The electoral college is a system that is used in the United States to indirectly elect the president and vice president of the states. Each state has a different number of electors based on how many people are in the senate and the house of representatives. The candidate that wins the popular vote in a specific state, gets the electors from that state. There is a total of 538 electors in the nation which is found by adding the members of the senate, the house of representatives, and the three electors from the District of Columbia. To win, a candidate needs at least 270 votes.
The electoral college system was developed by the founding fathers so that smaller states could have more say in an election, and so that the big states would not control it. Also, communication was not as good back then, so counting up a popular vote and reporting it would be very difficult.
The number one downfall of the electoral college is that a candidate can win the popular vote, but lose the overall election. This has happened three times,in 1824 John Quincy Adams was elected over Andrew Jackson, in 1876 Rutherford Hayes was elected over Samuel Tilden, in 1888 Benjamin Harrison was elected over Grover Cleveland, and most recently, in 2000 George W. Bush was elected over Al Gore. Another con is "faithless electors." That is when an elector is pledged to one candidate, but votes for the other.
I think that the electoral college was a good fit when they first came up with it, but now in this more modern era, I believe that the popular vote should be used because communication has improved, and it better represents the country.
Sources
http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/INFORMATION/electcollege_procon.php
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/electcollege_2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)
Comments
Well done!