Electoral College Analysis - PDF

1 Electoral College Marc V. Javan DePaul College Prep English 1 Honors Ms. Hogan November 21st, 2024  2 In 1788, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified. T...

1 Electoral College Marc V. Javan DePaul College Prep English 1 Honors Ms. Hogan November 21st, 2024  2 In 1788, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified. The Constitution included a method of electing the president known as the Electoral College. Under the system of the Electoral College, each state had a specific number of electoral votes, matching the number of representatives and senators that represent that state in Congress. Therefore, no state could have less than three. The Electoral College is a part of compromises made at the convention to satisfy the small states (Schulman). Despite its benefits for small states, the Electoral College harms our democracy. PARAGRAPH 1: CONFLICTS/SECURITY First, the Electoral College conflicts with people’s votes. Five presidents in U.S. history have been elected through the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote (ProCon.org, 2024). The 2020 election was declared the most secured ever, but Trump continues to push the lie that the election was stolen from him. PARAGRAPH 2: PEOPLE’S OPINIONS A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans are in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016 (ProCon.org, 2024). The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have nearly four times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy. PARAGRAPH 3: VIOLENCE On January 6, 2021, Congress held a joint session to certify the electoral college votes during which several Republican lawmakers objected to the results and pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S. Capitol (ProCon.org, 2024). The 2020 election was declared the most secured ever, but Trump continues to push the lie that the election was stolen from him.  3 PARAGRAPH 4: EQUALITY If anything, representative democracy in the 21st century is about political equality. It’s about one person, one vote - everybody’s vote counts equally. Most people feel that the person who gets the most votes should become president. After all, that’s how we run every other election in this country. PARAGRAPH 5: SOLUTION(S) The National Popular Vote movement compels member states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote. PARAGRAPH 6: COUNTERCLAIM The current Electoral College system creates a needed balance between rural and urban interests and ensures the winning candidate has support from multiple regions of the country. (BENEFITS SMALL STATES) A national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.