The Electoral College As A Sufficient Method For Electing The United States President

Text-based Argumentative Essay

The delegates of the 1787 Constitutional Convention were given the important task of figuring out the process of how the United States was going to elect their future presidents. The founding fathers were stuck on the idea of whether a democratic popular vote should determine who becomes president or if Congress should determine who is president. “The founding fathers established the Electoral College in the constitution as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens” (“What is the Electoral College?”). The electoral college was created to make an easy and fair process for selecting the United States president. The electoral college is a sufficient method for electing the United States president, because it lowers the cost of campaigns, it elements a nationwide recount, and allows all parts of the country to be involved in selecting the president.

Electoral college eliminates the risk of a national recount. A 0.5 percent difference between candidates is the threshold that election results must meet in order to start an automatic recount. The article “Electoral college Fast Facts” claims there have been six presidential elections in the history of the United States that would have eligible for this issue, three of which have taken place since 1968. Five subsequent elections were held in which the eventual president did not win a majority of the vote, including Donald Trump in the referendum of 2016. Only Rutherford Hayes won the electoral college, with a 3 percent difference, despite being in the minority in such a way that a recount would not happen. The price of carrying out a national recount could be more than $1 billion, which is cash not always in the budget.

The college of electors ensures that all parts of the country are interested in the selection of the United States President. If the election depended on the popular vote alone, then candidates could restrict campaigning to heavily populated areas or regions. To win the election, presidential candidates need multi-regional electoral votes and thus create nationally oriented campaign strategies, ensuring the winner will actually serve the needs of the country as a whole. Without the electoral college, communities like Iowa farmers and factory workers in Ohio would be ignored in favor of pandering to higher population density metropolitan areas, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized (Roos).

A person on the opposing side of the argument may say that the electoral college expands the risk of faithless electors casting ballots. The structure of the electoral college makes it possible for an elector to vote against the candidate their individual voters wanted, but according to history no elector has changed the outcome of an election in the United States by voting against what their individual voters wanted. According to McLauglin there have been around 167 faithless electors in history. The chance of an elector going against their people’s wants is highly unlikely, and the chance of their flip changing the outcome of the election is very slim. This person would be right that the chance for an elector to go against the people’s wants is made possible by the electoral college but there one change in vote is not likely to change the outcome of the presidency. The benefits of the electoral college are more important to think about then this slight risk of an elector going against their state.

The electoral college is a sufficient method for electing the United States president. The electoral college lowers the expenses of national presidential campaigns. The threat of a nationwide recount is eliminated by the electoral college. Allowing all parts of the country to be involved in the process of selecting the president is a positive feature of the electoral college. “Hamilton and the other founders believed that the electors would be able to ensure that only a qualified person becomes President. They thought that with the Electoral College no one would be able to manipulate the citizenry” (Schulman). Without the electoral college the process of electing the president would become more complex and more expensive. There are ongoing attempts to change the system, but few expect them to be successful anytime soon.