Rockridge
High School
Taylor
Ridge, Illinois
Teacher:
Barbara Downey
Is
The Election Process Fair
By Jeff Wright
12th grade
Growing up as a child, I can remember asking my
parents, “Who are you voting for?” When
they gave me an answer, I always thought that their vote went directly towards
the presidential candidate. I
suppose that is what made the most sense to me at the time.
As I have grown older and wiser, my views about how the election
process should work have not changed. The
people should be able to vote directly for the presidential candidate of their
choice. The system used today, in
which the people vote for the Electoral College and then the representatives
vote for the president, needs to be changed soon.
In a system with a direct vote, the people can make their vote count
because it will go directly towards the President.
By using this system candidates would campaign in more states, not just
the ones with a high number of electoral votes.
A direct election is the system in which the people vote directly for
the President. This way the
candidates would need to campaign throughout the United States.
Much of their time would be spent campaigning in the more popular
states, but the smaller states would now have a greater impact on the
election. This system would give
the people the feeling that their vote makes a difference.
This would cause an increase in voter participation.
Many Americans do not even understand the Electoral College and how it
functions. Each state is given a
number of representatives based upon its population.
Each state also receives two Senators.
Then each state chooses its electors.
It is up to the electors to vote the way the people want them to.
All but two states use the general ticket system to choose the
electors. This is done by a
direct vote. Maine and Nebraska
use the district plan. This is
done by having an election in each congressional district.
The winner of each district receives one electoral vote, with the last
two going to the candidate with the most electoral votes.
Finally, all of the national electoral votes are counted, and the
candidate with over half wins. If
there is no majority winner, the election is passed to the House of
Representatives.
The direct election would elect a President that the people of the
United States want. The President
should be directly elected by the people he would represent.
The direct election process is the only way to guarantee a clear winner
by the majority of the people. It
would also encourage voter participation by giving each vote equal weight.
At first, the leaders of this country thought that the people of
America were not ready for a direct election.
Times have changed and it is time for a new election process.
The
Electoral College is unfair to the people in two ways.
First, an individual’s vote has more weight if the person lives in a
state with a small population. The
system is also unfair because an individual’s vote has more weight if there
is a low voter turnout in that state.
The
Electoral College is not the only problem with the presidential elections of
today. I feel that the way the
presidential candidates receive large sums of money from different
organizations is also wrong. It
makes it unfair for a candidate who cannot receive the same type of financial
support as those who receive large amounts of money.
This allows for the candidates with all of the money to do more
campaigning than those without the money do.
Al Gore has proposed that television broadcasters provide five minutes
of free air time to candidates each night for 30 nights before the general
elections. But this plan relies
on broadcasters donating this time, which is unlikely.
Donating public airtime to candidates should be a mandatory condition
for receiving a public operating license, not a voluntary one.
In
conclusion, I strongly feel that a direct election is the best way to decide
the president. It is the only way
to have a president who represents the vote of the people.
It is also the only way to increase the voter turnout.
People will only take the time to vote if they know that their vote
will count. If this system does
not work, then we can try something new.
The Electoral College is simply unfair to the people of the United
States. Even a child can see that
the only system that makes sense is a direct vote system.
Sources
Answers To Questions
1.
How and when did the United States elect a president and vice president
of different parties? Name them
and their respective parties.
In
the 1796 election John Adams, a Federalist, and Thomas Jefferson, a
Republican, were president and vice president.
They each received
first and second among
the popular vote. There was no Electoral College.
2.
Describe four ways that were suggested to elect the President between
1808 and 1846.
One
way was to choose the President by lot. Another
suggestion was a direct vote plan. In
1826 Charles Haynes introduced the
automatic plan. The final
suggestion was the district plan.
3.
Name five U.S. Presidents who were elected with less than the popular
vote.
John
Quincy Adams, J. Polk, Z. Taylor, J. Buchanan, Abe Lincoln
4.
Describe the winner-take-all system.
Which states use this system?
All
of the Electoral votes would be awarded to the ticket that won the popular
vote of the state, used in every state but Maine and
Nebraska.
5.
When do electors vote and when are the results known?
They
are elected on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December.
The results are known in January.
6.
What effect would substituting a direct popular vote for the Electoral
College have on third party candidates? Why?
They
would receive more votes. In the
winner-take-all plan, if A gets 40%, B gets 35%, and C gets 25%, then A gets
everything and 60% of
all votes are disenfranchised.
7.
Give four arguments for and against a direct vote system.
1} Candidate with most popular vote wins. 2} Gives equal weight to each vote. 3} Will do away with faithless elector problem.
4} Encourages greater participation.