Partisan Elections
In the following essay I will be talking about the disadvantages and advantages of partisan elections for state politics. I will also examine the last couple year’s election results and costs. Finally, I will discuss if partisanship made a difference in the vote, as well as if a judge should be decided by partisan vote. In the next couple paragraphs I will talk more specifically about these topics.
First, let’s talk about the advantages of partisan elections compared to nonpartisan elections. It makes voting a lot faster because the people can just go to either democrat, republican or independent column. They do not have to go through a big list of candidates
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Secondly, I will now talk about the disadvantages of having a partisan election. First, partisan elections cost a lot more money than nonpartisan elections, because in nonpartisan elections you do not have to campaign. The voters must do their own research on the candidates and makes the voter actually think and know why they are going to vote. A bad thing about this though would be time. Not everybody has time to go out and do research on candidates, because most people work eight or more hour shifts at work and then they do not want to go out and do research. Another disadvantage would be I think there is “ too much” information out there for the candidates, which ends up confusing the voter instead of benefiting. This makes it harder when coming to vote, so many people will just mark anything because they do not care. These would be one the biggest disadvantages of partisan elections to me in state politics.
I will now examine some of last election year’s results. Voter turnout has decreased in the past years. There are two main factors that have been coming up in the past years. First, many citizens say that who is elected in office is not as important as it once was. Secondly, younger Americans are more cynical and disconnected from politics than ever. I think there is too much information out there and another thing that might be the reason this is happening is
In my opinion the two-party system serves the American better, because it represents the whole community. And that’s why no need for any additional party system to be added or a multi party. I believe that the multi party system will make problems and it will have different views to represent the community, because at end each person thinks differently. This can be a problem to know whose right and wrong. Therefore, the two-party systems are available to encourage people and make changes for better. It is always much better to have two-party system, so that they can express their thoughts and views in a way to influence others. The two-party system is powerful, because it creates a system to support each others. They also give the voters good,
For over 200 years people have argued about whether or not political parties are helpful, or even healthy. In 1879 during his farewell address the first president of the united states of American George Washington warned that….” The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it”. Even with all the controversy that surrounds, the American two-party- system hasn’t faulted, from challenges of third parties to changes in our society, it has again and again proven itself as a strong system. One good thing about the two-party- system is that each political party helps voters make sense of our country’s political scene, by working to get voters more involved by using specific platforms that are important to that certain party’s constitutes. So that voters can fully evaluate each candidate and choose the one they feel is best to be an advocate for the platforms that closely relate to their specific beliefs. On the bad side the two-party-system is just that, only allowing voters two parties to choose from, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, each with its own specific platforms, and its views on current issues. This limits choices of the voters by only allowing them to see the world in two colors, red for republican and blue for democrats, thus leaving out all the others on a color spectrum. At times it can be difficult to choose between the different parties,
A partisan election is one where candidates are listed on the ballot with indication of their political party. Seven states elect their supreme court justices in partisan elections. Altogether, fifty-eight state high court justices are elected using this method, totaling about seventeen percent of all three-hundred thirty-eight state supreme court justices across the country. Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia are
A) Primary election systems allow U.S. citizens to have direct control in deciding the party's candidates for electoral offices. This represents why primary election systems are often viewed as a democratizing aspect of the U.S. electoral process. Citizens are able to vote in a primary or a caucus and later in general elections, typically people tend to vote more in the general elections rather than the primary elections.
Should U.S. national elections be restricted so that the same political party controls both the presidency and a majority in both chambers of Congress, thereby avoiding divided government? This question raises two issues. One would be the constitutionality of restricting elections. The other would be the debate on the benefits and drawbacks of divided and unified government. For this essay, the focus would be on the latter.
