THE WINNER-TAKE-ALL-PRINCIPLE

Why the Winner-Take-All principle must be Abolished or not

Dolores Mendoza
College of The Desert

THE WINNER-TAKE-ALL-PRINCIPLE

2
Abstract

Through the History of the United States the Framers consolidate our Electoral System in
the manner to contribute to have a better Government, in order to choose the best candidate that
can be represent us without detriment of our nation.
As a result The Electoral College created a rule for electing our representatives, the winnertake-all principle. This statutory provision has been controversial to which desire abolished; for
consider it obsolete or ambiguous system; however, there are several facts that incline USA
citizens to think that is better for our Government keep it or just modify it. In addition, the
problems as a Faithless elector and the unit rule, the House of Representatives procedures, the
only two parties, can be eliminated with the follow proposals. The Proportional Plan and the
Direct Popular Election that can address problems of the Winner take all Principle.

THE WINNER-TAKE-ALL-PRINCIPLE

The winner take-all- principle is when a representative with 50% or more of the citizens votes
in a state have all the remaining of the votes of this particular state. , (All the states except
Nebraska and Maine has the unity rule) Under the winner-take-all system, the presidential
candidate who wins the most popular votes within a State wins all of that States
Electors.(Kimberling, 1992) cite 1 as well, we are not voting for electing our president and vicepresident due to the Electoral College statutes. For instance, there are several concerns about
what the Take-all-winner system must be abolished .One of these concerns is The unit rule or
the transfer of votes of the winning candidate, and second, that idea of that rule make really
difficult for independent representative or third-party win. However, the proportional plan and
the direct popular election are two proposals to address the problem of the unity rule.
The Framers of our Constitution gave us an election process that in November they cast our
votes for members of the Electoral College and they vote for the President in December. That is,
the Electoral College is the organization approved by the Constitution for choosing the president
and vice-president of the United States. As well, the Constitution stipulates that each state must
select a electors equivalent to the number of their delegations, Alaska has 3 electoral votes, I for
the state USA senators and another for the representative, California has 55 Electoral votes, and
the District of Columbia, 3 electoral votes, We have 538 electoral votes in total. The candidate to
want wins need 270 electoral votes. When the Electors votes in their states the results are sent to
the Senate and the House of Representatives has the last decision and select one of the 3 electoral
winners. Because the Electoral College works with the winner-take-all principle, except
Nebraska and Maine; that way is certainly possible that a winner candidate can lose in the
Electoral College due to the unity rule. As an illustration when Gore wins with the plurality but
Bush win an Electoral College. For other hand, can be the reverse of the situation for example
when Obama win in 2012, getting 51% of the popular vote. And at the Electoral College he got
6.7%..For this reason, some people think that the winner-take-all system of the Electoral College
must be abolished, because certainly gave more power ones than others, So the candidates are
focusing their campaigns on the largest ones. With this faithless electors procedure we can fall
into the in the undemocratic system.
First, the winner-take-all system makes it nearly impossible for a third party candidate to
affect, much less win, a presidential election. Since each States votes are awarded as a unit to
the candidate receiving a plurality in that states popular election, all other votes are in effect
wasted page 11 of the thesis ( the Electoral College by Jason D. Spain) cite 2 The problem of
the only two party system of the Electoral College is the fact that is really or almost impossible
that a third party or a an independent candidate wins enough popular votes, in several states and
consequently winning the presidency also, if the third party acquire enough electoral votes to
make a difference , the still need the majority of more than a half of the delegations. Usually the
House of Representatives eventually force the independent candidate to adhere to one of the two
major parties movements Democrats or Republicans.at the contrary the two major parties have
all the support of the House of the Representatives to attract the minor ones. That can be
beneficial for the concept of the USA unity and cohesion of political ideas, but is not beneficial

THE WINNER-TAKE-ALL-PRINCIPLE

for the democratic good ideologies. In other words is not sane for a Nation reduces the political
parties to only two, because we live in a democracy and the democracy needs freedom.
The plans: The Proportional plan pretend abolish the winner-take-all-principle, as well the
Electoral College also, with a plan of that the electoral votes are allowed 1000 for each states,
The electoral votes allotted to each states would be divided among the candidates in proportion
to the popular vote in that state to nearest 1000 votes of an electoral vote(page21 of the electoral
College by Jason D. Spain) So, this plan eliminate the multiplier effect of the Electoral college
percentage, gave more importance to the popular vote This plan also eliminate the faithless
elector transmitting automatic the votes to the senate and the candidate can also still win the
vice-president and presidency without winning the plurality vote.
The Direct Popular Election Plan: This Plan abolishes the Electoral College system also, and is
the most pure democratic election system by the majority basis .The only factor that would be
involved in electing a president would be the actual number of votes cast throughout the nation
cite 3.Is In other words the nation representatives are necessary to be electing by the popular
citizens., and this plan eliminate the Electoral College and their procedures.
Conclusion:
With the problems that generates the new political issues of our nation we need to considered
new strategies that can be lead us to a better democracy the winner take all system does not
allow the minority candidates to be represented us ,and allows the largest states more power in
the presidency elections. The Electoral College with the winner-take-all rule must be abolished
for the better welfare of our democracy .The population must have the right to choose their
representatives in a direct vote regardless if their votes count or not.
We need to do an
amendment for the Constitution stipulates the new procedures to enact the freedom in the vote.
In short I am totally agree that the Electoral College must be abolished If we eradicates these
political system problems our nation can be better represented by the real American people will.

THE WINNER-TAKE-ALL-PRINCIPLE