Electoral College
The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice-President of the United States. The Electoral College is an example of an indirection election.
Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, United States citizens cast votes for electors.
Why do you think some of our Founding Fathers wanted Congress to select the President? (Remember that in colonial times, not everyone could read, and there was no radio, TV or Internet to update people on national events.)
Do you think the U.S. President should be chosen by popular vote? Why or why not?
October 9th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Voting for an elector is the same as the poppulation of voting. The winner is still going to win by the poppulation of votes. By the poppulation of votes, you are actually voting for your state to either be democratic or republican. But not every vote counts.
I think that it is more fair to count every vote because if someone wins by one elector and that state needed only 2 more votes on the other side, it would be so close, it is had to tell.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Electoral votes are the actual votes for president. You might think that is the general election but … WRONG, your actually voting for someone to vote in the actual election.
I think that the Founding Fathers wanted congress to vote because they thought that the people couldn’t vote due to their lack of education. And with no tv, computers or a radio they couldn’t get the information they needed in order to cast a ballet.
I really don’t think that it is fair that we vote for someone to vote in the “real” election. It’s like they don’t think were smart or important enough to be able to vote for real. I believe it is better to count every single vote, and for the love of corn, we might not even want that person for president.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I think that our founding fathers wanted congress to choose the presidants because they got more education than others and thought that we wern’t worthy and smart enough to hoose a President. Also that we nedd help deciding and choosing!
I thik that the canidates should be chosen President by the popular votes and not by the electoral votes, because the Presidants choises will mosly affect the citizns of the United States of America. Also why are the adaults voting if theier votes are not going be counted and thier votesare are only there to help the picked voters decide! I mean it is a waste of time and gas and a lot of other things to!
October 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Because it was very hard to give out the news or to get the news. I think they wanted congress to select the president because it would be easier to communicate with a few people other than towns full of people. Our founding fathers didn’t want to be stressed with a lot of people and didn’t want to be run by there citizens.
I think the U.S. president should be chosen by popular vote because then the people are really voting for who they want and not just for a senator to vote. I don’t want people to think there voting for a president when they really aren’t, there voting for a congress to vote.
October 10th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I think that our Founding Fathers wanted the congress to choose the president because the congress had more experience with politics and would make a better choice on who they choose for president because I don’t think that our Founding Fathers would want someone who won’t be a good president as president.
No, because the president might be popular and say that they will make change but that doesn’t mean that they will be a good president.
October 10th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I think the founding fathers wanted congress to chose because it was hard back then to get the info to everyone in the country. Also the congress knows the qualities of the candidates.
I think the president should be chosen by a popular vote because the president shouldn’t only be chosen by the congress. The people in the country should count to.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I think our founding fathers wanted congress to select the president because it was to hard to get the message around so they just picked a group of people to pick the president. It was also hard for the commoners because not everyone could read in that time. My last reason is because some of the commoners didn’t know about the government but the congress knew because they are the government.
I think the president should be picked by the popular vote because it’s not the people voting it’s the congress that will make the decision for there country. If the peoples votes made the candidate become president it would show if the normal people want that candidate to win or not, not the congress.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I think that our founding fathers wanted the congeress to vote for president because they didn’t trust a normal citizen to vote. They thought that the congress had more knowlege and a background of why they should vote for a president. Also, radio and newspaper wasn’t here so it was hard to spread info about each president. A citizen might say he votes for so and so because he has a fancy name or something. The congress actually knows something about them.
I think that the president should be picked by the popular vote because our founding fathers said i was good for us. I agree on that because when we do popular vote, only the congress votes. If we do it the other way, the people might be forced to vote for someone even though they don’t know anything about another president.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
I think that our founding fathers wanted the congress to chose our president is because they thought that the congress were more smarter and also made better choices. Either way they were the congress you cant be stupid and become a congressman.
So instead of direct voting by just casting votes for their president the founding fathers wanted the congress to chose our president. I think that presidents and vice presidents should be voted by popular vote because if the congress people actually pick a different president than the people want then that president or vice president isn’t going to be happy with all of the people wanting a new president.
For example say one president gets about 2,111,000 votes and another president gets 4,234,000 votes! But the congress men pick the other president with 2,111,000 votes and the people are mad because they got a different president then they wanted!
October 11th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I think that some of our Founding gathers wanted congress to pick the president because we the people of america were not as educated as the congress didn’t know what the candidate was like or what he or wanted to do with the country and did not know the updades to what the candidate said or promised to do as president.
I think that the Electoral Collage should be a part of the election process because they know the expirance of each candidate and if he would make the a good president.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I think some of our Founding Fathers wanted congress because, if someone says not to wear anymore yellow clothes, do you want to do that? With congress, the people can vote for someone to represent what they think is fair.
I think that voting should be based on popular votes because it’s not fair if one Presidential Candidate wins by popular vote and doesn’t win the election. It’s not fair because the people want this Presidential Candidate, but the Electoral College may not elect the Presidential Candidate, it’s just not fair.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I think the some of the founding fathers wanted congress to select the president because not a lot of people knew what the candidates were going to do with the country. Also the congress knew more about the candidates then the people did. So I would expect them to chose the right candidate that would run our country right.