A major benefit of the open primary system is that the voters are able to vote for their favorite candidate rather than their favorite party. A voter may not always identify solely with one party or their views may not always closely resemble the views expressed by their established party. Therefore an open
Aligning with a political party grants you access to the support needed to run your campaign competitively, both in the form of money and the manpower needed to mobilize voters. As a candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives, you will need money in order to get your campaign off the ground and to compete with your opponent. While a nonpartisan campaign may still appeal to citizens enough to receive hard money donations from individual donors, without a party affiliation your funds will be limited. Partisanship ensures donations not only from wealthy, partisan individuals, but also from groups associated with the party. As the Citizens’ United ruling says that spending money is a form of free speech, it is not only the voters’ opinions that can affect your election, but the opinions of corporations, unions, and special interest groups. Running a partisan campaign can open your appeal to more of these groups, increasing your funding opportunities. In addition, there is a good chance that your district has been gerrymandered to favor one party over the other – by aligning with this party, you can benefit from this redistricting in order to win the
The nature of the political party system in the United States of America, the oldest democracy in existence, is that the majority party rules. In essence, of the two major contemporary political parties that has a preponderance of votes wins the majority seat or as it is called “the winner takes all system” and the party that loses takes the minority seat and gets little to no power in the political arena. As a result, there is no representation for any other political party as long as the Democrats and the Republicans remain synergized. Thereupon, we have two almost ideological opposing parties that work together to dominate the political arena in the United States of America. Moreover, the question that arises is this an advantage or disadvantage? Well the answer is both, the major advantage is that no additional radical parties other than the two unified parties can dominate and create chaotic or disastrous reform. On the other hand, the major disadvantage is that a voter has only two choices because all the other small parties cannot compete with the two major contemporary parties voting power so if both major parties have displeasing candidates the vote has to choose from the less distasteful of the two chooses. The dangers of a two party system is that if one of the parties has a mishap and lose its standing, then it is a tyrannical one party system that will allow the regional power to run that local area through capital and no agencies to defend that individuals
In other words, without political parties, each individual person would be too weak to influence the direction of government. In addition, parties are linkage institutions “they serve to connect citizens with government”(Patterson 234). As a result, Americans have a choice between candidates representing the Republican and Democratic parties. Another benefit from having political parties is that they reflect the ideas of democracy, which allows the majority to prevail. For example, when electing a president the party that has the majority of the votes typically is the party that succeeds in placing their candidate in office(note, in some cases the majority does not succeed, via through the electoral
Candidates would be elected based on their individual beliefs and their views of the issues. They would be voted into office because of their qualifications not their party affiliation. This would lead to a more thorough understanding of the proposed elected officials views about many topics, not just a handful of key issues.
A google document I created during the “Western Saturday” Democratic caucuses broke the story of Bernie Sanders win in Hawaii. By compiling social media posts containing caucus results, I was able to report the statewide results before the mainstream media was able to. My google document became the go-to place for results and became a front page story on USA Today.
With this type of division, a nation, especially those developing, may be unsure about what their goal and objective is. This division is already presence in the United States, but fortunately, the said divides is only separated between two major parties: Democrat, and Republican. Back to why a two-party system would be most beneficial toward the development of America. A two-party system can create a sense of competition; which will often serve as a source of motivation for candidates of both parties, although this may lead to corruption and the paucity of integrity. Furthermore, there will be rooms for disagreements, which is crucially important because as aforementioned, disagreement often initiate among large population. When there’re room for disagreement, the population can compromise, leading to the theoretical best outcome. Therefore, America’s traditional two-party system serve us best, as it has the ability to maintain its stableness, by not dividing too much power and not having one party control all the power and
In conclusion a two-party system helps the government as well as the people. It gives the people more freedom yet enough qualifying options to choose from. By limit the options there's less to study and examin from both parties, each party knows exactly what they're doing. Your voice is heard in a two party system you cast your own votes to the polls and you get to see for yourself that you're not being scammed. Too many options can confuse you and only one option won’t let your thoughts be heard. Two party system was made fair and easily
Removing political parties would make is so voters become more thoughtful and up to date on all current issues and candidates. This would also drive away lazy voters who do not keep up to date on the issues America faces. Furthermore, our elections may be more like the founders had envisioned. Citizens would vote for whomever represented then the best and the candidate elected would be the clear choice rather than two candidates with close to the same number of
One way to measure the importance of political parties for our country is to consider the many things that they do, even though they don’t do many of them very well. Political parties tend to help make the act of voting less irrational for voters because sometimes having a party identification greatly reduces the time and effort involved in voting for an individual. “Large majorities (of voters) still admit to a party preference and use parties to guide their voting decisions. They do so because, despite the divisions within the party coalitions and regardless of how they feel about the parties, the party labels still carry valuable information about candidates, continuing to provide the cheap, shorthand cue so useful to rationally ignorant voters” (Kernell et al., 563). For example, Republicans usually favor a smaller and cheaper form of federal government. They tend to advocate for lower spending on social welfare and lower taxes. While Democrats are more supportive of government programs designed to improve domestic welfare and would spend less on national defense when Republicans are very generous toward the Defense Department. “Democrats are more concerned with “fairness” and equality, Republicans with letting free enterprise flourish” (Kernell et al., 564). Republicans are anti-abortion and gay marriage and would be supportive of allowing official prayer and religion in public schools while Democrats would not agree with any of the above. However, not all candidates