Advantages and Disadvantages of Electoral College Essay Example
Like any other electoral body, the United States’ Electoral College in charge of the elections and checks the populace of the parties involved, that is the republican and the Democratic Party. People have the confidence in the fact that the Electoral College will rectify any of the mistakes they have done in the election and that it will observe a free and fair elections, which represent the people’s views (Schneider, 27). In the recent past and elections with a special interest in the 2000 presidential elections, people have started losing hope and a belief in the Electoral College with claims that it no longer serves the country for the best interest of the majority based on the popularity.
It consists of elected representatives through popularity and they represent the views of most American (Markworth et al, 124). They are
...electors who then have the mandate to vote the president and the vice-president. It is worth noting that they simply complete the process of voting the president and the vice president as the citizens have already chosen their president through the popularity method. Each state in the country has its own electors as each according to the constitution should have representatives and senator in the congress, this justifies the need to have the Electoral College based on popularity. This ensures that there is free and fair representation from every state. Any state with a larger population has more representatives in the house and this translates to the largest number of electors in the Electoral College as well. Currently, there are about 538 electors in each presidential election and its size depends on the total membership of houses
the House of Representatives and the senator’s house.
Citizens in the United Sates have however lost faith and trust on the reliability of the Electoral College with most claiming that it has exhausted its life and hence should be dismantled (Bolnick, 107). The critics still argue that it gives the electors more power than they should have making them take advantage of the power they have hence manipulate the elections in favor of the president and vice president they want who may not be the people’s choice. This gives the Electoral College the conflict of interest in the view of the citizens. Another major argument is that the east side of the country has many states and hence many representatives in the electors hence many votes. They favor the Democratic Party sponsored presidential aspirants hence the evidence from having many presidents from the Democratic Party.
However, with all the critics on the Electoral College, there are many advantages and disadvantages that the Electoral College has in the role they play towards the elections.
There are many advantages from the electoral college and two major advantages of the electoral college is that it overlooks the elections and ensures that the elections are free and fair to have all the states represented in the results from all states (Markworth et al, 118). They also serve the country by correcting any mistakes that people make during the voting process, which may have no significant effect on the results from the elections. They ensure that the election is fair and free from all slight mistakes like choosing eligible votes from the total votes cast while ensuring they keep the spoilt votes minimal.
Another
advantage is that they ensure that the elections procedure is line with the constitution requirements. It helps in upholding the powers and the mandate of the constitution to avoid making decisions based on their feelings or thoughts. The constitution is a powerful element in the elections of the united Sates as any confusion and any misgiving; the electors refer to the constitution to rectify any challenges.
There are many disadvantages from the electoral college but two of the most notable disadvantages of the Electoral College is that it gives the ideology of the one-person one vote system the as the votes from the electors are not freely distributed according to the population (BĂĽhlmann et al, 77). The policy of having a bonus vote makes a double vote for the smaller states kin comparison with the other bigger states. This is not fair, as each state despite of its size should have one vote.
Another disadvantage is that it prevents and distorts the governance as stipulated in the constitution, which it vows that it protects. This becomes hard for a re-election of the president who had a smooth election in the first round. Such a possibility becomes almost impossible to fulfil, as they have to garner their votes to have a better back up from the elections of the citizens because there is a low chance of getting the many votes from the electors based on popularity.
The Electoral College can carry its mandate without interfering with the reason why it was formed hence there is need to address all issues and concerns that the citizens of the United States have towards it. This ensures that they have trust
and faith in it in future elections (Bolnick 67). The 2000 elections were disputed and there is need to have visionary leaders in the college who will carry the vision of the country to where the leaders intended it to reach. The Electoral College has successfully served the United States for a long time and there would be need to make reforms in the body to ensure that the reforms are in line with the current needs of the people of United States. The argument is that the needs of the people in the past are not the same needs of the people in the current century. There is no need to dismantle the body and the best alternative is making the necessary changes that will help in securing future elections.
For the reform of the system, the government should dismantle the leaders and form a committee that will overlook the activities and functioning of the body. This will ensure that the committee that oversees the actions is free and neutral hence in a better position to hold the members accountable of all the committee processes (BĂĽhlmann et al, 67). The committee will organize public awareness campaigns that will see that every person gets the necessary knowledge in voting to avoid the possibility of spoilt votes. Another major reason for the changes in the system is ensuring that the people of the United Sates have a vote of confidence through the many reforms made and they have the reassurance that the new reforms in the system will avoid past mistakes. Presidents elected prior to the new system will maintain the respect as they were voted freely
and fairly. Future presidents will also be in a better position to ensure free and fair representations in the electors.
Works Cited
- Bolnick, B. The Electoral College. (2013): 67-123
- BĂĽhlmann, Marc, Wolfgang Merkel, and Bernhard Wessels. "The quality of democracy: democracy barometer for established democracies." National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Working Paper 10a (2008): 28-90.
- Markworth, Kimberly A., and Lara M. Willox. "The Electoral College." Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School 18.2 (2012): 118-124.
- Schneider, Carsten Q. "Issues in Measuring Political Regimes." Central European University DISC Working Paper 2010/12 (2010): 27-89.
