Question

Which of the following is a valid statement about the Electoral College?

It is a challenge to the value of federalism in the nation's government because it restricts the states' power.

It is a reason that increasing numbers of young adults are registering to vote and voting in elections yearly.

It is a solution to the problem of decreasing voter turnout nationwide to elections at all government levels.

It is a plan that framers of the nation's government made to balance the relative power between the states. << I believe this is the answer, am i right though?

Answer 1

Yes, you're right. It was a way (along with the Senate) to prevent a few large states (at the time Virginia and Pennsylvania, now Texas and California) from completely dominating the Federal Government. If the President were simply the winner of the popular vote, then candidates would quite naturally devote all their attention and resources to the largest concentrations of votesr, in large cities in big states, and essentially ignore voters in rural areas and small states.

But with the Electoral College, that is not an effective strategy. Candidates must appear to a broad range of voters -- those from rural areas as well as cities, those in small states as well as big ones, those in the north as well as the south, farmers as well as miners and office workers, et cetera, because even the lightest-populated state still gets 3 Electoral Colege votes. It tends to make American Presidential candidates more moderate than the winners of elections in parlaimentary democracies.

Of course, some voters complain about this, saying that there ends up being too little real differences between the candidates. But you can't please everybody: you can design a system that rewards moderation or a system that presents voters with stark and clear choices, but not both. The Founders were more afraid of extremism than blandness.

Answer 2

the answer is D