Electoral College
The Electoral College is a constitutional electoral institution judged with the responsibility of electing the President and Vice-president. The Electoral College was established in the United State’s Constitution in 1798, when the country was facing political challenges of this time. The Electoral College was established principally because of the possibility of elections in the country degenerating into violence and chaos. The electoral institution was meant to thwart the politically charged environment of the late 18th century. The Electoral College also served to balance between the interests of the government and citizens during an electoral process (Honaker, 2009). Therefore the Electoral College was designed to guarantee the holistic realization of the fundamental principle of country’s democracy as engendered in the constitution. The Electoral College was also instituted to block the Congress initial role of choosing the President. Many citizens at that time felt that allowing congress to choose the president will be like perpetuating corruption, the aspect of political bargaining, and possible interference from foreign influence. The Electoral College in an electoral process was meant to involve the intellectuals and informed citizens from each state to choose the president, which is anchored on merit and without reference of state or political affiliation (Katz, 1999).
Electoral College as Independent Variable
In an electoral college, there are independent variables, which the assumed political and factors that determine the outcome of an electoral process. The independent variables in an election process play a key role in determining the results of a given electoral mechanism in the country. The independent variables in an electoral process influence on dependent variables and can impact the electoral process negatively or positively depending on the nature of these independent variables. The independent variables in an election process can be manipulated following the prevailing election conditions .The Electoral College has the role of controlling the independent variables in order to attain the principles and objectives required of an electoral process. In an electoral process there are many independent variables, which affect the outcome of an electoral process hence the outcome of an election (Celman, 2004).
Turn-out independent variable is affected by the aspect of incumbency of a particular party. Incumbent party’s plays a role in by increasing the voter’s need to vote for the popular party. There is the mostly possibility that the turn-out variable will damage the candidates’ fortune in the election. Electoral size is also another independent variable that affects the election process. The size of the electoral zone might hamper the campaign of the candidates in some areas due to accessibility issues. Small electoral size of states favors the candidates’ campaign process thus dictating the outcome of the election process. There is the dummy independent, which is whether the party is national or regional.
National parties in an election have the potential to marshal more resources as compared to regional parties, which allow the national parties to access power easily. The duration independent variable, which is span of two successive elections, which control the influence the time gap in fulfilling the election pledges. Categorical independent variable based on gender plays a role in determines the outcome of the election process. For example, research done in the California shows that men have access to power than women.
Election as Dependent Variable
On the other hand, the dependent variable in an electoral process, are changes that takes place when the independent variable is changed. Dependent variable in the Electoral College relies on one of the independent variable. For example, the turn-out independent variables can change the dependent variables. The dependent variables in a given electoral process can be more than one. Depend variables depend on the independent variable, which means that both are interrelated. Election being dependent variable will rely on independent variable, for instance, voter turn-out. When the voter turn-out in an election the outcome of the election process is not satisfactory. On the other hand, when the voter turn-out is high, then the election process is successful. This means that election success depends on voter turn in the Election Day in Electoral College.
Relationship between Electoral College and Election
The relationship between Electoral College and election is that Electoral College is process, which provides a mechanism for undertaking election or votes during the voting period. The Electoral College and election or vote plays crucial role in choosing the president based on the popular vote (Celman, 2004). The Electoral College has the role of choosing the President through election process after a period of one month after voting time. The Electoral College comprises of voters or electors who are equivalent to the total number of elected representatives, senators in every state, and three who come from the District of Columbia thus making a total of 538 voters. The Electoral College has the capacity to choose the President, once the voting has been done based on the response to the powers of the people in each state as provided by the constitution. The Electoral College ensures that every state has been equally represented when it comes to voting for the President. The Electoral College has the role of ensuring that the election of the President is done according to ideals provided by the constitution and the process is fair and respects the rights of the citizens (Honaker, 2009).
Difference between Electoral College Vote and Popular Vote
The Electoral College vote is the number of points the election candidate gets countrywide as a result of an election process, whereby the candidate with the highest number of popular votes receives the points for the state. The points are derived from the total population of the state. The popular vote is the sum of the total number of registered candidates who participated in an election process (Katz, 1999). Popular vote system in an election process of the President, for example, has a negative effect on the resulting system or government. This is because the massive smaller parties will provide incentives to citizens in their attempt to lock out the popular parties from electing the President. This will in turn produce regionalists or extremists individuals who survived the election and the feel that they will the run-off elections. This will consequently, produce an unraveled and unstable political system, which is characterized by a massive political parties and radical changes that affect the effective running of the government. The Electoral College on the other hand, promotes the political parties to solidify their divergent political views into two sets of consistent alternatives (Celman, 2004). The college through well coordinated social and conflict debates results a system which is politically stable. The Electoral College promotes unity in all the states. This is because, through the college vote, there are no divergent views and no one is discriminated from the system. The electoral vote will promote the living standards of the minority in the society. This means the party winning will unify all the individuals on mutual grounds. The popular vote system discriminates the minority members of the society who did not vote. This means that the popular vote system promotes division and divides the state along political lines. Opponents of the Electoral College mechanism claims that the system does not represent the will of the majority, but the popular vote take in the consideration of popular vote (Honaker, 2009).
References
Celman,A. and King ,G. (2004).A Unified Method of Evaluating Electoral Systems and
Redistricting Plans', American Journal of Political Science ,Vol . 38. No. 2.
Honaker, A. & Scheve, K. (2009).Analyzing Complete Political Science Data: An Alternative
Algorithm for Multiple Imputation, American Political Science Review.Vol.95.No.1.
Katz, J. (1999).A Statistical Model of Multiparty for Electoral Data', American Journal of
Political Science, Vol. 93. No l.
Wooldridge ,J.( 2002).Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data .New York, NY:
The MIT Press.
