The U.S. Presidential Election Essay, Research Paper

The United States has recently elected a new president. The two frontrunners for the presidency were George Bush and Al Gore. It was a close race all way up to Election Day. There was some controversy over the ballads, which prolonged the election. In some states their had to be a recount to see who would win that states electoral votes. The question that most people ask is should their even be an Electoral College or should the president be elected by just popular vote. How should the United States elect its president?

The president of the United State is an important person so the presidential election is treated as an important event, but is the president really elected by the people. Should the president be elected by popular vote only? If the people elect the president why shouldn t they tally-up the total votes of each candidate and whoever has the most votes is the president. But, that isn t the way things are done for example, this year presidential election the person who had the most popular votes didn t win the election. By election the president through electoral votes that allows the candidates to ignore the smaller states, who have less electoral votes than the big state, and focus on the bigger states that have more people. There are statistics that prove the candidates spend more of their time in the states that have the most amounts of people. A state is given its electoral votes by the amount of people there, which means the more people the more electoral votes it gets. One would think winning the popular vote would be a presidential candidate s goal, but winning the popular vote would be in vein if the candidate doesn t have the most electoral votes.

The Electoral College is the constitutional method of electing the president where each state selects a group of electors equal to the state s representatives plus senators. So however many representatives a state has add two and that will be the amount of electoral votes that state has. When the American people vote for president, they are actually voting for slates of electors pledged to their candidate the more electoral votes that candidate will receive. To win all of a states electoral votes all the candidates have to do is win majority of a states electoral votes not all of them. The candidate receiving a majority of the total electoral votes in the United States is elected president. If the president can t be elected through the Electoral College, the election goes to the senate where each state gets two votes no matter what its population is. The Electoral College could be a thing of the past and the United States should find new ways to elect its president.

That could be to outgoing president and vice president final duty to choose the new president. Since they would know what it takes to fulfill the role as the United States president. They could watch all the presidential debates and see which candidate is best for the job. In some cases this would not be a good method for example in the past election the outgoing president was Bill Clinton and the vice president was Al Gore. The two top candidates in the past election was Al Gore and George Bush, which meet Clinton and Gore would have had to chose from Bush and Gore. Gore would have had an unfair advantage.

Methods the United States uses or can use to elect its president. The United States elects its presidents through the electoral college, where each state gets a certain amount of electoral votes from the amount of representatives and senators, which allows the presidential candidates to focus more on the states with more people. Popular vote could be the next method of electing the president, by taking all the votes and tallying them up and the person with the most votes win. By letting the outgoing presided and vice president elect the new president might be giving two people to much power, but at least the person will be qualified for the job.