The Electoral College

The Electoral College

The Electoral College is a body representing the different states of the United States of America. Elected people formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. The Electoral College has being in place for over two centuries, after the constitution makers empowered it to select the president and vice president. Many voters think that they step into the ballot box to vote for their candidate for presidency, but surprisingly they actually vote for the people who represent their states. The Electoral College has provided stability to the presidential election process over two centuries. The winner of the majority votes usually takes the presidency position.

In the past years, the Electoral College chooses the president based on state vote totals, but recent history has shown that the winning candidate does no need to earn many individual votes. For example, in 2016 election, President Donald Trump won over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton by 74 electoral votes, despite losing individual votes by nearly 3 million. The constitution makers chose Electoral College over direct election to balance the interests of American people. Some scholars argue that, the political division in America is not among the states but between the north and the south. Others claim that the Electoral College was chosen because ordinary Americans would lack enough information about their favorable presidential candidate to vote directly. The direct voting system would be unacceptable to the south since the right of suffrage was much more diffuse in the north than in the south. The Electoral College ensures that the large Americans population is represented in government.