Star College Student Accommodation

    ROOM ----- ---------- ----------------- ---- ------ ----------- ----------------- 1001 JH low 23 Taman Bangi 21 male chinese apartment 1002 Khar Fai 28 Taman Kepong 20 male chinese apartment 1003 Kenny Lee 8 Jalan Rawang 28 male chinese apartment 1004 Eugune Yap 76 Taman Kepong 23 male chinese apartment 1005 Sam

  1. Crucial Changes in Regards to the Election of the President

    Washington would have surely been elected to a third term, and the same can be said for popular Presidents who followed him. By stepping down, Washignton assured the public that there would be a frequent shift in power. The fact that incumbants step down after their second term is directly attibutable to Washington.

  2. To evaluate customer loyalty toward e-CRM on Dusit.com website in Thailand

    Then, the theory involves the research and represents itself as a hypothesis to support the ideas how and why something happen which researcher's believe are true and it conducts researchers through the research process (Finn et al, 2000). Thereafter, both pure and applied researches have had a role in seeking a reason what people belief in the facts.

  1. The purpose of this project is to discuss the issues associated with the deployment ...

    1.1 The usefulness of WAP Service providers must feel secure that their investments will yield benefits in the future. They will not be able to do so until equipment and software offered by different suppliers can be made to work together.

  2. In what ways does the present Electoral Law in Britain affect Voting Behaviour?

    The system works on a simple majority; the candidate with the most votes in their constituency becomes a member of parliament. Unlike other electoral systems there is no requirement in FPTP for a candidate to win a majority of the votes cast, only to gain more votes than the opposition.

  1. To what extent has the German electoral system shaped its party system and the ...

    So, one is left with three groupings, CDU/CSU, SDP and FDP. However, it must be noted that these are not equal groupings by any means. Their inequality can be seen from election results. In the first election in 1949, the CDU/CSU gained 141 seats, the SPD 136 seats and the FDP only 53 seats.

  2. The Electoral College System.

    By having the electoral vote in Florida awarded to Bush, he received only one vote more than the minimum number needed to win. The votes in Florida were miscounted. The Electoral College system has been in place for over 200 years and Americans are still not sure how it works or if it is the best system.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work