The Electoral College Essay Research Paper When free essay sample

The Electoral College Essay, Research Paper When the Constitutional Convention gathered in 1784 they had the hard undertaking of finding how our authorities should be assembled and what systems we should utilize to elect them. They rapidly decided Congress should hold the powers to go through Torahs and the people should elect these people to guarantee they are following the will of the people. But who should elect the president? Congress was the initial pick of most of the framers, but so they realized they foremost dilemma ; by holding Congress elect the president, he would be loyal merely to congress and non the people. The 2nd and most logically thought was to hold the people elect the president. However, this excessively was a job in the eyes of most of the framers. They felt that people were prone to being rash and emotional and hence could non be trusted to do a wise determination. So so Congress settled on the concluding pick, which was to be a via media between the smaller and larger provinces, which would guarantee that the president would be reasonably and sagely selected and that smaller provinces would hold the same power as larger provinces. This system is called the Electoral College. In the Electoral College, each province is granted one ballot for every representative and one for every senator, therefore guaranting that each province would be every bit represented when electing the president. However, the same inquiry arises every four old ages, are the ideals that were used to make the Electoral College system over 200 old ages ago still applicable today or have that outlived their intended intents? In order to reply that we must foremost research the intents for puting up the Electoral College and so find how relevant it is to today. The first intent for puting up the Electoral College was to guarantee that Congress did non hold excessively much power. When the system of authorities was eventually decided on, our establishing male parents understood the importance of the balance of power within the three subdivisions of the authorities. They called this system cheques and balances. This system was set up to guarantee that the authorities would stay loyal to the people and loyal to their provinces ( Hamilton ) . In The Federalist Papers, No. 68, Alexander Hamilton discusses the importance of holding the president elected by the Electoral College. He said that in order to guarantee that we do non stop up with the same jobs that America had with the sovereign of England, it was of import that the balance of power was spread throughout the authorities and that no one part hold excessively much power. Another ground Alexander Hamilton gave for non holding Congress elect the president was that the laminitiss wanted to reassure provinces that they had non given up all their power to a federal authorities. In order to sign the fundamental law, the framers knew that it would hold to be approved in each of the 13 provinces. They besides knew that these provinces would be disbelieving of a powerful cardinal authorities that would hold the ability to take away all their rights. So, they would hold to do certain that each of these provinces was comfy with the sum of power given to each subdivision of the cardinal authorities. This point is besides clearly apparent today. During the election this twelvemonth, the Republican Party ran on a platform that included the premiss of a smaller authorities. This platform was in line with an MSNBC canvass that was taken in July 2000, which asked this inquiry, # 8220 ; Do you believe it is of import to restrict the size of the federal authorities? # 8221 ; Over 72 per centum of the 4,143 people surveyed said they believed that it is of import to restrict the size of the authorities. So even in the age of authorities plans which help back up the citizens of this state, people still understand the importance of maintaining our authorities little. The 2nd intent for the Electoral College was to give smaller provinces the same rights and powers as the larger provinces. There are two primary grounds why the smaller provinces have the same, if non more, power than the larger provinces when it comes to electing the president. The first is, a presidential campaigner must have 270 Electoral ballots in order to win the presidential term ( Law ) . To make so that means that he would necessitate to have Electoral ballots from a broad scope of provinces and can non restrict himself to a certain part of the state. This means that some of the smaller provinces will have the attending of presidential campaigners. The 2nd grounds smaller provinces have the same, or more power, as larger provinces is in how the Electoral ballots are distributed ( Law ) . If you take a province such as Alaska, with a population of 619,500, which has three Electoral ballots, this means that they have one ballot for every 206,500 in population. Compared to California, which has a population of 33,145,121, and 54 Electoral ballots. That works out to be one Electoral ballot for every 613,799 in population. That means that person who votes in the province of Alaska has three times the voting power of person who votes in California. This is what ensures that campaigners for president do non disregard these smaller provinces. Another manner to see the consequence of size is to look at the analogy of a coin flip. For a simple illustration, allow # 8217 ; s assume that merely two campaigners are running, A versus B, and each ballot is like a random coin flip, with a 50 per centum opportunity of traveling either manner. In your province of three, there # 8217 ; s a 50 per centum opportunity that the other two ballots will divide, one for A and the other for B, and therefore a 50 per centum opportunity that your individual ballot will find the election. Therefore campaigners will give each of the three of you a batch of regard. As a state gets larger, the citizens voting power psychiatrists. If you are portion of a five-voter state, the other four electors would hold to divide, two for A and two for B # 8211 ; for your ballot to turn the election. The chance of that occurrence is 3 in 8, or 37.5 per centum. As the state # 8217 ; s size continues to travel up, single vote power continues to d rop. This power of the smaller provinces