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How Democratic Is the Presidential Election Process? Essay

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Overall, I think the presidential election process is very democratic, or at least much more democratic then it was. The Founders’ original plan was to have the state legislatures decide how the electors would be elected and the only role the people would play would be to elect the people in the legislature who would then vote for the electors. However, the introduction of the political parties has made the presidential election process more democratic since the founding, as seen through its effects on the Electoral College, the nomination process, and the development of a two-party system. The Electoral College has become more democratic as parties have become involved. Instead of having the state legislature elect electors based on…show more content…
Even though some may find it limiting, the two-party system does allow for a wide spectrum of people to participate in the presidential election process. This is because most people do fit under the umbrella of either the Democrat or Republican Party. Even if they don’t fit under these two parties and belong to a third party, they’re still able to vote in open primaries and then the general election. People who even do not belong to any party are not left out and can still vote for whichever candidate they think is best and do not have to be affiliated with that candidate’s party to do so. The two-party system allows many people to participate in the presidential election process because even though it’s a two-party system, it still has other smaller third parties that people can belong to. As different problems have come up and been resolved in the presidential election process, it has, over time, become more democratic. The Electoral College is voted for by the people, primaries/caucuses allow citizens to nominate delegates to vote for their nominee, and the two-party system is broad enough to allow many people to participate in the election process. All in all, even though we don’t directly elect our president, we still play a huge part in electing the people who do vote and because of this, I think the system is very
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