Centerville High
School
Centerville, South
Dakota
Teacher: Terri
Buechler
The Electoral College
By Brian Hansen
My opinion on the Electoral
College is that we should keep it because if we did not then why would the candidates
spend time in South Dakota and tell us to vote for them. Without the Electoral College our
small state does not count as much as other large states vote. My opinion on the election
this year is that they did the best job that they could. It could have taken a lot longer
if they would have kept on counting the votes over and over again. That would not have
done any good because they would have kept on getting a different number every time that
they counted the ballets. Even though The Electoral College is not perfect, I think that
our electoral process is better than a communist because we somewhat get to choose who our
President is, and with a communist government we would not be able to pick the President;
our government would just choose one for us. I would not like that because I like to have
the option to be able to choose if I want to vote or not. If I want to vote then I could
just vote, for the one that I like the most or the candidate that I think would do the
best job.
Electoral College is a
collective name for the electors who nominally choose the President and Vice President of
the United States. This group comprises the electors from the separate states who are
selected by the voters in Presidential elections. Each state is entitled to a number of
electors equal to the total number of Senators and representatives it sends to the
Congress of the United States, so, each state has at least 3 voters. I think each state
should only have one representative that it sends out no matter what the size is. That way
each state no matter what the size, all equal the same.
The person selected to
serve as his sates Electoral College represented is suppose to vote for the candidate that
received the most votes in his state so the popular vote would be the one that would win
the election.
we should just do them on
the Internet, and thus there will be less chance of error the computer will be able to
count the ballades in a matter of seconds and it will be more accurate Computer experts
should be able to find a program that people could not break into or put in a virus. By using the computer it would be safer because no
one could mess with all the ballads like they have done in the past.
In some ways getting rid of
the Electoral College it would be good because sometimes the person selected to serve on
the Electoral College votes for the candidate that he wanted to win and not the candidate
who the people want to win, but I guess that you have to just trust people sometimes. I
think that there is some good things about getting rid of the Electoral College like only
the most popular candidate would win because the majority would count. I think that the
most popular candidate should win. Another point is that if we do not vote on the computer
then everyone should use the same ballad to vote with. That way no one can complain that
they did not understand the ballet and they ended up voting for the wrong candidate, and
thus there would be no recounts. Another way to solve this problem is that we should send
all of the ballads to China to have them count them so that no Americans can mess with all
of the ballads. That way we would know who really won because people hear when they are counting the ballads and the chad
is not all the way broken threw they could say that the person who voted was voting for
the person that they wanted to win, But if sent them secretly to China no one would be
able to mess with them.
One reason I think that we should not get rid of the Electoral College votes is because we as a state of South Dakota get three electoral votes and there are only 269 and sum total electoral votes. As a single sate with so few against the population of the U.S., our percentage is that we will have a better chance of getting what our state wants with the electoral votes.
Answers To Questions
1. How and when did the
Unites States elect a president and vice president parties? Name them and their respective
parties
In 1796 with John
Adams a Federalist and Thomas Jefferson a Republican
2. Describe four ways
that were suggested to elect the President between 1808 and 1846
By lot, direct vote plan,
regional elections, and automatic plan
3. Name five U.S.
Presidents who were elected with less than a popular vote
Polk, Taylor,
Lincoln, Hayes, Wisson
4. Describe the
winner-take-all system. Which states use this system
In
the winner take all system who ever gets the most popular votes in that are state, gets
all of state’s electoral votes. It is used in every states except Maine.
5. When do electors vote
and when are the results known?
On
the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. In January the votes are counted
before both Houses and the results are officially announced.
6. What affect would
substituting a direct popular vote for the Electoral College have on third party
candidates? Why?
The
party would benefit from substituting the direct popular vote for the Electoral College.
It will help because they would have some of the electoral votes and so they would have a
little both.
7. Give four arguments
for and against a direct vote system.
Weaken
power of the states--- popular vote would win the office--- they thought the direct vote
would encourage minority-party presidents---it would reduce the chance of fraud
8. Describe the
differences between the district plan, the proportional plan and the winner-take-all plan.
District plan says the
states will subdivide their electoral works proportional plan
9. State the four points
experts in 1969 agreed should be included in an ideal for electing U.S. Presidents
The four point experts in
1969 should be included in an ideal plan for electing U.S. president. Are; 1. The need for
a quick decision and clear-cut winner 2. The victors should bee the peoples’ choice
winner of the most popular votes, 3 the president-elect should have a mandate to govern, a
legitimacy which comes from a good of victory, 4 the ideal system should not undetermined
the two party system.
10.What did Democrats mean when they claimed some
votes in Florida had never been counted; not even once?
That some of the ballets did not get punched all of the way
through so they could
not count them
What did Republicans
mean when they claimed these votes in Florida had been counted two or three times? Which
party do you believe and why?
They were counted 3
times I believe the republicans
10. Do you think Florida
and the U.S. Supreme Courts politicized their decisions? Explain. Did you read the court
decisions posted on many sites on the Internet?
Yes, I thought that they
did a good job
12. Did the election
in 2000 make you ashamed or proud to be American? Explain.
It didn’t really bother me, because I will always be proud to be an American.