Help!!! The Electoral College?

Question

I'm doing an essay- "The Electoral College Should Be Abolished"

One of my points is because it is an extra cost to the candidate-- it wastes money...Can anyone help me expand? Thank you!

The Electoral College’s purpose is an extra cost to the candidates. With the existence of the College, a candidate has to go through all voting statistics and decide which areas to campaign in. When he decides, he has to spend unnecessary money on traveling, advertising, and other campaigning strategies that he would not need if the Electoral College did not exist.

Answer 1

Do not say the ECs purpose is an extra cost to the candidates. It is an undefendable opinion. Better to say, The Electoral College is an additional burden to the candidates because of the extra campaign costs.

It will lead right into your point.

Answer 2

This type of targeting of voters would be done with or without the electoral college. Candidates for state office target specific groups of voters and not such system exists in their elections. Your point is a very flawed one.

The classic arguments against the electoral college go like this.

1. Makes some states that are extremely liberal/conservative like New York or Wyoming respectively irrelevant.

2. WE (the people) don't really elect the President then.

3. Sometimes the electoral college and the popular vote have different winners.

I personally think the electoral college is fine.

Here is my rebuttal so you can "anticipate them" in your essay.

1. Exactly, it does make some states irrelevant. Remember all the accusations about cheating in Florida in 2000? Or even farther back to another disputed election, in 1876 there were disputed votes in S.C., Florida, and Louisiana, (Oregon too but not related to this point). Those states were close, so the makeup of those watching the polls was relatively 50-50. With the electoral college there is no reason for people in Wyoming or New York to cheat. The Republican candidate at the Democractic candidate will win the state, so there is no motive to stuff the ballot box. If the electoral college was abolished there would be an incentive to cheat and due to the makeup of the state cheating would be easier.

2. I don't much care that I do not directly elect the President. Until the adoption of the 17th amendment in 1913 people did not vote directly for their U.S. Senators. America still worked. People in England don't vote directly for Tony Blair either. In fact in a lot of democracies the head of state is not chosen in a straight democratic vote. In fact, a lot of people against the electoral college want instant runoffs of some type, this would also not select a President by a strictly democractic vote in my opinion.

3. If you think Florida was a mess in 2000 let me know how you would feel about a nation wide recount. Yeah, wow, that would be a complete mess. Also, the electoral college is awefully similar to the popular vote. It has only been different 3 times, two of which were in the 19th century, and we seem to have made it out of their just fine.

So if you hate the electoral college get an amendment through the process outlined in Article 5 of the constitution. It really is not that bad of an institution.

Answer 3

The Electoral College should be reformed by allowing for states to use the Maine/ Nebraska method (1 electoral votes for the winner in a Congressional district plus 2 for the winner in the state) or a proportional method (electoral votes are allocated according to each candidate's votes). Candidates do have to focus on which states they need to get more coverage and that way they can try to follow the poll numbers. Money is spent and campaigns are hard because they need to go to fundraisers or events.

Answer 4

The Electoral college could be eradicated...definite, the common vote could be certain the President...If it have been that way, Al Gore could have been President in 2000...and Bush in no way could have been... And the Electoral college is the best reason some human beings do not even vote...They sense their vote does not even count selection through fact interior the tip, the Electoral votes be certain the President, so as that they think of WHY worry balloting... Votes in Rhode Island could count selection purely as much as they do in California or Texas...a million guy or lady, a million vote...yet through Electoral college, they don't...

Answer 5

The Electoral College does not really do that. Their only purpose is to vote for the President. They have no input as to where a candidate goes to campain.

Where a candidate goes to campaign is based upon opinion polls conducted by either his political party or an indenpendant firm.

Answer 6

Well if it was abolished Gore would have won in 2000. That's a good point. As far as it costing candidates more money, candidates would still be studying where to campaign most effectively, traveling, advertising etc.

Answer 7

The Electoral College was made up by Benjiman Franklin, he meant it as a joke, he wrote it to be extremly complicated thinking no one would ever go for such a blatent joke, he was wrong. State's with fewer people can use those how they please, say using them for Republican vote only ignoring Democrats. The Electoral College is a Joke and should be abolished, it should be one vote per person and not a whole bunch of fantasy votes.

Answer 8

The Electoral College favors candidates with deep pockets and it encourages corporations to line the pockets of popular candidates with campaign contributions thus deepening their pockets and allowing them to advertize their candidancy to more people, giving them a better chance of winning, against a good candidate who hasn't the funds to campaign in certain states.

Answer 9

it take a away the vote of the average American citizen i don't want them deciding for me i want my vote to count