Newell-Fonda
High School
Newell,
Iowa
Teacher:
Connie Doonan
Why
Worry About The Electoral College?
By Aaron Zeigler
12th grade
Every
four years Americans everywhere go to the polls and vote for a man that they want to run
their country. Their votes decide where
their state’s electoral votes are to go. Some
are upset by this turn of events that has been going on for over 200 years. Some people claim that their vote doesn’t
count, and so they don’t matter. The
truth is that their votes do count, and their opinions do matter. Many politicians are wasting time looking for a
way to change a way of voting that has worked for so many years. Time should be taken on campaign reforms such as
soft money caps. The Electoral College is not
a problem; the real issue is that something must be done to take the power from the large
corporations and to give back to the people of America.
The
Electoral College has been used for many years and should be used for many years to come. Candidates often complain when they win the
popular vote but lose the electoral vote. They
have no reason to gripe or change the system. Everybody
who runs for president knows the rules before they throw their hat in the ring. If they don’t know the rules, they don’t
deserve to be president. Also, people
complain that with the present system, only large states such as California and New York
get attention while rural states are forgotten. In
reality the opposite is true, to a point. States
like California are going to get more attention no matter what the system, but under the
Electoral College, every state has some sort of political weight. Think about it, California has more electoral
votes than Iowa. Naturally candidates will
work harder to obtain that state than Iowa. But
if a direct vote is enforced instead of the College, candidates will still flock to
California because of the higher population. At
least with the Electoral College system, Iowa still has seven electoral votes to their
name, and every state around the nation has some sort of political power. If a direct vote were to be used in this country,
the rural areas of the Midwest would suddenly lose all of the political power it has due
to a sparse population. Why go and visit a
whole state with 100,000 people when you can visit a city with 100,000 people. It would be stupid not to visit only cities
because rural areas would become a waste of time. The
Electoral College must be kept so all states and all people have a voice.
What
more candidates should worry about is the fact that more and more elections are determined
on the needs of few. Corporations and single
rich persons donate Soft Money to their favorite candidate.
At the present no restrictions have been made on how much money a candidate can
accept from private donors. The Democrats
have accepted over 500,000 dollars from the Communication Workers of America. The Republicans have taken in 527,050 dollars from
AT&T. With the two main parties raking in
this much money, it is nearly impossible for a third party candidate to get anywhere in
the presidential race. Sen. John McCain has
been a loud voice calling for this campaign reform. His
suggestion is to eliminate soft money all together. He
claims that if soft money is banned the people will have their voice again. The web page www.itsyourcountry.com reports that a subsidiary
corporation of the Chinese army has been giving money to American political campaigns. Why should the Chinese communists have more of a
say in our country than the American? It
isn’t right, and it must be stopped. Some
countries such as General Motors and Ameritech have taken a step forward and sworn off
soft money, but this isn’t enough. It
has to be cut off at the source, our elected officials holding public office. Only they can stop the madness that has taken over
Washington.
The
Electoral College is the least of America’s worries; we need brave politicians to
stand up and cut off soft money completely. The
Electoral College is in great shape and will continue to work for this country for years
to come. Without it, places such as Iowa
would not be important to winning the presidential race.
The issue that needs everyone’s attention is soft money reform. If the Chinese have more control over who gets
elected to the presidential office than the people of America then the country has a
problem on their hands. It is time that this
country recognizes what is going on and make sure that the power is given back to the
citizens of this country.
Answers
To Questions To Required Reading
1. The
United States elected a president and vice-president of different parties because a
Federalist elector bolted and voted for Jefferson in 1796.
The president was John Adams a Federalist and the vice-president was Thomas
Jefferson, a Republican.
2. Four ways that were suggested to elect a president
during 1808 and 1846 are the 1816 idea that was to make the election based purely on
plurality vote called the direct-vote plan. There
is also the 1822 idea that the president would be chosen by four regions on a rotating
basis. In 1826 the automatic plan was
introduced whereby all of the electoral votes of a state would be automatically cast for
whoever won the plurality of the vote. Finally
in 1848 the proportional plan was introduced; it called for the electoral votes to be
divided and the candidate would receive the percentage of the electoral vote based on the
popular vote.
3. Five
U.S. Presidents that were elected with less than a popular vote are John Quincy Adams,
James Polk, Abe Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, and Harry Truman.
4. The
winner-take-all system is simply that. The
winner of the popular vote will receive all of the electoral votes of that state. All states use this method with the exception of
Maine.
5. The
day the electors vote has been set at the first Monday after the second Wednesday in
December. The votes are counted before both
Houses and the results are officially announced January 20th.
6. Substituting
a direct vote for the Electoral College would encourage third parties to run because then
candidates would have to win over people and not an entire state.
7. Four
good things about a direct vote are a direct vote would insure a voters choice, a direct
vote would elect the most popular candidate, allow a chance for a third party candidate to
have a chance, and eliminate renegade electors who vote the opposite way the state tells
them to. Four bad things about it are that it
is possible for one party plank to decide the election, no one would visit a small state,
there would also be a greater chance of error during the vote count, and people who live
in urban areas would have more political power over the rural communities.
8. The
district plan is where two electors are chosen on a statewide popular level and one is
chosen from each congressional district. The
proportional plan calls for a division of the electoral votes by a percentage of the
popular vote. The current winner-take-all
system gives all electoral votes to the candidate with the plurality of each state.
9. The
four points given are the need for a quick decision and a clear-cut winner, the victor
should be the people’s choice winner of the most popular votes, the president elect
should have a mandate to govern, the ideal system should not undermine the two party
system.
10. The
Shrinkage Phenomenon is a mysterious effect that diminishes a candidate’s stature as
soon as they enter the race. Simply put, a
man who is popular runs for a public office. He
is expected to win sixty percent of the vote. As
the race goes on and finishes, the man only wins forty percent of the vote because he
mysteriously became less popular.