Changing up the electoral college? – Article Critique

Introduction

The Electoral College is an important institution in the United States that determines who the president will be. It has 270 electoral votes represents the various states throughout the nation. Different states have different numbers of electoral votes and thus different numbers of electors in congress. The party selects the people who will be part of the Electoral College and who will determine whom the president in the end. The Electoral College determines the president of the country even though the candidate has not won the most votes. Therefore, it does not represent all the people’s interests because in a democracy the president wins the majority vote.

Scrapping the Electoral College will ensure that people get the president whom they voted by popular vote.

Such a loopholes should be changed since most of the electors do not serve the interests of their states or the people they represent. This has been the case as evidenced by the voting of a president according to his or her own wishes. Some of the candidates have won the presidents not because they gained the popular vote, but because they gain the electoral vote made by the Electoral College. Therefore, it does not matter if a president won the majority of votes but what matters is what the results of the Electoral College. An example is that of President Bush who won the votes from the Electoral College, but did not get the popular vote. The voting represents several elections that have passed presidents who did not win the popular vote (Underhill, 2012).  Therefor there is need for change especially in how the state legislators vote in the congress to ensure that elections are free and fair and represent the interests of the people.

The unpopularity of the Electoral College has made many legislators to try making changes to the constitution, but have failed terribly. Some of the bills to counter the Electoral College or to amend were to direct the Electoral College towards choosing the candidate who has the nationwide votes and not just in a few states where the Electoral College becomes a determinant of who will become the president. As a result, some legislators have come up with the National Popular Vote Plan (NPV), which ensures that to change how the nation elects the presidents. The activists do not want to remove the Electoral College, but to draw most of them on their side and thus make them follow the popular vote in the end (Chegg, 2012).

The changes proposed to the Electoral College and, as a result, the election of the presidency is an important step that would radically change the electoral system. The system in place does not ensure the presidency to the candidate who has the majority of votes.

Change, as a result, is inevitable and the various instances that the legislators have tried to change the system have not borne fruit, but the recent formation of the NPV, which tends to woo the voters to the popular ensures that the candidates who gathers the popular vote gest the presidency. It does not consider other factors of the Electoral College where the legislators do not vote according to their states interests. It is, therefore, important to make changes that will further democracy and remove any inclination of misrepresentation by the Electoral College as evidenced by candidates who have won without the popular vote. The Electoral College should thus e amended and directed towards a fair representation of all states in choosing the presidency.

 

 

 

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