Concordia High School
Concordia, Kansas
Teacher: Timothy Berger
Does One Voice Count Here?
By Teri R. Istas
12th grade
Since 1787 or the beginning of the United States Constitution’s existence there has been the Electoral College. The Electoral College is “. . .the collective name for the electors who nominally choose the President and Vice President of the United States” 1. These electors can be chosen in three ways: 1. The legislative branch choosing the representatives for each state, 2. Each congressional district, and 3. By the popular vote, which is a winner-take-all-system. The Electoral College is still used today to elect our President though through history there have been few minute changes. Has the Electoral College outlived its usefulness? Technology has advanced so anyone may watch or listen to news on the other side of the country or world. The time has come for change, let every voice be heard.
When the constitution was drafted, the drafters were looking for a way to insure that the most qualified person or persons would be elected to the two offices without regard to which political party they were from. The original method for electing the President and Vice President was as stated in the United States Constitution Article II Section I:
“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: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector”2.
Also stated the electors were required by the constitution to vote in this manner, “…Each elector voted for two candidates. The candidate with the most votes (as long as it was a majority) became president. The candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice president” 3. This changed in the Election of 1800. This election ended with a tie that the legislature had to break between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson. Following they decided that they did not wish for this sort of tie to happen again. They then ratified the 12th amendment, which in short states that the President and Vice President would be elected as a team rather than separately. Other changes have been made to make the election as it is today still using the basis of the Constitution’s Electoral College.
Our country right now is in a great deal of turmoil about this year’s election. The campaigning went to and from the states that the candidates were looking at to win the electoral votes. Gore visited California, Texas, Florida, New York, looking at the large states to give him the lead in electoral votes and proposing his thoughts on a way to reform soft money. Also on the campaign trail was George Bush voicing his idea’s on soft money, going to the same large states trying to win them over. A few of Gore’s plans for reform were to:
“Ban the soft money contributions, and says that the first bill he will submit to Congress is the McCain-Feingold finance reform legislation, Supports public financing of Congressional and presidential campaigns through a ‘Democracy Endowment’ fund, at a cost of $7 billion ”4.
Bush's views are as follows:
“Supports the ban on soft money contributions from union members and corporations, increase disclosure of lobbying activities and prohibit lobbyists from making donations while Congress is in session, increase the individual contribution limit per candidate from $1,000 to $3,400, and opposes a ban on ‘issue ads for independent parties”5.
They campaign throughout the states stating their views, hoping that the people will believe what they do and get the popular vote in the November election.
My views to the change of the Electoral College lead toward letting the people choose who the next president will be and not just six voices for the entire population of Kansas. With the advances in technology we area able to know what each candidate had said with at most a two hour delay. Everyone knows the candidates’ views, because every TV station continues to play their promotion commercials and debates. No matter what state they are in you hear something about them every single day. With direct election every voice will be heard. “Direct election provides for literal vote equality: all votes, wherever cast, have equal weight. This feature would end the special advantages enjoyed under the present election scheme by politically competitive populous states and by low-population states”6. If we had not had the winner take all system in the General Election we would not have the mess of this year’s election. The General Election would be over and done with, our president would be known. As of right now I sit and await the naming of the president elect. If this is not resolved then what will we do when it comes to the Electoral College election, just look over the problem and still vote?
The time for a revolution in the way we vote in our president has come and we need to change it before we have a second catastrophe just as the one we are sitting through today, tomorrow and yesterday. The direct election would work so much better rather than having three elections to vote for the president. The people like for their own voice to be heard. Just think of how many more people might vote. The results might be even more accurate than that of years past because everyone wants to be heard.
Works Cited
1. “Electoral College” Encarta Reference. p. 1. 2000 <http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti=062E9000>.
2. Jefferson, Thomas. “United States Constitution” Article II Section 1. 1776
3. Richard C. Remy, Ph.D. United States Government Democracy In Action, p. 782. 1999. New York, New York.
4. “Where Presidential Candidates Stand.” Oct. 03, 2000 <NEWS@Voter.com> p. 4.
5. “Where Presidential Candidates Stand.” Oct. 03, 2000 <NEWS@Voter.com> p. 4.
6. Sinder, Allan P. “American Politics and Public Policy” 1982 Congressional Quarterly Inc. Washington.
1. How and when did the United States
elect a president and vice president of different parties?
Name them and their respective parties.
The
election of 1796 resulted in a President from the Federalist Party, John Adams, and a
Vice- President, Thomas Jefferson, from the Republican Party. This came about when a Federalist elector voted
for the Republican Thomas Jefferson instead of a Federalist.
2. Describe four ways that were
suggested to elect the President between 1808 and 1846.
Four
ways suggested to elect the president between 1808 and 1846 were as follows: 1. In 1808 the proposal to choose the president by
lot; 2. Senator Abner Lacock proposed in 1816
the direct vote plan; 3. In 1822 it was
suggested to chose the president by four regions on a rotating basis; 4. 1826 it was thought by Representative Charles
Haynes to use the automatic plan keeping the winner-take-all system.
3. Name five U. S. Presidents who were
elected with less than a popular vote.
Five
of the nine presidents elected my a less than majority popular vote were: A. Lincoln in
1860 with 39.8%, J. Garfield in 1880 with 48.3%, W. Wilson in1912 and 1916 with 42.0% and
49.0%, J. Kennedy in 1960 with 47.9%, and R. Nixon in 1968 with 43.4%.
4. Describe the winner-take-all system.
Which states use this system?
The
winner-take-all system is when the most popular vote in one state decides which political
party the states electorial votes will go to. Maine
adopted the district plan rather than uses the winner-take-all method. They believed those two electors chosen on the
statewide popular level, one from each congressional district.
5. When do electors vote and when are
the results known?
Elections are
at the same time each year. The Electoral
College votes the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The results are counted on January the sixth in
Congress and announced to the press then the people.
6. What affect would substituting a
direct popular vote for the Electoral College have on third party candidates? Why?
The
direct popular vote would endanger our two party systems and upgrades the thought of the
third party. This direct popular vote is for
larger participation in the Campaign to presidency. It
would also enhance the lines dividing the districts and the margin between the winner and
looser would be a great deal smaller.
7. Give four arguments for and against
a direct vote system.
The
direct vote system does away with the faithless elector problem; reduces fraud in
elections; encourages participation; and the election result would lie at the hands of the
people. The plan could also be worse than
what we have now. The lines dividing the
districts would become of greater importance, opening the chance for contention. The results in the election would be closer, could
cause the congress to have more decisions to make. It
could also undermine the presidency; and would be a disruption the vote of our balanced
powers that is the core of our government.
8. Describe the differences between the
district plan, the proportional plan and the winner-take-all plan.
The
district plan is a state’s subdivision of votes, while the proportional plan goes by
the votes of the party within each state, lastly the winner-takes-all plan that is done by
the states alone.
9. State the four points experts in
1969 agreed should be included in an ideal plan for electing U.S. Presidents.
Sixteen
experts were gathered to decide the ideal system to elect a president they agreed on the
following four: The need for quick decision and a 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. All
agreed that the method of electing the president holds broad implications for the
political system.
10. Write a paragraph describing what
is meant by the people most likely to be under represented.
The people
too most likely to be under represented are those who do not have an opinion to what go
on. Liberals and conservatives are over
represented due to the moderates at the polls. Many
say that they do not have an ideological tendency. To
avoid excuses made toward political weakness in their own voting rates the attitudes must
be quite unrelated to the social class, race, the poor and the minorities if not there
will be avoiding this weakness.