Free Essay On Presidential Leadership And The Electoral College

The president In the United States is not voted for directly by the popular vote. As an alternative, there is a system known as the Electoral College. An Electoral College is a selection of electors in each state who promise to vote in favor of the presidential candidate chosen through the popular vote in the particular state. For instance, when a presidential candidate gets 51 percent of the votes in a particular state, following the winner-take-all system, that candidate is assured of the Electoral College votes of that state as long as he or she has attained the threshold of a slight majority of the general vote. The Electoral College voters are mainly the members of congress; that is; senators and representatives. For example, in California, the Electoral College consists of 2 senators and 53 representatives. Whoever wins a simple majority of the popular vote gets all the 55 Electoral College votes. However, this system does not apply in Nebraska and Maine.
This system has major biases in that a presidential candidate can get the majority of the popular vote and still proceed to lose the elections. This is mainly because the states that they have won in might have a big population but few Electoral College votes. This leads to the other party taking the presidency through the winner-take-all system despite the fact that one candidate might have a majority of the popular vote. This so far is the downside of the system that makes it undesirable and hence should be abolished. However, the system can be improved so as to remove the bias in it. For instance, the Electoral College votes can be synchronized with the popular vote in that the states with a big number of the popular vote should also have a relatively big number of the college votes so that a candidate with the majority popular vote can also be sure of the support of the college votes.
In its current state, the Electoral College system is not rational to contemporary America since it is not the public that actually votes but a few individuals that have been selected. This kills the purpose of calling out the public to vote if the president is not going to be chosen directly by them.
The system then impacts greatly on the presidential leadership capacity since a presidential candidate would spend more time trying to secure the college votes instead of focusing on the people for the mere fact that his fate lies on the Electoral College as opposed to the people.

References

Barnett, A. (2009). Selecting the nation’s CEO: A risk assessment of the Electoral College. Journal of Management Issues, 447-460.
Bates, N. (2004, October 26). What Are the Arguments Made in Favor--And Against--the Electoral College? Retrieved from History News Network: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/8163
Electoral College 101. (2008, November 3). Electoral College 101: New York Times Upfront, pp. 6-7.
Walcott. (2009). Presidential leadership in political times: Reprise and reappraisal. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.