Should Electoral College Be Abolished Essay

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Pages: 3

The Electoral College was founded in 1787, only 11 years after the United States of America was established. It was necessary at the time to find a way that represented each state and accommodated to each state’s population size in the presidential election. The nation was without a fast mode of transportation and the quickest it took to get across country was roughly two weeks. With this in mind it is reasonable to assume that news about the presidential candidate took an excessive amount of time to reach each individual citizen so it became necessary to make up a team of electors. These electors would represent each state with a set amount of votes and are then given another round of votes according to the state’s population until a majority was reached. The Candidates with the most votes from the Electoral College are elected as Vice President and President of the United States of America. This is an unfair system because the citizens are represented by a president they aren't able to directly vote for. The Electoral College should be abolished because it’s undemocratic, its small states are over represented, and it hurts third party candidates. The Electoral College is undemocratic and that …show more content…
For example, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and John B. Anderson ran in the 1980 election, but only Republican Reagan and Democrat Carter received votes from the electors. For instance, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George H.W. Bush received all of the electoral votes with Clinton winning by 38%, while Independent Ross Perot had 0% of the electoral votes. Furthermore, “The system bolsters the two-party system by discouraging independent candidacies that splinter the electorate. Not only does the concept of third party candidates being hurt extend the ideals of the thesis, it rocks it right out of the United