was particularly apparent during this twelvemonth # 8217 ; s election. For the first clip in many old ages, the campaigners knew that the election would be near. Because of this, presidential and vice-presidential campaigners visited smaller provinces in record Numberss. For illustration, Oregon, with its 7 Electoral ballots had 17 visits from these campaigners during this election. This more than tripled the figure of visits during the 1996 presidential race and reinforced the importance of smaller provinces holding the Electoral College. The 3rd, and last intent, for the Electoral College was that the framers did non swear the # 8220 ; mob. # 8221 ; ( Natapoff ) . They believed that a big electorate could easy # 8220 ; fall quarry to passions, rumours, and tumult. # 8221 ; Voters were supposed to see each campaigner # 8217 ; s virtues more judiciously, non merely blindly follow the popular will. Akhil Amar, a authorities professor at Yale University, argues that the Electoral College was set up 200 old ages ago because, # 8220 ; Common people may non hold adequate accurate information to do a wise determination and hence needed person to guarantee the right picks would be made. # 8221 ; ( Onion ) . James Madison, main designer of the Electoral College, besides wanted to protect each citizen against, # 8220 ; the most insidious dictatorship that arises in democracies: the massed power of fellow citizens banded together in a dominant axis. A well-designed democracy might include obstructions to queer an overbearing bulk and to forestall a campaigner from merely courting the largest bloc. # 8221 ; Madison farther explained in the Federalist Papers ( No. Ten ) , # 8220 ; a well-constructed Union must, above all else, interruption and command the force of cabal, particularly the superior force of an authoritarian bulk. In any democracy, a bulk # 8217 ; s power threatens minorities. It threatens their rights, their belongings, and sometimes their lives. # 8221 ; Unfortunately, this has been an ongoing job since the fundamental law was written. Some illustrations of the multitudes doing hapless determinations that affect the lives of many can be seen in topographic points like Nazi Germany, where the multitudes supported the Third Reich and there attempts to extinguish the Jews. This is still go oning today in topographic points like Yugoslavia, where the bulk continues to elect Slavadon Malosivich even though he continues to kill the people of Bosnia and Croatia. To forestall these types of things from go oning in a democracy, you must put in safe guards against this and that is why the framers decided to utilize the Electoral College system to protect the American people. However, there are some people who feel that the Electoral College has jobs. The most widely talked about job with the Electoral College is the rare juncture when person can really win the popular ballot and free in the Electoral College. Just such a scenario is get downing to play in this twelvemonth # 8217 ; s election. It appears as though Al Gore has won the popular ballot while it appears that George W. Bush will win the Electoral College. And this to some people seems really unjust and undemocratic. There are a few jobs with this theory. The first is, in order to protect the American people against dictatorship, this things may go on. Although, in the last 220+ old ages, merely 5 times has the victor of the popular ballot non been elected president. That # 8217 ; s a reasonably good path record by any measuring. Second, even though Al Gore did win the popular ballot, he knew good before the election that the lone bulk that mattered is in the Electoral College. The easiest man ner to explicate this would be Natapoff # 8217 ; s account of the 1960 World Series. The more that Natapoff looked into the nitty-gritty of existent elections, the more analogues he found with another American establishment that stirs up the same emotion, baseball # 8217 ; s World Series. In the World Series, for illustration, the squad that gets the most runs overall is like the campaigner who gets the most popular ballot. But to go title-holder, that squad must still win most of the games. In 1960, during a World Series as nail-bitingly close as that twelvemonth # 8217 ; s presidential conflict between Kennedy and Nixon, the New York Yankees, with the combination of Mantle, Marris, and Bill # 8220 ; Moose # 8221 ; Skowron, scored more than twice as many entire tallies as the Pittsburgh Pirates, 55 to 27. Yet the Yankees lost the best of seven series four games to three. Even the Northerners fans conceded that the Pirates deserved to win in this difficult fought conflict. Runs must be grouped in a manner that wins games, merely as popular ballots must be grouped in a manner that wins provinces. The Northerners won three runawaies ( 16-3, 10-0, 12-0 ) , but they couldn # 8217 ; t come up with the tallies they needed in the other four games, which were close ( Table A ) . In athleticss, we accept that a true title-holder should be more consistent than the 1960 Yankees. A title-holder should be able to win at least some of the tough, close competitions by every agency available # 8211 ; bunting, stealing, pitching, and dazing drama in the field # 8211 ; and non merely hit place tallies against third-rate hurlers. A presidential campaigner worthy of office, by the same logic, should hold a wide entreaty across the whole state, and non merely play strongly on a remarkable issue to stray axis of electors. Therefore it can be argued that merely because you get more ballots, it does non intend that you are the best individual for the occupation. Postpone A # 8211 ; 1960 World Series: Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sum Runs Total Wins Pittsburgh Pirates 6 3 0 3 5 0 10 27 4 New York Yankees 4 16 10 2 2 12 9 55 3 The Electoral College was created to guarantee that Congress did non hold excessively much power, to give the smaller provinces more power, and to protect the multitudes from dictatorship. The system the framers of the Constitution formed is an establishment that is even more effectual today than it was over 200 old ages ago. My hope is that after reading this paper and measuring the grounds, you will hold gained a better apprehension of the importance of the Electoral College and its effectivity in today # 8217 ; s universe.