Government: President of the United States and Electoral College Essay

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The founding fathers intent of setting up the Government will never be know for certain, but it is infered that they preferred a republic over a democracy. In the constitutional convention the drafters had to decide how much power they would entrust with the people, and how much would be controlled by representatives. They chose to have Congress Make the laws, and congress would be directly voted on by the citizens. But the executive branch, needed a sole president and the founding fathers had to decide how to choose this president. The electoral college system has been in place for over two hundred years and Americans are still not sure how it works or if it is the best system. Many Americans feel they go to vote for the president, and in the end their vote doesn't count. The election process is pretty simple, every four years on the first tuesday following a monday in the month of novemeber, americans all around the country exercise one of the most important core guarantee's the constitution has to offer. The right to vote for your representatives in the government, expecially the president. "Artical two, section one of the costitution sets the requirements for a presidental canidate to meet before running for office. No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States." (United States Presidential Eligibility Legislation.) Each party will host a primary, where certain individuals within a party duke it out to see who will run for office for that particual party. Then all the canidates who won their primaries face off in the presidental election. Each canidate will travel across America to key states to campaign trying to win the vote of the people and the elctoral voters in that state. States went in two different directions in picking elector. the general ticket, where the popular vote gets all the electoral votes in that particular state; The district system, where each congressional district picked the electors. Plenty of people have tried to reform these systems by making a more homogeneous system in all the states, but the constitution is very clear that it is up to each individual state to select how they want to choose electors. The district system eventually dropped out because it aided third parties. This left the general ticket system as the dominating system. However, the framers originally intended electors to be chosen by the people and then vote for what they thought was best. There are two states that still use the district system, but the remaining fourty eight states use the general ticket system. Most all states no longer show the electors' names on the ballot. The voter votes for either the president or the party that they want to hold office. This causes a problem of the unfaithful elector. Electors are expected to ratify the people's choice by voting for candidates winning the popular election. Electors that do not vote for what they are expected to vote for are considered faithless or unfaithful electors. This has not traditionally been a problem in the history of the electoral college but it could possibly be a problem. Twenty six states do not require an elector to vote for what they have pledged to vote for by state law. Although these states are still considered under the general ticket system. Aswell each state has the right to decide how to select these electors. Forty eight states use the general ticket system, but two still use the district system. There is an election held in each congressional district in both states. The
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