Newell-Fonda
High School
Newell,
Iowa
Teacher:
Connie Doonan
Why
the Electoral College is the Right
and Fair Way to Elect the President
By Corey Carlton
12th grade.
In
the world today people have many important things to think about and deal with everyday,
but often times they seem to forget about and overlook something that is really important
and that is our government. People get too
wound up in other commitments and not pay much or sometimes any attention to electing our
leaders because they think that their vote is only one vote, and one vote will not count. These people are wrong, very wrong. In case these people didn’t know one vote
separated this years presidency. How? The Supreme Court decision of five to four was
like electing the president because if the ruling would have had ruled in Al Gore’s
favor, then there would have been more recounts. Another
recount and Al Gore had an outstanding chance of winning; thus, giving him the honor of
being the forty-third president of the United States.
However, the courts ruled in favor of George Walker Bush and stopped the recounts,
which helped him maintain his lead, and now he will be our next president come January 21,
2001. The fact that everyone has one equal
vote, and everyone wants an equal election is why the Electoral College will stay and keep
doing its job.
The
Electoral College is a simple process set up by our founding fathers to efficiently elect
the president that the American people want. The
Electoral College is a unique old way of electing the president of the most powerful
nation in the world, but some citizens feel that the system is outdated. They feel that since it is about 200 years old
that it doesn’t efficiently meet the needs of our world today. Some think that it is just plain silly that we
still use such an old system, but the system was a compromise between too much democracy
and to protect the states from encroaching federal power.
If we didn’t have the Electoral College then we would have too much federal
power or democracy. With the College we have
an equal and fair balance.
Other
people feel that the system works wonders. It’s a good thing we have the Electoral
College, otherwise presidential candidates would spend all of their time in places like
California and the East Coast. The fact that
there is an Electoral College, keeps the United States of America from having a regional
presidency or an urban presidency. If the
Electoral College was abolished and we were to vote on the president of our choice by the
system of a popular vote, then the people of the West and Midwest would have no say
whatsoever in the president of our nation. That
is something that should not happen, and as long as we keep the Electoral College then
there will be very few problems.
Getting
rid of the Electoral College is not the answer to the problem we have in electing a
president. The problem is in the attitudes
and minds of the people who don’t think that their vote will count and do not vote. A citizen of the United States should feel proud
and privileged to vote for the president of their country.
Some people may never have the right to vote for the leader of their country and we
do so we should exercise this right.
Some
of the best presidents of our country were elected because of the Electoral College. Just think where would we be without the likes of
John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. These presidents were all elected without a
majority of popular votes, but went on and succeeded as our president and helped us
through some tough times.
Most
of the people of our great nation want a fair and true election. The people of the United States do not want a
president who can be purchased! It seems as
though the person who spends the most money wins. So
is it an advantage to have lots of money? Yes,
when running for president. It takes a lot of
money to run because of all the traveling and advertising.
In this year’s election alone over 3 billion dollars was spent, the most spent
ever. Where does all of this money come from? Campaign finance reforms. Campaign money comes from lots of different
followers, people, and special interest groups. Some
money comes from ways that just slide by the laws. Some
people believe that this is not right. And I
do not agree with this either. It may be legal but it is unethical. They are working on a bill so that the elections
are made up of only Clean Money Campaign Reform. The
biggest supporter of this reform is Ralph Nader who brought in over a million new and
alienated voters to the polls with this idea. It
is evident that this is a growing concern in our country, as it well should be.
The
United States is one of the most powerful and successful countries in the world, and we
have gotten there because of our leadership and leaders.
We got our leaders from the Electoral College and the fair way of electing our
president that it does; therefore, the Electoral College should stay, no questions asked.
College
Prep Questions to the Required Reading
1. In 1796, John Adams, a Federalist,
president and Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, Vice President.
2. 1) 1808 by lot from retiring Senators;
in later proposals the states were each to elect a native-son candidate. 2) First direct-vote plan in 1816. 3) In 1822 chosen by four regions on a rotating
basis. 4) 1826 Automatic plans which gave all
the electoral votes of a state to the candidate with the highest popular vote in that
state.
3. Richard Nixon, Abraham Lincoln, Grover
Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Zachary Taylor.
4. The winner-takes-all system is the
candidate with the highest popular vote in a state gets all of the electoral votes of that
state. Only Maine does not use the
winner-take-all system.
5. The electors vote the first Monday
after the second Wednesday in December; however, the result from the popular vote is known
in November, but in January the votes are counted before both Houses and the results are
official announced then.
6. It encourages third party candidates
because they would be more apt to get one electoral vote.
7. Four
arguments for the direct vote system are: it would make everyone’s vote count the
same, less chance of fraud, get better voter turnout, and it would get rid of the
overrepresentation for some of the areas that the electoral college gives. Four arguments against the direct vote system are:
it would encourage third party candidates cause that would eliminate a majority for the
two strong candidates, single issue election, candidates would go to the urban areas
rather than rural, it would be unfavorable to the two-party systems.
8. The winner-takes-all system gives the
votes to whoever has the most votes, the proportional plan is a percentage of the state.
All most like the Electoral College and a popular vote mixed together, and the district
plan would change the system that always had the winner with the most electoral votes to
the winner being the one with the most popular votes.
9. They agreed on the following: (1) the
need for a quick decision and a clear-cut winner; (2) the victor should be the
people’s choice winner of the most popular votes; (3) the president elect should have
a mandate to govern, a legitimacy which comes from a good margin of victory; and (4) the
ideal system should not undermine the two-party system.
10.
The Shrinkage Phenomenon is an effect that happens to a presidential candidates
right after they enter the race. It is really
kind of hard to tell exactly why this happens but it happens with every candidate. To explain it the best I think that people always
need to complain, and they never seem to be satisfied with who we elect. It is kind of like a bandwagon effect too because
once one person says to his buddy that he doesn’t like a certain candidate then his
buddy repeats that and it is an ongoing cycle