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[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Electoral College
American voters elect the President and Vice President of the United States indirectly, through an arrangement known as the Electoral College system. The Electoral College system comprises a complex mosaic of constitutional provisions, state and federal laws, and political party rules and practices.
Although the Electoral College system has delivered uncontested results in 46 out of 50 presidential elections since it assumed its present constitutional form in 1804, it has been the subject of persistent criticism and frequent proposals for reform. Reform advocates cite several problems with the current system, including a close or multi-candidate election can result in no electoral college majority, leading to a contingent election in Congress; the current system can result in the election of a President and Vice President who received a majority of electoral votes, but fewer popular votes, than their opponents; the formula for assignment of electoral votes is claimed to provide an unfair advantage for less populous states and does not account for population changes between censuses; and the winner-take-all system used by most states does not recognize the proportional strength of the losing major party, minor party, and independent candidates. On the other hand, defenders assert that the Electoral College system is an integral and vital component of federalism, that it has a 92% record of non-controversial results, and that it promotes an ideologically and geographically broad two-party system. They maintain that repair of the Electoral College system, rather than abolition, would eliminate any perceived defects while retaining its overall strengths (Longley, Dana, 123-145).
The Electoral College is the statutory system in the United States for the election of the President and the Vice President. In 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Constitution of the United States was created. Before the Constitutional Convention, the United States had been governed under the Articles of Confederation.................
