One of the most controversial Constitutional requirements for selecting the President of the United States relates to the system known as the “electoral college.” This system entails that each state is awarded a number of electors equal to their number of Congressional seats plus two (for the Senators). This means that big states have lots of electors, and small states only have a few. To win a presidential election, the successful candidate must acquire 270 electoral votes by winning a requisite number of states. This system was installed to ensure that every state has chips to play in the proverbial game–small states love being players while big states resent the power given to little states.
Democrats hate the electoral college, favoring a “popular vote” model where winners of the most votes win the election. This model is very much supported by the large population states, but is despised by the small states. For example, I grew up in the state of Arkansas. I remember vividly how the last night of the campaign in 2000, the night before Election Day, candidate Governor George W Bush made his last stop of the campaign in Arkansas. He did this because Arkansas’ six electoral votes were up for grabs and he would need them to reach the magic 270 electoral votes. Students of history will recall that the Bush/Gore elections was extremely close and those Arkansas electoral votes proved crucial. Texas’ George W. Bush become President because he won a majority of the electoral votes, even though he lost the popular vote to Vice President Gore. More recently, Donald Trump won a comfortable Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton, even though she received more popular votes nationally.
The issue we face today is whether the interests of small states should continue to matter, or should we abandon the Electoral College and make the vote total winner the President? Seek out articles on both side of this issue, and compose your essay defending your opinion on this controversial issue.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]