Kadoka
High School
Kadoka, SD
Teacher: Teresa Shuck
The
Election Process
Bailey Rock
Grade 11
It has
been argued by many whether America should use the Electoral College in elections or
simply have the presidency decided by popular vote. Many
people do not favor the Electoral College, but I do.
I think the Electoral College is the best method to use for deciding the
presidency. The election process should
remain the same as it always has.
At the
Constitutional Convention in 1787, electing the president became a major problem. They considered several methods of electing the
president: election by Congress, election by
the people, and the election by various state governments.
The convention finally agreed on an indirect popular election, which became know as
the Electoral College. (The Election Process essay B 2001, pg. 5)
The
Electoral College consists of representatives chosen by voters to elect the president and
vice-president. The U.S. Constitution created
the college.
Each
state has as many votes in the Electoral College as it has senators and representatives in
Congress, but no Senator or representative can be appointed an elector. Candidates for elector are sometimes nominated by
party conventions or in primary elections. Electors
usually vote for the nominee of their party, but it is not required. South Dakota has three electoral votes because we
have two Senators and one representative in Congress.
The
largely populated states have more electoral votes and the smaller populated states do not
have as many electoral votes. The candidate
who wins the highest number of a state’s popular vote usually receives that
state’s electoral votes. If there is no
majority of electoral votes for president, the House of Representatives chooses the
president from the three candidates having the highest number of electoral votes. Each state has one vote, and a majority of all the
states is necessary to elect the president. The
Senate will choose the vice-president if a majority is not reached in the Electoral
College. The candidate can be elected
president without winning a majority of the popular vote.
There have been many people elected president who did not win the majority of the
popular vote. To win the presidency, the
candidate has to receive 270 electoral votes.
Originally
there was a clause in the Electoral College that would let each elector vote for two
people. The candidate getting the most votes
would be president, and the candidate who finished second would be vice-president. This caused problem because the president and
vice-president did not have to belong to the same political party. Now the president and vice-president are elected
as a team.
The
recent election has caused people to question the Electoral College. Some think we should do away with it. My opinion is that we should keep the Electoral
College. The Electoral College is the fairest
way of electing a president.
I think
it is important to have the Electoral College for the smaller states. If we went by popular votes, small states like
South Dakota would not even matter. South
Dakota has less people in the whole state than the large cities on the east and west
coasts. If the presidency went by poplar
vote, our votes would not even count in the long run.
If the president was decided by just popular votes, the candidates would only have
to campaign in the heavily populated states. They
would not have to worry about small states like South Dakota. The importance of the electoral votes makes it
more likely that a candidate will visit the small states and address the issues that are
important to these states.
Hillary
Clinton, who was elected as a senator from the state of New York, says that she will
introduce legislation to abolish the Electoral College.
She prefers the popular vote. This
would help Mrs. Clinton if she decides to run for president because New York has a very
large population. Senator Tim Johnson from
South Dakota agrees with Mrs. Clinton on getting rid of the Electoral College. I think that he would be hurting his own state
because we are small. It may even hurt his
chances of winning the election also.
In almost
all of the elections, the popular vote and electoral vote have gone to the same
individual. The reason the Electoral College
was established is evident in the outcome of the election of 2000. George W. Bush won the poplar vote in the majority
of the counties in the U.S. and approximately 60% of the states. Nationally he still lost the popular vote by a
slim margin. This is why the Electoral
College was put in place and should remain in place so major population centers cannot
control the outcome of a national election. The
Electoral College should stay the way it is. It
would be best for everybody. It is especially
better for small states.
1. How
and when did the United States elect a president and vice president of different parties? Name them and their respective parties.
This
happened because at that time the President and Vice President didn’t run as a team,
they ran as individuals. The person that had
the largest number of votes got president, and the person that got the second number of
votes got vice president. This election took
place in 1796. In the election John Adams,
who was a federalist, got president, and Thomas Jefferson, a republican, got vice
president.
2. Describe
four ways that were suggested to elect the President between 1808 and 1846.
In
1808 a proposal to choose the President by lot first surfaced. Originally the candidates to be chosen by lot were
to from retiring senators, later proposals the states were each to elect a native-son
candidate. In 1816, Senator Abnec Lacook of
Pennsylvania proposed the first direct-vote plan. It
was defeated 21 to 12. In 1826 Representative
Charles Haynes of Georgia first introduced the automatic plan. The plan says that all of the state’s
electoral votes would automatically be cast for the candidate who received the highest
popular vote. Another plan would keep the
Electoral College but eliminate the electors the winner-take all provision. This plan would eliminate the electors themselves
and assign electoral votes on the basis of popular votes received.
3. Name
five U.S. Presidents who were elected with less than a popular vote.
John
Quincy Adams, J.Polk, Z. Taylor, J. Buchanan, and A. Lincoln are five presidents that did
not win the popular vote.
4. Describe
the winner-take-all system. Which states use
this system?
The
winner-take-all system only depends on the popular vote.
This plan eliminates the electors themselves and assigns electoral votes to
candidates on the basis of popular votes received. This
system is used in every state but Maine.
5. When
do electors vote and when are the results known?
The
electors vote on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The votes are counted before both Houses and the
results are officially announced in January.
6. What
affect would substituting a direct popular vote for the Electoral College have on third
party candidate? Why?
It
would give them a better chance of winning. They
would not have to carry the popular vote of the whole state.
7. Give
four arguments for and against a direct vote system.
Advocates
of the direct vote claim this system would always ensure that the candidate with the
greatest popular vote would win the office of president, that it would give equal weight
to every vote, it would do away with the faithless elector problem, would reduce the
chance of fraud. A direct vote would weaken
the power of the states and strengthen the national government. State borders would be irrelevant in elections and
probably federal standards of eligibility would eventually be determined to make the
presidential choices uniform. Federal
employees would end up tallying a national vote and all election officials would end up
working for federal rather than state governments.
8. Describe
the difference between the district plan, the proportional plan and the winner-take-all
plan.
The
district plan satisfies conservatives better and our present system already occupies the
middle ground. This plan would encourage
minor party candidates giving them a chance to get at least a few electoral votes, and
would elect local leaders and the expense of national party officials. The proportional plan does not satisfy any group. The winner-take-all plan eliminates the electoral
the electors themselves and assign electoral votes on the basic of popular votes received.
9. State
the four points experts in 1969 agreed should be included in an ideal plan for electing
U.S. Presidents.
1.)
The need for a quick decision and clear-cut winner. 2.)
The victor should be the peoples’ choice winner of the most popular. 3.) The president-elect should have a mandate to
govern a legitimacy which comes from a good margin of victory. 4.) 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
The
people most likely to be under represented:
Those who are most likely to be
under represented are the people who lack opinions. Under
represented people maybe think that their vote does not really matter. Some may not pay much attention to politics. Also some people of lower class and minorities do
not get involved political elections.