... S Electoral College was established by the founding fathers during the constitutional convention of 1789 and amended in 1804, as compromise between the election of the president by congress and by the popular vote. The function of the Electoral College in choosing the president is to allow each state to select the president based solely on merit and without regard to their State of origin or political party. The Electoral College consists of 538 ‘electors’, with each State allocated the same number votes equal to the number of its US Senators (each state has two senators) plus the number of members of the House of Representatives (depending on size of population). The objective for the presidential candidate is to win the majority of the Electoral College votes (a minimum of 270), by winning enough popular votes to secure it . ... Over the years the institution has become the object of many criticisms with many arguing that it is an old-fashioned and undemocratic way of electing the most powerful office in American politics. Those who criticise the Electoral College and advocate reform generally do so on a number of grounds. ... Thirdly, the Electoral College could result in a deadlock if no candidate manages to win a majority, throwing the decision of who is be president to the House of Representatives. ...
This essay will examine and discuss how far these arguments against the Electoral College make the system ‘archaic and undemocratic’. ...
Many Americans have contested the democratic basis of the Electoral College, as it seems that the system puts more emphasis on the Electoral College votes and not the popular vote. ... But this has not always proved to be the case; there have been instances when the winner of the popular vote has lost the right to the presidential office because of the first-past-the-post nature of the Electoral College system. Whether a candidate wins a State by 5 or 500,000 votes he wins all that States Electoral College votes . In 1876 and 1888, winners of popular vote lost the presidency race because of the winner takes all Electoral College. A more recent example, in the general election of 2000, vice-president Al Gore received 198,000 more votes to than Governor Bush, but because Bush received 271 of the 538 Electoral College votes, he was sworn into office as a minority president .
Due to this extreme fickleness of the Electoral College system, there have been instances in the recent past, which has nearly resulted in electing a president who lost the popular vote.
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