The Electoral College
The United States has a complicated voting system that most citizens do not understand. The Electoral College has been in place for two hundred years, and is beginning to show its age. The process places the vote for the president in the hands of electors. The State's votes, when counted, then determine which candidate receives the absolute majority, one over a half, and then receives that State's entire Electoral College votes. A third political party has no chance of dominating the political system. A candidate could win without the majority popular vote of the nation. It also has a tendency to depress voter turnout, since most people feel it does not accurately portray the nation's choice. Citizens do not understand how the system works and why it needs to be updated. A need for a new political system is arising out of the old Electoral College. With the present day system there is a chance of electing a minority president, one who does not have the absolute majority popular vote. For instance, if a third party drew enough votes from the top two so that no candidates received 50% of the national total popular vote, then a president would be nominated that received less than half of the natio
The United States may not be ready for a third party to rise up and be a president or even have a showing in the election for that matter. All that a third party can do is help in dividing the votes of the nation, which in turn means that a president will be elected that a majority of the nation did not vote for (Clarke, www). The Electoral College was put in place by the Founding Fathers at the birth of this nation. The reasoning comes from the fact that a candidate could receive 49% of a State's popular vote and would have nothing to show for it in the Electoral College since the candidate has to receive the absolute majority (Reichley, 83). The system in place has shown links to depressing voter turnout. Most people believe that for change to occur a new amendment has to be written and passed to get rid of the original one on the Electoral College. Candidates are now able to travel all over the United States and rally together supporters for their campaigns. The system reinforces a two-party system. This is why, allocating the votes between candidates gives a each party a fair chance, and feeling of doing what is required of them during campaigning for an election. Change has not occurred to this day because people do not understand how the Electoral system works and what needs to occur for change to take place. Each state is entitled to the same number of Electoral votes regardless of its voter turn out. The winner-take-all stance makes achieving the Electoral votes from any State impossible. A candidate has to receive a majority of a States popular vote to receive all the Electoral votes. This means that a State can change its way of allocating its Electoral votes. It was determined that since there was a lack of communication between the States it would be hard for a voter to determine a president, since each State would more than likely vote for a candidate running within its own State or region.
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