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Electoral College

By Maggie Kulpa (editor) and Kevin Mirando Background  The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers in the Constitution as a compromise between the election of the President solely by Congress and election by only qualified voters, or popular vote. Today, it consists of 538 electors, with the number of electors from each state being equal to the number of members in the state's Congressional delegation. The candidate that receives the majority of the Electoral College's votes, 270 votes, wins the presidency. Originally, the candidate that received the second most votes won the vice presidency, yet when political opposites and foes were chosen for the two jobs in the 1796 election and a tie occurred in the 1800 election, it was clear a change was needed. The 12th Amendment was then passed in 1804 stating that a candidate can only run for one post or the other. Although the Electoral College was created to solve a prominent issue in the country at the time the Constitution was written and continues to create little controversy during elections, today, some believe there are better ways of electing their President. The Perfect Solution  The Electoral College was created for two reasons (1) the Government's fear of direct election of the President because it could result in a tyranny manipulating public opinion to come into power and (2) to give power to smaller states. It has held up this compromise for over 200 years, resulting in a government that most are content with.

Proportional Representation

The **proportional representation** system, used in only Maine and Nebraska, is a way of making almost every popular vote count. When using this system the popular votes within the state are counted and put into percentages. These percentages are then equal to the percent of electoral votes the candidates receive in the state. F or example if a candidate won 60% of popular vote in a state, 60% of the state's electoral votes would be given to the candidate. This system is known to encourage people to vote, as it matters the number of votes each candidate receives, rather than which candidate receives the most votes.

A Candidate's Main Focus

 Due to the "winner-takes-all" system used in most states, a candidate can focus on small communities and states will lesser population. This is because in areas as such, it takes less votes to receive the majority within the state. This also occurs in states known as " **swing-states **", a state in which voters tend to swing from one political party to another. "Swing-states", such as Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Florida, are another main focus of candidates, as they are likely to only show definite preference towards a candidate close to election, if they show preference at all. Therefore, candidates can shift most of their focus to campaigning in areas as such in order to win all of the state's electoral votes. This allows for areas that would without the Electoral College get close to no attention at all get large amounts of campaigning.

This cartoon shows the focus of candidates during the election process. The enlarged states, "swing-states", are made to show that candidates focus most of their attention on these states to gain votes and win all the electoral votes within the state.

Outdated and in Need of Reform

"Winner-takes-all"  Most states, 48 out of the 50 plus Washington, D.C. use a system known as "**winner-takes-all**". Within this system the candidate that receives a majority of the votes, or even the most votes if no candidate receives the majority, takes all of that state's Electoral College votes. For example, in the 2004 election candidate John Kerry received just over 54% of the vote in Connecticut. Therefore, Kerry took all 7 of Connecticut's Electoral College votes. Although almost all states run by this system, it is the one that is debated most by Americans. It is often viewed as disregarding almost half of the votes casted, as it does not matter how many votes the other candidates receive, as they do not get any Electoral College votes. Many see this and think that their vote does not count, often times these same people will not vote in elections that are not predicted to be close.

Voters' Insignificance <span style="color: #ec0e0e; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 180%; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">During the summer before the presidential elections take place every four years, the Electoral College map is released and the reveals the projected results of the states and which states have been categorized as "swing states." The map shows which way each state will most likely lean, Democratic (blue) or Republican (red) or grey states which symbolize swing states. This has resulted in the feeling of insignificance of modern day voters, as the electoral college map is usually very accurate. For example, in 2012, if a Republican voter lives in Connecticut, they may feel as if their vote does not truly matter considering a Democratic victory is already foretold by the electoral college map and its inevitable predictions. This has caused a gradual decrease in voter turnout and voters' insignificance.

<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 22pt;">Third Parties <span style="color: #1b001f; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Today America is dependent on a system of government with two main parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. Although these are the two largest parties, they are not the only ones, there are many small **third parties** as well. Within the system of government that America holds today that has an Electoral College, however, these third parties are not given the chance to thrive. They are continued to be pushed to the background, as they rarely get the largest number of votes in a state, resulting in no Electoral College votes. In fact, the last third party candidate to fare well in the system was Theodore Roosevelt when he ran for the Bull-Moose party in the 1912 election. Due to the current voting systems of the Electoral College, it is almost impossible for a third party candidate to be elected President.

<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 22pt;">America's Choice vs. Government's Choice <span style="color: #1f0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> For a candidate to win the presidency they must have the majority, 270, or more Electoral College votes. It is possible with this system, however, for no candidate receiving this sum. In cases as such, the House of Representatives then votes from the three candidates that received the most votes within the Electoral College, each state delegation receiving one vote. Although this does not occur in most elections, there have been elections resulting in the House of Representatives voting. When this happens, it is possible for the winner of the House of Representatives to elect a president that did not receive the majority of the **popular vote**. For example, this happened last in the 2000 election with Gore winning the popular vote and then neither candidate winning the majority of the Electoral College votes. The vote then went to the House of Representatives where Bush took the majority of the votes winning the presidency. This brought many people to believe that in cases as such, their vote does not matter at all, as the popular vote had nothing to do with the ultimate winner.

<span style="color: red; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 22pt;">Time for Reform <span style="color: #1b001f; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> In the past 200 years over 700 proposals have been introduced to reform or even eliminate the Electoral College system. Although only few proposals for reform have been carried out, people continue to make proposals of all sorts. **Public opinion polls** have shown constant growth of the percentage of people that have the desire to eliminate the system. Although the results have spiked after elections such as the 2000 Bush/Gore election, they show continuous growth, even though reforms are far and few between.

<span style="color: #5f98be; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 43px;">News Articles

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/articles/stlouisbeacon_20120215.php

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/articles/deseretnews_20120210.php

<span style="color: #5f98be; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 32pt;">Vocabulary <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Third Party**- a political party in opposition to the existing parties in a two-party system <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**"Winner-takes-all"**- an election system when the candidate with the most votes in the given state wins all of that state's electoral votes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Proportional Representation** - an election system in which each candidate receives a proportional number of popular votes and electoral votes in a state <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Public Opinion Polls** - polls that are given to the public that question their opinion on a wide range of topics <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Popular Vote** - vote made by qualified voters during the presidential election <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**"Swing-State"**- <span style="color: #001f1f; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 15.555556297302246px;">a state in which voters tend to swing from one political party to another

<span style="color: #5f98be; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 43px;">Section Review

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">1. ___ states use the "winner-takes-all" system to determine which candidate gets their electoral votes.__ __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> a. 50 __ __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> b. 2 __ __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> c. 38 __ __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> d. 48 __ __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;">2. Over the past 200 years over ____ proposals have been introduced to reform/eliminate the Electoral College. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> a. 700 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> b. 350 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> c. 10 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px;"> d. 900 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">3. There has never been a case in which no presidential candidate did not receive a majority of electoral votes causing the voting to go to the House of Representatives. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> a. True <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> b. False <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">4. The proportional representation system is one in which the candidate that receives the majority of votes within a state takes all of the electoral votes for that state. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">a. True <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">b. False <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">5. A "swing state" is a state in which voters tend to not choose sides with only one political party and often times switch parties depending on the election. These states gain the most attention from candidates. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">a. True <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">b. False

Answers to the Section Review can be found here.

<span style="color: #5f98be; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 43px;">Works Cited

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/popular+vote Larry Sabato - Electoral College - Mend It, Don't End It http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/ http://www.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college.htm http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/electoral_college/index.html http://www.fairvote.org/the-electoral-college#.UOG-RW9kwuc http://www.cfer.org/learn/brochure.html