The close and hotly contested race for the presidency for the United States has once again brought to the forefront of our thinking an aspect of the Constitution that is usually never considered - that the citizens of the United States do not directly vote for the President of the United States. The Electoral College actually casts the votes deciding who will be the President. Many would argue that the will of the American people needs to be better represented and that the popular vote should be the deciding factor. One might ask, why not let the popular vote decide our President?

For one thing, the Electoral College has a definite tendency to limit third party candidates. This is a desirable aspect of the College. The apparent greater voter choice among a huge number of candidates is a dangerous illusion; in practice, well-organized minorities have a very good chance to achieve the highest or second- highest share, advancing to a run off round. Consider the tremendous influence nowadays of Political Action Committees and large corporations. Who do you think would be electing the President of the United States? Do you believe that the majority of Americans, for instance, support homosexual adoptions, that everyone should be able to own a machine gun, or support across the board legalization of recreational drugs?

1. What is the primary purpose of the author in writing this passage?

A. To question the legitimacy of the Electoral College system of electing the President
B. To suggest that a better system should be arrived at for electing the President
C. To provide several benefits of the Electoral College system of electing the President
D. To describe one reason for the popularity of the Electoral College system of electing the President
E. To claim that the Electoral College system of electing the President is unpopular



2. What is the function of the last sentence of the passage?

A. To provide examples of measures that would be supported by most Americans
B. To provide a benefit of using the Electoral College system for electing the President
C. To support the claim that the President is not always elected as per the wishes of the American citizens
D. To describe measures that might have found favour in the absence of an Electoral College system of electing the President
E. To provide examples of some of the illusions alluded to earlier in the paragraph