Electoral College Of U.S.A Essay

The President and Vice-President of U. S. A are being elected by a body of electors. The scripter’s of U. S Constitution formulated an indirect method for electing the President and Vice-President. This method is known as the ‘Electoral College â€Å"which scripter viewed that would end in informed, educated persons being selected to their nation’s top position. However, each political party in U. S. A picks up their own cadres to act as electors to elect the top leaders. Thus, presidential candidates have to secure majority votes in the Electoral College for winning the election. In the U. S Presidential election, voters do not vote for President or Vice-President directly but pick up electors who are pledged to support their presidential candidates. Each State in U. S. A has as many electors at is has U. S Senators which will be normally two and U. S Representatives, the number will be depending upon the state’s population. For instance, the District of Colombia is having three electoral votes. Those presidential candidates who have the most popular votes win all of the state’s electoral votes. This is recognized as the â€Å"winner-take-all† rule. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2007). The electors in each state will assemble in their legislative assemblies and vote for presidential candidate during the election time. Thus, each state testimony its electoral votes and forwards the results to the U. S Congress which counts the ballots. The counting will be carried over by the Senate and the House of Representatives and it will review the â€Å"Electoral College† votes. The candidate who obtains the majority of 270 Electoral College votes out of total 538 wins despite of the outcome of the popular votes. In case, if there is a tie or if no candidate obtains a majority, then the House of Representatives picks up the President and the Senate picks up the Vice President. Due to the concept â€Å"winner-take-all† dictum, it is possible as it had happened in the year 2000 election (Bush v Al Gore), a candidate who win the popular vote and still lose the Electoral College. Dating from 1845, the federal law requires that electors must be chosen on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November and the counting of votes will be perused by the Congress on January 6. The Electoral College is vehemently attacked that it has to be reformed as it had given the country about 14 minority presidents. Thus, the following are the Presidents who had won the majority in the Electoral College even though they lacked behind in obtaining popular vote. It is to be observed that among the above mentioned Presidents, only Harrison, Hayes and George W. Bush failed to obtain a plurality of the popular vote. The main aim of the Electoral College system is to give more recognition to the less populace states on the basis of the number of a state’s electors on its senators and U. S representatives and to prevent the President to focus more attention to most populous states and on the problems significant to their voters. One of the main intentions of Electoral College is to make sure that most qualified candidate and not the most popular candidate would be chosen by electors on behalf of their states but by making an independent judgment. After the Twelfth Amendment, there were copious efforts to amend the Electoral College and to alter the system of presidential election, but none of them has succeeded. George W. Bush popular-vote loss and victory in Electoral College with a thin margin in the year 2000 again triggered the support for annulment of Electoral College system as it lacks natural justice in deciding the victory of the presidential election.