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Thursday, August 22, 2019
Presidential Electoral System Essay Example for Free
Presidential Electoral System Essay The Presidential Electoral System of the United States is one that is unique among the electoral systems of nations all over the world as it breaks down into separate elections of each federal state – 51 – which is then integrated to determine the winning candidate. Members of the Electoral College are tasked to select their preference for the chief executive position, which is then committed as the vote of the state. The members of the Electoral College are in theory tasked to reflect the sentiments of the state residents. (Paulson, 2000) The presidential candidate that would obtain the majority vote would be declared as the winning candidate; the absence of the majority vote would lead to intervention from the House of Representatives.            This system is in fact very different from the popularity vote system, as there is a possibility that there would be a difference between the electoral vote gained and the popularity vote. Several times in history this occurrence has transpired, which then puts the presidential electoral system in question. (Burrill, 1975) This becomes quite a controversy as the Electoral College would not reflect popular sentiment, which is sometimes argued to be paradoxical, as it runs conflict with the democratic principle of communal decision-making. The justification for the present electoral system is to give credence to small states that may be overwhelmed by votes from the larger states. (Paulson, 2000) It is noted to bring about equitable distribution of opportunity to select for all states regardless of population size.            There are several criticisms as to the conduct of the United States presidential electoral system. For one, it is a winner-take-all system that is disadvantageous for third party candidates. Because it is only the two dominant parties of the Republicans and Democrats that can elicit electoral victories through the Electoral College system, then Third Party candidates has less opportunity to win. (Paulson, 2000) Another criticism, as was mentioned, it is at times does not reflect the true popular sentiment of the voters. It has been several times in history that there is a result disparity between the Electoral College victor and the recipient of the most number of popular votes. This therefore leads to the problem that â€Å"not every vote may count†, for there is this possibility of winning the electoral vote of the state without consideration for the margin of victory. This has been the case in the 2000 Presidential elections wherein Bush won the most number of electoral votes because of small states, while Gore, while receiving more popular votes because of the bigger states, received less electoral votes.  There is also a large impact on how campaigning are then being conducted, as candidates would prefer to focus on states that would be consequential to moving the results of the electoral voting.            There are several proposals to amend such type of electoral system. First is the adoption of the one-person-one-vote, and adopt a simple pluralist or majoritarian system. In this way, the total number of popular votes, and not the number of electoral votes, would then determine the election winner. Another is to proportionally distribute the electoral votes, and not the winner-take-all system. For instance, if a candidate, in a state with 30 electoral votes gets 70% of the vote, then s/he would be entitled to 21 electoral votes. In that way, there is more consideration for the margin of preferences of the state citizens. In fact, this proportional representation system or even the direct election system can prove to be more appealing to the public than the electoral voting process, which tends to not place value on individual preferences. The electoral system must be amended to reflect the democratic choices of the citizens. References Burrill, Richard. (1975). Controversy Over the Presidential Electoral System. United    States: R and E Research Associates. Diamond, Larry, and Marc Plattner, Eds. (2006). Electoral Systems and Democracy.     United States: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Paulson, Arthur. (2000). Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American        Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. United States:          Praeger Publishers.
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