Newell-Fonda
High School
Newell,
Iowa
Teacher:
Connie Doonan
A
Needed Change
By Jess Johnson
12th grade
The conflict of the 2000 election really sparked feelings against the system with which we elect our president. Electoral college debates have been going on basically since the early years when it was first used. Most people today still don’t understand the system. How can Americans really think their vote counts if the overall popular vote has no significance and state electors could possibly go against what the state decided when casting its vote in December? Our nation needs just a strict popular vote to avoid all the chaos the Electoral College has caused. The presidential election needs to eliminate the complications of the Electoral College and revise the constitution to a direct vote for a New Aged America that faces many different obstacles than this nation has faced with back when we got our independence.
Although many complications may arise from a direct plan, many positive things will also come from this proposal. People in small-populated areas will probably not ever see the candidates anymore. Candidates in just a popular vote format will focus on much more populated areas. The problem also exists even with the Electoral College. Look at the states the candidates of the 2000 election spent most of their time in and cared about the most. California, Texas, Florida, and New York were just a few of the main ones Gore and Bush wanted to hit. The Midwest gets very few chances to meet and talk with the candidates because who cares about Iowa’s seven votes and Nebraska’s five votes compared to California’s fifty some. Even if the candidate won Iowa, he/she has to run the risk of renegade electors from that state. All seven would not be one hundred percent guaranteed. The popular vote used just by itself really does make every vote count. Instead of only having seven votes count, population wise, for the state of Iowa that consists of 2.5 million, all voters in the state of Iowa will know that their one vote really went for their chosen candidate. (No reliance on state electors)
The Electoral College brings about many problems for the system with which America elects its president. One could lose the popular vote but still win the election by getting small wins in multiple states while the opponent gets large wins in fewer states. The cause of this would be a candidate only hitting the states with a large number of electoral votes and leaving out the states with a smaller number. A president needs to be well liked by all Americans and should spend at least some time in every part of the US. The Electoral College winner-take-all rule leads to disgruntlement by many voters in states where on party is dominant because the vote that was cast will have no effect on the electoral vote totals. The House of Representatives will come into play if no candidate reaches a majority that could have possibly came into play this year if Florida hadn’t finalized their twenty-five electoral votes for Bush. If an election is turned over to the hands of the House of Representatives, the American people have no place at all in the electing of the president. The presidency is really a race between the Republicans and Democrats because third party candidates are sometimes the spoiler instead of a real choice in the Electoral College election. The problem of renegade electors is because the state is not familiar with its own electors and has no idea of the beliefs or anything about them. One renegade can violate all the voter’s rights in that state and make the voter feel, as they may be unimportant.
Many changes will be needed for elections to run as smoothly as we all expect. Even though a change is desprately needed and wanted, that may not happen for quite sometime because of all the work it will take to change the constitution, which is the backbone of our nation. Therefore I think we should just make a few changes to the Electoral College and other changes to specifics of the election to lessen the conflicts we have been facing with this type of system. First of all every state should be able to have the same amount of electoral votes regardless of population. Rhode Island should have just as much of a word in it as California. The idea would spread out candidates all over to make them work harder to get their ideas across. Another change that I would like to see made is that a certain number of electoral votes should be awarded to the winner of the nation-wide popular vote as an extra incentive. That should eliminate a candidate winning the election without winning the popular vote.
As the Electoral College may never be eliminated, the US should look heavily into revising it to fit today’s society. As a Midwesterner I would like to see the candidates still focus on us as we are still a very large part of the US. If the US changed to a direct plan, the candidates should still take time to reach out to everyone. It is the ideas that the candidate has not the time and money they spend to win people over.
Answers
To Questions
- In
1976, a Federalist elector voted for Thomas Jefferson instead of John Adams. The President
was John Adams (Federalist) and the Vice President was Thomas Jefferson (Republican).
- The
four ways are chosen by lot, direct-vote, regions on a rotating basis, and the automatic
plan.
- Five
of them are Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Grover
Cleveland, and Abraham Lincoln.
- Whichever
candidate wins the popular vote in that state, gets all the electoral votes for that
state. Maine is the only one that doesn’t.
- They
vote the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The results are announced in
January.
- Encourages
third partiers and gives them a better shot to get at least a few electoral votes without
winning the state.
- Against
the vote because it would limit their traveling to smaller unimportant states to focus on
the larger populated areas, against because of easier fraud in the voting, for because it
would encourage third partiers, and for because voters really know their vote counts
without having to run the risk of their candidate losing the state or renegade electors.
- District
plan divides each state’s electoral votes into regions and whoever wins the popular
vote of that region gets the electoral vote. Proportional gives decimals of electoral
votes equal to the percentage of the popular vote they get. Winner-take-all is whoever
wins the popular vote gets all the electoral votes.
- Need
for a quick decision and clear-cut winner, the winner should be the people’s 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.
- The
Shrinkage Phenomena happens a lot with not just politics but in everyday life. People up
for important awards or achievements are loved until the instant they win and have their
moment then they are hated. It happens with Homecoming Queens, captains of sports teams,
and winners of beauty pageants. Jealousy may play a big part in why the people are hated
after they get such a big honor.