Paper Topic:

American Government - The Electoral College

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT-ELECTORAL COLLEGE-A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Role of Electoral College in American Politics

INDEX

S .NO HEADINGS PAGE NO 1

INTRODUCTION

3 2

Is Electoral College is necessary 3 3

Should we abolish the Electoral College system 4 4 CONCLUSION

7 AMERICAN GOVERNMENT-ELECTORAL COLLEGE-A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Role of Electoral College in American Politics

INTRODUCTION

The United States Electoral College is the process which determines who is the president and vice-president of the U .S .A once in four year .The Electoral

College was instituted by Article Two , section one of the U .S Constitution and congregates every four year with electors from each state

Voters across from 50 states choose electors when they vote for President and Vice-President .These Presidential electors in turn cast the official votes for those two offices

The Plurality winner of the popular vote for President within that state receives all of the state 's electors , while other presidential candidates receive except in Maine and Nebraska states

In December , each state 's electors assemble in their respective state capitals for casting their electoral votes and thus the electoral body never meets as one body during the electoral process . During the Convention of new congress in January , these votes are counted in the presence of both houses of Congress . The Candidates who receives majority vote become President and Vice-President respectively

If no candidate for president receives an absolute majority , then the House of representative will choose among the three candidates who have received a majority of electoral votes

Is Electoral College is necessary

The Results of U .S Presidential election , 2000 clearly demonstrated how the Electoral College is outdated and in effective . The Candidates who received highest votes was not elected to president ship due to votes of the Electoral College . Electoral College was originally created as a buffer between the people and the Presidency , the system has now outgrown the utility of the Electoral College

With 50 ,996 ,039 Americans have voted for Al Gore and 50 ,456 ,141 have voted for George Bush and the George Bush has been declared as a winner in the race by 271 to 266

In 1974 , for the first time in American history , Mr . Gerald R .Ford was elected as President of USA not by Electoral College but he was nominated by his predecessor and confirmed by the vote of Congress

The concept of Electoral College has time passed and it is essential now to reconsider the role of the system in U .S democracy

The system is mainly based on two fundamental aspects one being that it awards electoral votes based on a winner-take-all method : the candidate with the highest number of votes in each state gets all of the state 's electors . This causes millions of votes to be effectively uncounted . The Second is that smaller states get relatively more electoral votes effectively bequeathing those states more voting power

With a winner -take -all provision , the votes of those who do not support the winning candidate in...

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