The History and Benefits of Electoral College - Essay Example

After every four years, the Americans prepare to vote for a new president and as the votes are counted, only one candi is expected to emerge as the winner depending on his or her lead after the counting of votes in each and every state. The electors’ votes from all the states are tallied as points and thus whoever wins all the 270 electors becomes the president of the United States. The states consist of different number of electors since the population in the states is also different. Simply, it is possible to calculate the number of electors from a specific state by summing up the number of Senators and the number of members of the Congress from that state (Schumacher, 34-73). Each state is supposed to have two Senators but however, the number of Congress representatives is proportional to the number of people from that state. For instance, the state of Nebraska has 3 members of the Congress relative to its small population so the total number of electors in the state of Nebraska is five, compared to that of New York State which has a large population with 31 members of Congress and thus, the total number of electors is 33 since each state has 2 Senators regardless of the size (Will & Ross 12-32). The Electoral College was basically formed due to two fundamental reasons. First, it was intended to act as a buffer between the presidential selection process and the population and secondly, it was meant to balance the power between smaller and larger states. The founders of this commission were afraid of the possibility of tyrants controlling the opinions of the public and illegitimately rise to power and thus it was felt that only through electors was there a guarantee that only candidates with the best presidential qualifications were chosen. It was felt that with the Electoral College in place, no one would be capable of influencing the decisions of the citizens (Will & Ross 38-62). The Electoral College ensures that the electorate is fair and not duped. The founders were not sure whether the population could make the right choice without external influence and thus the Electoral College had the advantage of being the group that would only meet once and thus could not be influenced and manipulated by foreign governments. Under the convention, the Electoral College was also meant to create a satisfactory environment for the smaller states. For instance, the total number of votes gathered from the state of Wyoming during the previous election was 210, 000 votes where there were 3 electors and as such, each elector represented 70, 000 votes. On the other hand, comparing these results to the state of California where an approximately 9,700,000 votes were cast for 54 electors, meaning that each elector represented a significantly higher number of 179,000 votes per electorate, it would be possible to conclude that the electoral college is a viable bridge capable of representing the true number of electorate as it represents the views of the people who voted for it thereby reducing expenditure which could alternatively be higher if all the voters were to be given the chance of electing the president through the ballot(Schumacher, 97-156). However, this form of system seems to allocate an unfair advantage to the voters in the smaller states over those in medium or larger states. One major aspect of the electoral system is the fact that the constitution does not mandate the winner to assume ownership of all the votes from that state. Therefore it means that there exists not a significant difference in whether you win with 50.1% or 99.9% since in either case, the winner will receive similar number of electoral votes. This can be a way for an individual to win in some states with large number of electoral votes and lose in other states which have a smaller number or similar votes (Will & Ross, 53-87). The states themselves have designed a policy of the winner take all method which is used to select electors and this is the trend that has been effective throughout the 19th Century. It is evident that there are several problems which are affecting the electoral commission but there are some advantages associated with it and thus the chances that it will be changed are minimal since it will require a constitutional amendment which has been ratified by 3 or 4 states so as to make changes to the system. Further, the smaller states will hardly accept any changes to be enacted. One method that can be used to modify the system is through elimination of the winner take all strategy and changing the fact that the method which is used by the states to vote for the electoral college is determined by the states and not mandated by the constitution. It is only the state of Maine and Nebraska that does not apply the winner takes it all system and it is impossible to persuade other states to reject the method (Will & Ross 78-105). Today, at least more than 65% of the Americans favor the abolishment of the Electoral College for they believe that it is archaic and unnecessary but unfortunately, a large number do not clearly understand the benefits which arise from it. First, the Electoral College promotes moderation, coalition building, and compromise. The pioneers set up the federal system in an effort to protect citizen freedom and liberty. An aspiring presidential candidate is required to appeal to a wide range of American population and thus regional extremists cannot be sufficiently influential to gather the required 270 electoral votes which are fundamental for a candidate to become a president (Will & Ross 143-191). For a candidate to be capable of winning this majority of electoral votes, then he/she would have to travel far and wide since according to Ross, there exists nothing like a safe state taking West Virginia, which has never voted for a Republican candidate since 1928 as an example. It was just recently that George W. Bush took the advantage of environmental control on coal mining and gun control policies that this state decided to change its policies. The Electoral College promotes stability and certainty during elections and as a result, it becomes very difficult to contest for elections. During the 2000 General Election, it was the first time a presidential candidate won the Electoral College votes while at the same time loosing the popular vote for more than 100 years history. Were it not for the intervention of the Electoral College, then it would have been almost impossible to isolate the issues back to grass root level since the recounts would have been nationwide (Schumacher 168-197). In addition, the Electoral College assists in prevention of fraud. For instance, the state of California has for a long time been considered as a safe haven for the Democrats but with its large population, there is limited probability of massive voter fraud since, regardless of how many Democrats vote, the number of the electoral votes will still remain 55 and the same applies to Texas and other safe havens for the Republicans. If direct popular voting procedures could have been observed, then there would have been greater opportunities for fraud incentives (Will & Ross 154-162). Since these states are dominated by a single party, there is a possibility that the prosecutors may become afraid to investigate fraud charges for they will be afraid of the consequences which may not be friendly. The Electoral College prevents such an occurrence. Even though it may be imperfect, it plays a fundamental role in the protection and preservation of the freedom and liberty of Americans (Will & Ross 197-217). Works Cited 1. Will, George & Ross, Tara. Enlightenment Democracy: The Case for Electoral College. Colonial Press, 2005. 2. Schumacher, Paul. Choosing a President: The Electoral College and Beyond. CQ Press, 2002. Read More