Google Electoral College Tracker (Nov 2020) Explore the Facts. >> This article talks about the method used to conduct the U.S. presidential elections.
Is it possible that a presidential candidate that gets the majority of votes loses the election?
Most democracies worldwide elect their President with the popular vote, i.e., the candidate who gets the most options win. But in the United States, the candidates have to go through a different route altogether, called the Electoral College.
In the Google Electoral College Tracker approach, the citizens cast their vote keeping the next President in mind, but it is the Electoral that decides who will become the President.
What is the Electoral College?
Google Electoral College Tracker refers to a body created to elect the next President and vice-president in the United States. It comprises 538 electors, 438 of which are given to the states based on their current population, and the rest 100 are the senators. Whichever candidate gets the absolute majority of electoral votes, i.e., 270 or more, wins the elections.
Another critical point to understand is the winner takes all in the state. The party either wins the entire state electoral votes or loses them. To explain this better, let’s take an example of Texas. Suppose the majority vote for Trump in Texas. He gets the popular vote. In that case, all 38 of Texas’s electoral vote goes to Trump, and the electors become Republicans. It does not matter how small the majority is; the winner takes all.
Whether the Google Electoral College Tracker is fair or not is debated during every election. Let’s discuss some of its positive and negative aspects.
Arguments in Favor of the Electoral College:
- The Electoral College was designed to distribute power throughout the small and large states equally.
- It helps to maintain the federal character of the United States.
- It isolates any election fault to a remote region only and not the entire nation.
- It saves the country against an uninformed population voting for a demagogue.
Arguments against the Google Electoral College Tracker:
- People against it argue that it is archaic and not needed anymore.
- Citizens nowadays are way more educated than at the time the Electoral college was proposed.
- It deprives people of choice as it supports the two-party system. People are forced to choose the lesser evil of the only two options available.
- It leads to smaller states getting more electors, thus differentiating a vote’s power between many countries.
Final Verdict
Google Electoral College Tracker has not been the most desired election strategy and certainly needs a change. In the previous 2 of 5 elections, the candidate with the popular vote has lost the presidency.
Moreover, Elections now have become concentrated to the swing states, i.e., the countries which change their sides in almost every election. Both parties give great importance to these states as they are the ones that decide the results.
With interests high and both parties being incredibly polarized, we expect it to be a ground-breaking election!
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.