United States presidential election process involves an indirect election in which citizens vote for electoral candidates within a specific state, who then cast electoral votes for the Presidential candidate. The election process follows a procedural format where all candidates who want to be President are grouped according to political parties, either the democrats or the republicans (Kalla & Broockman, 2017). Through Primaries and Caucuses, the parties select delegates who represent the people at the national conventions. A final presidential nominee is chosen at the convention, and the presidential candidate chooses a running mate. Lastly, the general elections are held for the presidential election. The states award the presidential electoral votes, affecting presidential candidates’ campaigns, especially within the swing states.
However, the formula has affected the majority of the citizens as unpopular presidents can easily win. In every presidential election in the Unites States, there are 538 votes for grabs (Kalla & Broockman, 2017). The process of awarding the votes is the most misunderstood phase of the election process. For a candidate to win the election, the candidate must grab at least half of the votes or more. The method of awarding electoral votes in most states’ elections is referred to as “winner-take-all.” (Mascioli et al., 2020). If a presidential candidate wins by 51% of the popular votes, the candidate is awarded all the electoral votes. However, Nebraska and Maine states are the exceptions of winner-take-all vote distribution. Maine and Nebraska award electoral votes through the congress District Method. The most voted candidate within the congressional district scores one electoral vote while the candidate who wins statewide vote scores additional two votes.
During the campaign period, the ‘Winner-take-all’ method affects how and where the presidential candidate chooses to campaign to get much more electoral votes during the presidential election. The electors within each state are selected based on the population census of the state. The high the number of populations in the state, the higher the number of electors. The presidential candidates tend to focus more on the highly populated states during the campaign period since the winner-take-all method will give the opponents a competitive advantage against opponents (Mascioli et al., 2020). With the help of this method, a presidential candidate might win the election without the popular vote, but 51% or more electoral votes are from populated states.
According to the Constitution of the United States, Article two, section one, clauses two electors are allocated to each state based on the state’s population. The total number of electors in the United States is 538, including 100 senators, 435 representatives, and three electors within the District of Columbia (Kalla & Broockman, 2017). Based on the population census conducted every decade, states have a varied population, leading to gaining or losing an electoral vote. The electrical college was the compromise method based on the constitution; it protects small states and even large geographical states with small populations because a presidential candidate cannot ignore small states. However, the method affects the states by giving an unfair advantage to states with large numbers of electoral votes.
House should choose the President instead of having the Electoral College because the electoral election raises issues of unequal representation between states, and electors can choose the President against the people (Mascioli et al., 2020). Al Gore and most Americans supported the National Popular Vote idea, which would have states cast electoral votes for the presidential candidate who received the highest number of votes nationwide (Mascioli et al., 2020). The states that sign the compact agree to provide electoral votes to the presidential candidate who obtains the highest popularity votes in all states and Washington, D.C. In this circumstance, the Electoral College would be unnecessary.
References
Kalla, J. L., & Broockman, D. E. (2017). The minimal persuasive effects of campaign contact in general elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments. eScholarship. Web.
Mascioli, G., Kane, C., Nagel, M., McGarry, M., Medina, E., Brejt, J., & D’Angelo, S. (2020, January). Presidents must be elected popularly: Examining Proposals and Identifying the Natural Endpoint of Electoral College Reform. FLASH Archive. Web.