I think the U.S. president should not be chosen by the population because some people just vote for that person because they just like their personality but they are not going to change anything. If you chose the president by the electoral college way, then the congress would be able to chose the president. I think this is a good way because the congress knows more information about the candidates the we do so they know who will be a good president.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I think that our founding fathers made the electoral college because without T.V. or radio the people could not get information on the candidate. Also I belive because of lack of education they probaly won’t know the different between the two prties, so they would pick who to vote for by guseing.
I think that we shoulden’t have electoal college because then every vote will count and it will be more fair two both sides. also because the smaller states will hve more of a say in it instead of just two votes there can be 11,234 numbers of votes.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I think that our founding fathers wanted congress to decide who would be our president because not all of the people in America new about the presidents and voting because some people couldn’t read the news and there was no TV or internet for them to find out.
I think that the president should be decided by popular vote because everybody has an opinion and what if the congress picks a president that the people don’t want.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
In old school colonial times people were not as educated or smart as people today. They worked harder than us just to survive. All the things we take for granted in our everyday lives, they had to work really hard for. They didn’t have pencils, computers, stores to buy food, they had to make everything themselves because they didn’t have machines to do the work for them. They couldn’t communicate quickly or very well in long distances. It took a long time to transfer information or communicate long distance. I think that the founding fathers wanted congress to pick the president because they might have known more about the person running for president. They thought they could make a better decision for the people because the people were not all educated the same way or taught the same things. I think they thought that they were helping the people by choosing for them because many could not read or write.
I think that the U.S. President should be chosen by popular vote. I think it is dumb to have a vote for someone when your vote will not even count. If the Electoral College makes their own choice, why ask the people? Fffffffppphhhrrrrrrrtttttt! (Fart sound) this STINKS!!!!!!! It is a waste of everyone’s time. How can you have a president who speaks for the people if no one likes him and he doesn’t have the popular vote? Popular vote would encourage people to vote. They would see that their vote does count and that it would matter. Their voices would be heard. On the other hand, Electoral College discourages people to vote, because why vote if it doesn’t matter.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Kelsey you put “had”. It is supposed to be “hard”.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I think our farthers wanted the cogress to vote because they smater and they also know that the congress in awary of what there doing and probly what good about a person and what bad. If your vote doesn’t even count then why should you vote your just wasting your time and don’t you feel funny there only repsented our vote. That really weird.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I think some of our Founding Fathers wanted congress to select the president because they were probably well educated. They also probably knew what properties the candidates should have like responsibility, hard working, and smart. Also because they had no way of sending information like TV, radio, and newspapers. The only source of information was being called into the towns meeting place and one of the representatives will tell you about the candidates and then you could cast your votes and then he will take the votes back to congress and discuss about it.
I think the U.S. President should be chosen by popular vote because we will have a chance to get the president that we want and we will have a say in who we vote for and the popular votes won’t be pointless.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I think they wanted the Electoral College because with a direct democracy, there would be too many votes and if one side lost, there could possibly be a mob. I also agree with nainoa.
I think every vote should count because if lots of people vote for one president and the other president is the winner, then the people will be unhappy. That causes an unhappy country.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I think they wanted it this way because there would be too many votes to count and because some people didn’t always know about the candidates and if they changed something about how they were going to help America the voters wouldn’t know. They didn’t want people who didn’t know that much to vote because they don’t know all of the facts.
I think it should stay this way because it shows that the delegates can represent there people and some might not know and just vote anyway.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I think some of our founding fathers wanted congress to determine who the president will be is because people in colonial times could not get that much information on the candidates therefore people back then could make a bad choice. I think the founding fathers made a good choice for that time period but somebody should have changed the rule by now.
I belive the president is popular when they’re campigning but make bad choices when they’re elected america can be in big trouble.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I think some of our founding fathers wanted it like this because back in those days the people were not as imformed or the peple did not know the importance or the background of the cadidates or the importance of voting. The people did not have computers, T.V.s, or even radios! also not every one was as educated as others some people couldn’t even read. Congress was more educated and knew what was going on and knew who could stop the problems.
I think the president should be elected by popular vote because the people are more imformed then before we have all the things they did not have back in the old days and I’m pretty sure every one that I know thats allowed to vote can read. Alot of people vote so if the vote is chosen by popular vote the people will get to have a say in the next president. A few people in each state vs all the people in the U.S.A
October 12th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
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I think the popular vote wins by far! The people are smart enough to have a say in the presidential election.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think the founding fathers made it the way it is because I think they thought the congress had more expriecne then other people. So the founding fathers left it to them to choose the president.
I think the president should be picked popular vote because it is much easier then the way they have it now. So when the big day comes they can just tally up the votes.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I think that our founding fathers wanted congress to vote is because they thought that the congress is more experienced then everyone. I think they also thought that the electoral voters would not take long to decide who is president?
I think the president should be picked by popular vote because it’s majority of the states who they think is right and I think that it’s really fair because there’s people who are undecided and the presidents can change them.