Kadoka
High School
Kadoka, South Dakota
Teacher: Teresa Shuck
The Election Process
By Laura B. Word
Grade 11
The past has shown us many things throughout the growth of our country. One thing that history has shown us is the major flaws in the election process. The election process should be uniform throughout the land. The current electoral process gives every state in the Union a clear voice.
The Electoral College has been a major factor in the election process almost as long as the two-party system. Sometimes it works flawlessly and other times not quite so flawlessly. The founding fathers knew that as the United States expanded every area should have a loud and clear voice; not just in the cities but on the farms and in the rural community as well. Therefore our Founding Fathers, in their sometimes prophetic wisdom, established the Electoral College. Every state has different views on almost every issue on public platform. Every state in this great union should have a voice based on not only population.
My being from a rural area, I have noticed a surge in voting among populated states such as Florida, New York and California. South Dakota has not been so fortunate. As the people leave the rural community more and more to find higher paying jobs in the cities, more and more of the high populated areas have a louder voice. That is not to say that every person’s vote does not count. If we were to do away with the whole electoral college and go to a direct vote then rural areas and communities would have even less of a voice than is already present. Rural community views differ greatly from that of urban America.
Rural America feeds the entire nation and much of the world. Just because there are fewer people here doing the most crucial yet, overlooked and under appreciated jobs in the world does not mean that its votes do not count. The Electoral College is excruciatingly important in sustaining the voice of America’s heartland.
The battle lines of the Electoral College issue are clearly drawn. No matter what the solution, someone will disagree. The fact is America is a republic in which the people are to have a say in how they are governed. Most Americans will agree with that statement. What they don’t always agree on is how our political voice is to be heard. While our current electoral process has worked for over 200 years, the people who voted for Al Gore would agree that the Electoral College needs to be worked over.
The system that is the model for the world was truly tested in this last election. Historians tell us that this has happened before, and that after an election such as this there is a clamor to redo this “antiquated system”, but eventually no one can agree on just how to fix it.
I have to agree with the historians on this point. While it felt strange not having a winner on the night of the election, all Americans, except perhaps members of the press, went to be knowing that this nation under God would still be alive and kicking in the morning.
Maybe everyone should stop and assess their responsibility in this matter. If there had been a higher voter turn out or if the press hadn’t called the election so early, the results would have been clearer.
I maintain that this nation, with all of its flaws, is still the greatest in the world. And even though you and I may disagree on the path our government takes from time to time. The process by which we elect our governing officials was set forth by our founding fathers and is still the best in the entire world. I would not change a thing except people’s apathy. We do indeed need to care and take an active roll in our political processes.
I for one, who will most likely stay here in South Dakota, would like to see changes made in how our candidates run for election and how the media handles election coverage. The gross negligence on the part of the press on the election in Florida is partly to blame for this last debacle.
The System did not fail it was we its citizens that failed. We all have a responsibility to be fair and work hard for our families, community and country. When we fail, the process will falter but it will not fail. The system, with its safeguards against tyranny, will win as it has in the past and as it will in the future.
Questions
1.) How and when did the United States elect a president
and vice president of different parties? Name them and their respective parties.
Electoral College in 1796. John Adams was a
federalist as president and Thomas Jefferson as republican was vice president.
2.) Describe four ways that were suggested to elect the
President between 1808 and 1846.
Election reform proposals:
Direct vote plan
Electoral college votes
Automatic plan
Proportional plan
3.) Name five U.S. Presidents who were elected with less than a popular vote.
John Quincy Adams
J. Polk
Z. Taylor
J. Buchanan
A. Lincoln
4.) Describe the winner-take-all system. Which states use this system?
The candidate with the highest percent of the population wins all of the electoral votes. Every state except Maine uses this system.
5.) When do electors vote and when are the results known?
November. The first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. January
6.) What affect would substituting a direct popular vote
for the Ecttoral College have on third party candidates?
Why?
It wouldn’t give the third party a chance to win or get many votes.
7.) Give four arguments for and against a direct vote
system.
In 1816 the first direct-plan was proposed by Senator Abner Lacock of Pennsylvania and it was defeated 21 to 12 in the Senate.
8.) Describe the difference between the district plan, the
proportional plan and the winner-take-all plan.
Proportional plan… urban area lose power
Direct-plan… a non-majority
Winner-take-all… to much leverage
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 people’s choice winner of the most popular vote
3.) the president elect should have a mandate to govern a legitimacy which comes from 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.
The people want to vote and then have it finished with. When something goes wrong it gives the candidates
things to complain
about and that makes people upset.