The Electoral College Should Be Revised As citizens of the United State of America, one of our most important rights is that of which to vote. By voting, the general population has a say in who its leaders are. Votes for local, state, and even federal representatives directly reflect who the constituents want in office. However, America’s highest office is not elected by a vote of the people. Instead we use a confusing and outdated system called the Electoral College. Our president is not elected by the people, but by 538 electors who can legally vote for whomever they choose. Several times in our nations history an elector has voted against the people’s will. Three presidents have been elected into office by the electoral college and
In some countries there are legal repercussions for not voting, such as Australia. In ancient Grease, all citizens were required to vote at election time under penalty of imprisonment. This may not be the best course of action for America, were people might see it as imposing on there freedom of choice. There are other less dramatic options that can be considered.
Campaigns in politics are important in determining outcomes and inform the voters who remain undecided. Also, campaigns matter because although the candidates or media officials may know what the outcome will be, the voters themselves do not (107). Aside from campaigns, conventions are also important, if not more important. Party nominating conventions affect the apathetic, uninterested electorates who think conventions are interesting and exciting, often known as the Olympic games of politics (121). This experience for voters can carry influence, and is a time of “intense political learning” (129). Therefore, aggregately, conventions make public opinion meaningful because the citizens who watch make an informed decision about a candidate, and have facts about why they will vote for that candidate. The chief reason why individual public opinion is meaningless during presidential elections is the “nonattitudes.” Nonattitudes are survey responses made up on the spot during an interview by a respondent who has no attitude on politics (113). Therefore, these individuals diminish the value of public opinion because we hate inconsistency and this creates an abundance of views on issues. However, during election night, exit polls support why aggregate opinion is also important. Exit polls are meaningful because one hundred percent of those leaving the polls have voted (102). Therefore, we can get real results from the electorates and this makes collective public opinion
Many American citizens believe that when they vote they are voting for the President, but in reality they are voting for a group of people who then vote for the President. The elected people are decided by the popular vote for each state, but the number of people each state gets to elect is determined by representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. Every state automatically gets two electors (because there is equal
The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution established the electoral college. The founding fathers made the electoral college as a compromise between election of president by congress vote and popular vote of citizens (What is the electoral college). With this system, many incidents where the president hasn’t received majority of the popular vote and still became president has occurred and due to this much controversy around the electoral college has occurred. The most recent incident was the election of 2016 where Donald Trump became president rather than Hillary Clinton; this incident is causing a major upset in America. Due to this many have begun to question the electoral college and its real purpose. Many people want to abolish the electoral
In the article “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter” by Michael P. McDonald and Samuel L. Popkin, it is argued that the decline in voter participation in national elections since 1972 is an illusion created by the Bureau of the Census because it uses the voting-age population to calculate voter turnout instead of calculating the population of citizens who are eligible to vote (2001, 963).
In “Race and Beyond: Why Young, Minority, and Low-Income Citizens Don’t Vote,” Sam Fulwood claims, “Regardless of whether a favored candidate won or popular ballot initiative passed, our nation suffered because of the number of people who didn’t vote at all” (par. 2). I agree with Sam Fulwood and I believe it is so unfortunate that Americans don’t use this right. Voting is one of the most valuable possessions that Americans are given and yet they do not use. Many of the countries around the world do not grant voting rights to their citizens. These countries either have a dictatorship or kingdom which prevents citizens from voting. People need to understand the sufferings of those people who struggled for this right. When the United States
Every year Americans are given the right to vote for the people they feel will best support the government and help America. Voting is very important in the United States and without it, we wouldn’t be considered a representative republic. Americans vote by using a system named the electoral college. The Electoral College is a system where the people vote for the person they feel should win. The state tallies all of the votes made by the people living in the state and finds which candidate got the majority of votes. Then the state as a whole will vote for the candidate with the majority. Even if one candidate gets 51% of votes and the other gets 49% the candidate with 51% of the votes gets 100% of the state’s votes. The Electoral College is
Although this could feel as though your vote is about as decisive as those of an elementary school election, the Electoral College process was actually put in place to ensure a nationwide system of fairness. When you cast your vote for president, you also vote for an often-unnamed elector who will cast a ballot in a separate election that ultimately choose the
We usually vote for people who we agree with or also share the same beliefs and ideas as us. This is another way that “the people rule”, we get to choose who our senators are or even our president. Even though they may be the ones making decisions we still get a say in who is making those decisions.
Since the United States of America established itself as its own self-governing country, one of the things that caused it to be salient and stand out from other countries is its relentless insistence on functioning as a democracy. Wars and protests have occurred so that every type of people, whether it was women or African Americans, may be granted the right to vote. Having a say in the American government is an honor and a privilege bestowed upon American citizens when they reach the age of eighteen. However, in recent years, statistics have shown that voter turnout and participation in recent elections has been rapidly and steadily declining, causing the United States to have the lowest voter participation in the world (“Is the System
“If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it,” ( Mark Twain). When i first started this essay I had so much hope in our government and I believed it was there to protect me. believe that polling was a positive way to see the the people thought or wanted . But when you can’t trust the people that created the polls you can’t trust the results.b
The Election Process The election process in the United States is a valuable process to the election of the proper officials to satisfy the people. The people run the country which is why we live in freedom because we control what happens with major decisions by
Government Essay Assignment - Elections Every four years, the citizens of America migrate to their respective polling locations and cast their vote. On this important day, the second Tuesday of November, the next President of the United States is elected. Thosen to lead the country is by proxy the leader of the free world; the election of the United States President is a deeply historical event. The actual decision, though, does not come as easily as one would think. Yes, people sometimes vote blindly along party lines, but there is a whole host of variables that can influence a voter's decision, and, largely, the outcome of an entire election. Such variables include the issues at hand, party preferences, polling results and the
The controversial presidential election of 2000, Al Gore won a majority of the popular vote, but he did not win the electoral college votes. George W. Bush won the presidency that year and Americans began to question the abolishment of the Electoral College (Wilcox 1). The identical problem reappeared during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes, but he earned 74 votes more votes than Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College, which resulted in Donald Trump becoming the 45th president of The United States of America. Popular votes in the presidential election are more adequate and civil for The United States of America because the people are casting a vote directly for the possible future president rather than casting a vote to the electors of each state.