· respond to your classmates’ initial posts. Your peer responses should be substantive and at least 100 words each. For this discussion, respond to at least one peer who discussed a different stance regarding the Electoral College than you did for this assignment. This will allow you to discuss counterarguments and support the position you discussed. As your reply to your classmates, attempt to take the conversation further by examining their claims or arguments in more depth or responding to the posts that they make to you. Keep the discussion on target and try to analyze things in as much detail as you can.
PEERS POST:
The Electoral College is a composition of electors that elects the President of the United States. The amount of electors is equal to the amount of senators and representatives allotted to each state, totaling 538 nationwide.
In order to win, the nominee has to win the majority of the electoral college votes. Electoral College votes are earned by winning the popular votes in a respective state. Once that state’s popular vote is won, then the nominee earns all the Electoral College votes allotted to that state.
The presidential election I will be looking at is the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and President George W. Bush. This election was the first election since 1888 for the winner to have a smaller popular vote count than the loser. The election came down to Florida and its 25 electoral votes, whoever won those 25 votes would also win the presidency. After a close fight for Florida, President Bush came away the winner with only 600 more votes than Gore. This led to a mandatory machine recount, which then cut his lead down to only 154 more votes Gore. One more by-hand recount, a trip to the Florida Supreme Court, and then the Supreme Court later, George W. Bush was announced the winner of Florida and the presidency. All told, President Bush won 271 electoral votes and 47.87% of the popular vote to Gore’s 266 and 48.38%. After the election and more importantly the Supreme Court ruling, Americans’ faith in the system was tested. At the time, the Electoral College was not the main point of investigation, rather the Supreme Court faced a lot of scrutiny and was viewed as the only reason Bush won. The common viewpoint of those who disagreed with the election was that a five to four conservative Supreme Court pulled strings and bent the rules to make Bush the winner.
I am for the Electoral College even though it is imperfect. I think it is here for a reason and has a very important purpose to serve, that purpose being to represent the American voters as well as possible. There will always be controversy, especially when the political races are as close as they have been in the last twenty years and electors are not always voting the way they were supposed to. The side that loses will always push for the abolishment of the Electoral College and I don’t think there is any way around that. Ultimately, I support the Electoral College for the same reasons that I support the House of Representatives. Each state has a number of representatives or electoral votes that is proportional to their population, and I think that is the best way to represent each state without relying entirely on the popular vote.
-Jacob
Sources:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/reflections-on-the-2000-u-s-presidential-election/ (Links to an external site.)
https://www.infoplease.com/us/government/elections/presidential-election-of-2000-electoral-and-popular-vote-summary
