The Electoral College: Is it a Keeper?

An argumentative paper on why we should keep the Electoral College after the election of 2000.

An examination of the the Electoral College and the support and opposition that exists for it. The author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the Electoral College arguing that the Electoral College is the best and most systematic and fair way to run elections. Included is a background to the Electoral College and a thorough description of its formation and duties.

) Why do we have the Electoral College?

2) The Founding Fathers disputed how the president would be chosen

i) By direct vote of the people

ii) By Congress

b) Compromised with the Electoral College

c) Thesis Statement

3) Description of the Electoral College

a) How many there are

b) How they are chosen

c) How the people vote for them

d) How the President is voted for

4) The Electoral College has opposition

a) Electors don?t have to vote the way they pledged

b) There can be a tie in the Electoral College

b) The popular vote winner may lose the election

5) There can be a tie

a) How there can be a tie

b) Why it could be a problem

6) Electors don?t have to vote the way they pledged

a) The states and their penalties

b) An Example of an elector changing his mind

c) Why it could be a problem

7) The popular vote winner may be the loser

a) How it is happening in this election

b) A past example

c) Hillary?s promise to abolish the Electoral College

d) What would happen without the Electoral College

8) Oppositions solution is to abolish the Electoral College

a) Why it should be abolished

i) A possible tie

ii) Electors can change their vote

iii) The popular vote winner losing the election

b) Why the Electoral College should not be abolished

i) One problem can be fixed

ii) Another has a solution

iii) The last is not really a problem

9) A possible tie

a) Unlikely because each state would have to go a specific way

b) The solution that is already made

10) Electors can change their minds

a) Only 9 of over 18,000 have

b) It is hard to get an elector to change his or her mind

c) The solution is to pass a law

11) The minority may win the election

a) The Electoral College forces candidates to include more people than if there is no Electoral College.

b) Without it, the election would be decided by people that lived in the large cities

c) Small communities would?t be significant enough for candidates to use their campaign money

d) The majority of the US would be left out

e) Why every vote counts in the Electoral College

12) The Electoral College is the best way to run an election

a) The elector flaw can be fixed

b) There is already a solution to the tie problem

c) The majority losing is better than only letting big cities have a say in the election

“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know?” Gore has already won the popular vote! Three weeks later, and the US doesn’t know who the 43rd president will be! Each candidate is still scrambling to get the 270 Electoral votes needed to win. But, if Gore has the most votes, why is there still a race? What are these Electoral votes? When our Founding Fathers were setting the policies for the elections, there was a debate. Some said the election of the President should come directly from the people; others said the people could not handle the responsibility, and Congress should do it. They compromised, and came up with the Electoral College. A couple hundred years later, the Electoral College is still in use, and there is support and opposition for it.”