Swing Vote

First off, what is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is the process put in place by our Founding Fathers in which America votes for its President and Vice President every four years. The Electoral College was put in place to help prevent abuse of power and corruption by having a separation of government. The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state based on how many Senate and House of Representative delegates that state has. These numbers range from 3 to 54 with the total number of electors being 538. This system has taken much scrutiny over time. According to Lenz and Holman, “The Electoral College may be the least-known and most misunderstood government institution in the American political system.”

The debate between Crocker Jarmen and John McKay was dry. John McKay expressed his opinions on how this campaign should be run. He thinks that you need leadership to get the job done, he says “we have the money there is no need to raise taxes”, and he wants a program for crime. Jarmen expresses a face of fear as McKay debates his views; beginning to feel threatened Jarmen tries to step up his game but fails. McKays ending statement was the climax of his campaign, it caught the attention of his father which excited the media and voters. McKay pushed the point that politicians never focus on the problems in need. If they seem too complicated to handle or control they push it into the trash, if it is not brought to the peoples attention then they most likely will not think about it or be concerned about it. The media was the most important part of this debate helping the rest of California view Crocker Jarmen and John McKay battle their opinions.

The film Swing Vote is an American political culture film that relies heavily on film subtext to depict the negative attitude many Americans have towards voting, corruption inside a political election, and the spectacle of media frenzy. While the film gives a light hearted impression of a rare political snafu it is still consistent with the main themes of other political films of manipulation, money lust, and power hungry political heads that will stop at nothing for their own personal gain. We also see the political candidates merely as puppets while their campaign managers are the ones truly calling the shots. Swing Vote is a unique political culture film because due to the ordeal in the film’s plot, the politicians are at a disadvantage when they are usually the ones in power. With the tables turned we see how they construct their corrupt schemes and the direct effect it has on the character representing the American perspective. The strong symbols that convey the cultural norms in America’s political system are in need of a deeper analysis.

So what is the electoral college as defined in the constitution? The electoral college is a slate of electors who will cast the real votes for the president and vice president. These electors are appointed by the state in proportional amount to the number of senators that each state are entitled by congress as well as entitled representatives.. The actions of these electors and the manner of how they will be chosen is outlined by the Constitution, “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall

The electoral college, per Wikipedia, is a mechanism set up to select the president and vice president of the United States. (The Electoral college, 2016) It was during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the founders established Article 2. Article 2 Section 1 details the innerworkings of the executive branch of government. The constitution states, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. (The Constitution of the United States, n.d.) The framers of the Constitution had many different ideas about how the selection of our president should go but ultimately

Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.

The Electoral College dates back to the very founding of America and American politics. The way to elect the President was a hotly contested issue at the Constitutional Convention. Many options were considered, including selection by Congress, selection by state governors, selection by state legislatures, and direct popular vote (Electoral College 6). The final decision of the Founding Fathers was written in Article II, Sections II and III of the US Constitution:

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Founding Fathers could not decide if the president should be elected by Congress or elected by a popular vote, so they decided to create the Electoral College (“US Electoral College”). The Founding Fathers did not trust the people to vote on the right presidential candidate, so they decided that an indirect election was the best method (Becker). The Electoral College is a group of individuals who elect the president and vice president in the United States of America (TED-Ed). The number of electors that are given to each state is stated in Article II,

Before I had viewed over the movie, I had one thought on what the movie, Swing Vote, was going to be on. The one conviction would be originated from the knowledge I had on the title. My thinking would be the candidate would visit the swing states and compete against his/her opposing rival, to persuade the citizens and achieve the states’ electoral votes. The title made me think this because I saw the words “swing” in the title, which reminded me of the swing states, which also contains the words “swing”. The notion of a candidate traveling from each swing state to win the electoral votes came from the word “vote” in the title. In the termination, I realized that

The Electoral College is a constitutional system written in 1787, in this system “each state selects as many electors as it has representatives in Congress”, members of the college casts ballots for individuals, the individual with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States (Shelley 80). It is

The state of Maine, will hold a vote on whether to have ranked choice voting implemented for the positions of U.S. senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Governor, State Senate, and State House Representatives. Ranked Choice Voting is a form of voting in which voters rank the order of their preference for candidates, and a series of run offs pick the most preferred candidate. This is different from the most typical form of voting in the U.S., where each voter votes for a single candidate and the largest recipient of votes wins. In the form of ranked choice voting proposed in this initiative, voters

What is the Electoral College? The Electoral College is a system that our Founding Fathers established in the Constitution in which representatives from the 50 states elect the President of the United States. The system begins with the people electing representatives to represent them, and then the representatives meet so they can vote for the next President and Vice President. The votes from each representative are then counted by Congress and are able to elect the candidate that has the most votes. According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (2013), “The Electoral College consists of 538 electors…270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.” Every state has an

The Electoral College is the process in which electors vote for the president of the United States.

Have you ever had noticed how easily it is for someone to influence and change your decision when you're on the fence about an issue? Due to their inexperience in the electorate teens may also be easily swayed and have their opinions changed. This would just enlarge the number of swing voters. A swing voter is a voter who has no allegiance to any political party and whose unpredictable decisions can swing the outcome of an election one way or the other. There’s a vicious fight for these precious voters, as they’re the ones who can change the direction of an election. Swing voters can be especially vulnerable during the weeks leading up to an election when voters who have not yet pledged allegiance to a certain candidate can be influenced and

Electoral College is the instrument built up by the United States Constitution for the roundabout decision of the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. Natives of the United States vote in each state and the District of Columbia at a general race to pick a slate of "balloters" promised to vote in favor of a particular party's candidate.