The Electoral College - Essay Example

The number of electors within each state is dependent on the population of each state, with the most populous state (California) having 55 electors, and the seven least populous (Wyoming, Vermont, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Montana and Delaware) having only three electors each. Interestingly, the ballot on Election Day (the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November, as dictated by the federal law of the United States) contains the names of the Presidential candidates, rather than the names of the various electors of the state. The electors promise to vote for the Presidential candidate to whom they are affiliated, but the population itself does not vote directly for the President and Vice-President, the electors do. These electors are representatives of their state political parties who have been nominated, a process which occurs before the official Election Day. Additionally, electors cannot be individuals who hold a federal office. The President and Vice-President must win an overall majority from these electors (this number currently stands at 270 votes) to win the election. This system is not universally accepted by the population of the United States, and there are numerous arguments for and against this system. Within this essay, both viewpoints will be examined using the work of Professor Judith A. Best (1997), who is for the Electoral College system, and George C. Edwards (Keyssar, 2005), who is against. One of the most important points raised against the Electoral College raised by George C. Edwards is how easy it is for the person receiving the second most votes in the popular election to come first when voted for by the electors. A recent example of this, given by Keyssar (2005), is that in the 2004 Presidential election, George W. Bush received 3.5 million more votes than John Kerry. The interesting thing here is that 60,000 votes in Ohio could have resulted in Kerry being the President for this term. More research shows that this situation has occurred on 16 occasions before 2004. This does highlight a major problem with the system. In an election where the population voted directly for the presidential candidate, Bush would have won by the 3.5 million margin that he received in the popularity vote, leaving Kerry firmly in second place. These figures just concern the races in which the second-place contestant was close; on four occasions, the candidate that lost the popular vote actually became President. Edwards argues that this constitutes a major problem with the system and that it cannot be truly described as a democracy if there is the possibility of these cases occuring. Best (1997) argues, however, that this is the benefit of the system. She argues that, without this system, a Presidential candidate would be able to make promises that appeal to only the majority of the country and still win (the examples given include suburbanites who represent half of the voting population). In this case, 50% of the population who would not benefit from a scheme intended for suburbanites would be ignored in the case of perhaps even one vote either way. By using the Electoral College system, an area without these large numbers of suburbanites can be represented by an elector of their choosing, and the need for the overall majority of 270 votes from the electors means that their vote has more power. This, Best argues, means that there is Read More