The Electoral College is a system that has been setup to elect the President of the United States. Over 200 years ago, a committee was formed to determine the best way to elect the President. The three main methods debated for electing the president were by congress, the people, or electors. It was decided that in an effort to keep the checks and balances of our government in order, congress could not elect the president. Although majority felt that the citizens of the United States should elect the president, they felt that the citizens would easily be misinformed and not familiar enough with the candidates to choose the right person. Due to this, it was decided that a group of electors would decide on the President. Each state casts a number of electoral votes equal to the number of senators and representatives they have. Small states are given at least three votes and the largest state, California, has fifty-four votes. The District of Columbia is also included in the College Electoral process and has three votes, as well.The electors are supposed to cast their votes based on the popular vote in state, but this does not always happen. If a candidate wins a number of big states, even if it is by close margins, and loses other states by wide margins, the candidate could lose the popular vote and still win the electoral vote. Three United States Presidents have already won based upon this scenario. In 1876, President Rutherford B. Hayes received and won the presidency by one more electoral vote than his opponent. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated President Grover Cleveland with one electoral vote, although President Cleveland won the popular vote. It has once again happened, as George Bush defeated Al Gore in the 2000 election. Al Gore won the popular vote and George Bush walked away with the electoral vote and the Presidency.Is it no wonder that the actual people who vote in the presidential elections is so low? We constantly hear ...
