The founding fathers were trying to make the election of President as impartial as possible. They came up with the idea of the Electoral College to prevent corruption and state loyalties. They felt if the vote was left up to the population they would only vote for a President from their state because they didn’t have access to information about candidates from other states. They didn’t want the prevailing party in Congress to choose along party lines because it may not accurately reflect the will of the people.
So, the Electoral College was formed. As it stands today, each state’s members in the Electoral College equal the total number of Senators and Congressmen that the state has. So the states with the most population are suppose to be represented by the most members. Each party in a state chooses their electors. When the election takes place, the party that wins the state by popular votes will have their electors cast their vote for President. So that by the end of the election, the person who has received the most electoral votes wins the election. In event of a tie, the U.S House of Representatives chooses the President.
Many people today want the Electoral College to be abolished. It no longer serves the purpose it once did. There are plenty of avenues open to the population to gather information about the candidates.
As it stands today, the American people really don’t have a say in who is elected President. They can cast their vote and their vote is suppose to dictate to the electors what their wishes are but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the voter will get what they voted for.
There are 2 situations caused by this system that can prevent the person chosen by the people from becoming President these are:
1. While the electors are suppose to vote with the popular concerns they don’t
always do so.
2. The candidate who gathers the most electoral votes wins but there have been
situations in the past where the popular vote came out for one candidate and
the electoral vote came out for the other one. This is because the more
populated states get more votes. So if a candidate gets enough of the large
states electoral votes; he could win even though more people (making up the
lower electoral vote population) voted for the other candidate.
Having an Electoral College determine who our President may be an outdated idea that needs looked at again. A lot of voters don’t go to the poll because they believe their vote doesn’t count. With the Electoral College still in force; they may be right
