David Pham Tran Essays - Elections, Psephology, Politics

David Pham Tran Essays - Elections, Psephology, Politics David Pham Tran ELECTORAL COLLEGE DEBATEAGAINST In a fair democracy, everyone's vote should count equally but the electoral college is violating this principal by making some votes are more equal than others. Ohio reflecting its population should have 20 votes but the electoral college only gave it 18 votes and the remaining 2 votes went to Rhode Island. Ex: 1 Vermont vote = 3 Texans vote. The purpose of the electoral college is to be a compromise between election of the president by the vote of Congress and the popular vote of the people.The founding fathers established the electoral college in the United States Constitution, believing that it would be both a buffer and provide fair power to all states regardless of size. This goal is failing because the candidates aren't caring about these small states like the intended goal suggested (to be fair among all big and small states)\ The electoral college makes candidates focus on getting the vote of certain states and ignore other states A President can win with only a small percentage of the popular vote by taking advantage of the electoral college. Ex: Trump won the election with less popular votes The electoral college gives votes to states basing on the population in each state. A census only happens once every decades. Some states will increase or decrease in population and 2 presidential terms occur between every census which could mean that the electoral votes are exactly reflecting to the population of each state. The electoral college gives too much power to the swing states and allows the presidential election to be decided by a handful of states. The electoral college prevents Americans living in U.S territories from voting in the election. (Virgin Island, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Marianas). 4.1 million Americans/votes are being ignored because of where they live. American flags are flying over these lands, shouldn't American laws apply to them too? In the Insular cases in 1901, a series of U.S Supreme Court rulings on the legal status and rights of the people in the Philippines and Puerto Rico under U.S territorial rule, the judge basically said that these land are inhabited by "Alien races" and the Constitution doesn't have to apply to them. Its been 116 years and this hasn't changed. The Dimpled Chad CITATION CGPGrey. "The Trouble with the Electoral College."YouTube, YouTube, 7 Nov. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k. "Millions of Americans can't vote for president because of where they live."Public Radio International, www.pri.org/stories/2016-11-01/millions-americans-cant-vote-president-because-where-they-live. "What is the purpose of the electoral college?"Reference, IAC Publishing, www.reference.com/government-politics/purpose-electoral-college-c9f12a8548d434ee.