Abstract
The presidential candidate is always seriously affected by the number of electoral votes. That is why Electoral College plays an important role in upcoming Presidential and Congressional elections. In fact, although Electoral College plays an important function in the US policy, it always causes a lot of debates, criticism and controversy. That is why this paper analyzes the historical transition of Electoral College system, its advantages and disadvantages, together with its influence on the current political situation.
Key words: Electoral College, reform, amendments, elections
Introduction
Equal participation in policy is an important feature of democratic government. For example, leading democratic theorist Robert Dahl mentioned that “every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal (Bugh, 2010). However, is everything so equal and right in the US politics? In fact, there is an indirect election system in the USA, which has some special peculiarities. That is why it is necessary to analyze how was the voting system changing through history and identify its strong as well as weak points.
First of all, it is crucial to stress that the President of the USA is an important political figure and it is necessary to pay attention to its election. In fact, the system of President Elections is quite complicated in the USA, and it is implemented with the help of Electoral College. Established by Article II, Section 1, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, this Electoral College system has evolved continuously since the first presidential elections (Neale, 2009). However, times are changing and it may be useful to change some core principles previously established in the US Constitution.
In fact, Electoral College system raised a number of important debates and controversies. Despite occasional close elections, this system has selected the candidate with the most popular votes in 48 of the 52 presidential elections held since the 12th Amendment was ratified in 1804 (Neale, 2009). Nevertheless, it is necessary to pay close attention and analyze an example of recent Presidential elections in 2000. As the result of 2000 elections there were two main candidates, George Bush and Al Gore. Nevertheless, when the votes were counted, Gore had almost 540, 000 more than Bush, yet Bush was sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States (Burgan, 2006).
It is important to ask question: how did it happen that Bush won the election. And he answer is pretty simple. Despite the fact that Bush did not receive more popular vote, he was chosen by the Electoral College. Moreover, this situation caused a serious dispute in Florida. The election outcome hinged on the State of Florida, where popular vote totals were extremely close but uncertain after the polls closed (Neale, 2009).
Such controversy emerges only because US election system chooses the president by the majority of electoral votes rather than popular. The 2000 election case raised a number of disputes. Some people argued that it is better to preserve Electoral College system in the US Constitution, while others opposed it.
Therefore, …