Concordia High School
Concordia, Kansas
Teacher: Timothy Berger
Electoral College vs Direct Voting System
By Sarah Allen
12th grade
There are plans that our founding fathers made that are still debated today. The discussion about getting a direct election or keeping the Electoral College is a major argument in this election year. I personally feel that we should change to a direct voting system because the Electoral College doesn’t fit into modern day society, takes away the fairness to candidates, and doesn’t give the people true representation.
The Electoral College was established because the delegates did not think that the American democracy had enough maturity to offer a direct voting system 1. They didn’t think that our citizens were knowledgeable enough to vote, and decide our president. But in today’s society the citizens that do vote are educated about the candidates. Everyone is given a privilege to vote, but only the people that care and are concerned about the government vote. The Electoral College plan was set-up 200 years ago and not everyone was educated and knew about the governmental systems 2. In today’s society all Americans have had some education in government. So, the Electoral College doesn’t fit into the United States’ society.
The second argument is it takes away fairness to candidates. A candidate can win the popular vote, but lose the election. This type of situation has happened in history. Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1876 and Benjamin Harrison, in 1888, were elected in this manner 3. Since most states use the winner takes all system a candidate can win a state with a lot of electoral votes and win the election. It also isn’t fair to a candidate that isn’t a part of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party because they could get some of the direct votes but not win the state, therefore they don’t get any representation from those people that voted for that candidate. If we had a direct voting system it would help the non-party candidates get elected. It isn’t fair to party or non-party candidates because they could lose the election by only getting a low numbered electoral vote state.
The issue over campaign reform is also an issue that isn’t fair to the candidates. Does the economy elect a president or do the people? Most of the money raised during election time is through soft money. In this 2000 election year records have been broke in individual campaign funds: Bush has raised $ 96.4 million and Gore raised $40.8 million 4. Even though there is no federal law stating who and who can’t donate money, they are doing it illegally. The whole idea with soft money is they are doing it to benefit themselves or their company and not because they support that candidate. AT & T gave $2.1 million to the Republicans during this campaign 5. They should make a law banning campaigns that use soft money to advertise. It isn’t fair because it is a race to see who can get the bigger businesses and their votes. I feel that the richer, more advertise candidate is more acceptable and its not over the issues they believe are right, like the election should be.
The last topic is it doesn’t show true representation of the people. One great thing about America is that it allows its citizens to have the freedom to choose their own leader. The Electoral College is not showing one of America’s greatest things. Even though the Electoral College votes by the popular vote from their state, they are the last and actual ones that vote for the president and they could change the vote therefore the state doesn’t get the candidate that they intended on getting. Only 49 % of the nation actually vote, meaning the outcome of an election theoretically could only represent 12 % of the nation 1. So, if this nation changed to the direct voting system there would be a better turn out on the number of voters because some citizens don’t vote thinking that their vote doesn’t actually count. But if we changed to the voting system it would let them feel more represented and they’d want get more involved in the election process. I feel that if the United States had the direct voting system it would prove to the citizens that America gives the people the choice to decide on issues not the politicians.
There has been many proposals for change in the electoral college such as choice of electors by districts and elimination of electors as individuals, but keep the electoral college principle, perhaps to distribute a state’s votes in proportion to voter support for candidates 3. But change doesn’t happen over night. There would be a long process in changing the Electoral College to a direct election, but it is time that we up grade our democracy to elect our most important office. So we don’t groan on electing the wrong candidate to become the president over the unintended consequences of the Electoral College.
Work Cited
1Wikman, Eric. The Electoral College: Then, Now, and Tomorrow 18 October 1999 http://www.wikman.com/eric/electoralcollege.html
2Ambrose, Jay. “Confused election coming?” Salina Journal 6 November 2000, late ed.: A5
3The American Presidency: Electoral College” Grolier 2000 Encyclopedia Americana. 2000 <http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/elecollg/html>
4Mondics, Chris. “After
raising record sums, both sides talk campaign reform.” The Inquirer on the Web 3
Nov 2000 http://web.philly.com/content/inquier/2000/11/03/national/CAMPFIN03.htm
5Samuelson, Robert J. “Maybe
it’s not Economy….” Newsweek
Aug. 2000: 31
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 constitution under Article 11 Section 1:2 states that the candidate with the highest
number of votes should be president and the runner up vice president. In 1776 they conflicted a problem, they had a
president and vice president of different parties elected because they had the highest
number of votes. They were John Adams, a federalist, and Thomas Jefferson, a republican.
2. Describe the four ways that were suggested to elect
the President between 1808 and 1846.
In
1808 they proposed the by lot way which meant they would put names of retiring senators in
a drawing and who ever was chosen would be President. Then later each state elected a
native-son candidate. In 181 6 the first
direct-vote plan was proposed by Senator Abner Lacock and this plan means that the people
govern themselves by voting on issues and they vote on a percentage rather than electoral
votes. The third plan was the president would be chosen by four regions and on a rotating
basis. They were chosen by where they were located in the United States. They set this up
because in 1820 James Monroe was deprived of a unanimous vote, so two years later they set
up this plan. In 1826 the automatic plan or
winner takes all was introduced by Representative Charles Haynes of Georgia which all
State’s electoral votes would be cast for the candidate who received the highest
vote.
3. Name five U.S. Presidents who were elected with less than a popular vote.
The
five Presidents were James Garfield, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, and
Richard Nixon.
4. Describe the
winner-takes-all system. Which states use
this system?
The winner-takes-all system means that if a candidate wins the majority of the
popular votes, they automatically get all that state’s electoral votes. Maine is the
only state that doesn’t use this system today.
5. When do electors vote and
when are the result known?
The electors vote the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, and the results are announced in January.
6. What affect would substituting a direct popular vote
for the Electoral College have on third party candidates? Why?
This would
cause there not to be a absolute majority vote because a third party candidate could carry
enough states to prevent vote majority for any candidate.
7. Give four arguments for and against a direct vote
system.
There are many arguments over the direct voting systems. There are positive and negative arguments. The direct plan’s positive arguments are giving equal weight to every vote, do away with the faithless elector problem, would reduce the chance of fraud, and would place the election into hands of people that it belongs to. The arguments against the direct vote would be it would have a very unfavorable impact on the two-party systems, it could encourage minority parties, make actual voting more important than population, and it would give less voice to the poor non voters.
8. Describe the differences between the district plan,
the proportional plan and the winner-takes-all plan.
There are three major plans the
district plan, the proportional plan, and the winner-takes-all plan. They differ in many ways. The district plan says votes should be totaled by
state subdivision. The proportional plan the
votes are by party vote by states, and lastly the automatic plan is by states themselves.
9. State the four points experts in 1969 agreed
should be included in an ideal plan for electing U.S. Presidents.
The four major points are the need for a quick decision and clear-cut winner, the
victor should be the peoples choice winner of the most popular votes, the president-elect
should have a mandate to govern, a legitimacy which comes from a good margin of victory,
and the ideal system should not undermine the two-party system.
10. Write a paragraph describing what is
meant by one of the following:
Shrinkage Phenomenon
Americans prefer pragmatists to ideologues
The people most likely to be under represented
Crisis is opportunity
Many
feel that the people are under represented. The
Electoral College doesn't give a good representation of the people. Even though the people
vote, the Electoral College does the final and actual voting. Many people don’t vote because they feel like
they don’t have any power in the voting process. When the Electoral College goes to
vote, they are representing the state they came from, and many feel like they don’t
get represented in the right way.