Electoral College System

Since 1787, our nation has followed under the Electoral College system. The men who drafted the Constitution debated about the way the president should forever more be chosen- letting Congress vote, giving state legislatures the choice, putting the power directly in the people’s hands- but they finally settled on the idea of an Electoral College. This is a process that we have used for over two- hundred years now, and even though people have proposed to remove this method, it still remains.

I have learned both sides of the argument and I have agreed with one. The Electoral College is the best way to elect the presidential candidate that is the most fit to govern our country.

When the Framers wrote the U.S. Constitution, they decided upon a specific procedure to choose a president. It was stated that each person that is of age and eligible in every state will vote to select their state electors of their choice and the presidential candidate they want to have govern the United States. The number of electors a state has is equal to the number of senators and representatives they have in Congress. In the state of Washington there would be 11 electors( 2 senators and 9 representatives).  In most states, there is also a law that the electors must vote with the popular vote of their state. However, the way that this system is set up, it is possible for a candidate to be elected without having the majority of the nation-wide vote.

  A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to be elected as president out of the total 538 that are distributed between states. The votes are spread by population. The larger population a state has, the more representatives it has and the more electors it has too. In case it occurred the Framers also planned for the event where neither candidate reach 270 electoral votes. The solution would be to have the representatives vote instead of the electors re-voting.

The Electoral College system forces the candidates to visit the "swing states" more too.  Swing states are states where there is not a consistent majority of Democrats or Republicans.  These are also usually the smaller states. These small states matter in the long run because there could be just 5 votes in between the winning candidate and the loser.

This was the case in the election of 2000. George W. Bush was competing against Al Gore for the presidential position. The election resulted with Bush becoming the president, at 271 electoral vote, over Gore's 266 electoral vote. One elector refrained from voting. The popular vote of the nation however was for Gore. This could have been the final result if Gore had won more of the swing states votes. I understand that this may seem illogical and strange that this could happen, but there is a reason. Receiving more electoral votes, means that you've been voted for more in larger states or more states as a whole. Getting the popular vote though means that the population in general thought that you were the best candidate.

In the long run, the Electoral College is the best option, because it divides our presidential election into smaller, more easily controlled voting sessions, and therefore, saves our country money by not needing to hire as many vote counters. Plus, it is a way to spread the votes evenly over the states and works for the common good of the United States.