...The electoral college system, what the United States of America uses to elect the President ever four years, is an outdated system that is not needed and does not make the election process any easier. We have had two instances where the popular vote has been different than the electoral college numbers. In an effort to keep the President of the United States of America popular, we must start off with electing someone who earned the majority of votes in the first place. To do this, we must use the popular vote. Accordingly, this paper will be directed toward the general audience of all voters and will discuss how the electoral college system is a bad idea to continue using and why the popular vote is the correct way to go. So, what is the “electoral college”...
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...Electoral systems There are two main types of electoral systems in the UK: First Past the Post (FPTP) Proportional Representation (PR) First Past the Post (FPTP) FPTP is the voting system used for the election of MPs to 'seats' in the UK Parliament. It is a system in which the 'winner takes all' and usually gives a clear majority both at constituency and national level. This means that a candidate in a constituency only needs one more vote than the nearest rival to win the seat. Similarly, political parties only need to win one more seat in the House of Commons to have a majority. Advantages of FPTP There is very little chance of extremist parties being elected to Parliament under FPTP because they are unlikely to gain enough votes in any one constituency. Generally the results of elections using FPTP can be calculated quickly. When necessary, this makes the transfer of power from one party to another much easier. Disadvantages of FPTP The main criticism of FPTP is that the number of votes cast for a party in general elections is not accurately reflected in the number of seats won. An example of this was the 1997 election when the Conservatives gained 18% of the vote in Scotland but not one seat. This is mirrored at constituency level, where the winning candidate may have received only one third of the votes cast. Indeed, a government may be elected on a minority vote, as happened in 1974 when Labour won the general election on the number of seats gained...
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...Electoral System in Slovenia Analysis paper 04.14.2011 Electoral System in Slovenia An electoral system has a significant influence on the structuring of the party system within a country. In 1991, for a newly established democratic republic, Slovenia, the question of selecting the right electoral system was on top of the political agenda. Slovenia, that just had socialist period of the past, when there was “voting without elections”, looked for ways to obtain a stable political system and chose the model, used by the developed countries of Western Europe. The choice to use proportional system has lead to multi-party system and effective governance. According to the reports by Freedom of House, the country is placed very highly with respect to its overall level of democracy, while the level of competition is above the global average. This proves us once again the validity of Lijphart’s theory, that claims that proportional electoral systems lead towards greater long-term democratic stability in deeply-divided plural societies. To begin with, the electoral system concerns multiple aspects of electoral law and its most basic characteristics, defined clearly in Patterns of Democracy, are the ballot structure, determining how voters can express their choices, the electoral threshold, or the minimum votes needed by a party to secure representation, the electoral formula, determining how votes are counted to allocate...
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...The Electoral College sharply influences presidential politics. When Americans go to the polls, their votes are counted and a winner declared. Right? – Wrong. The Electoral College still needs to cast its vote. Americans elect their President and vice president not by a national vote but by an indirect device known as the electoral college (Magleby, D. & Light, P. 2009, pg 192). The system has generated criticism and discussions about various reform proposals. The framers of the U.S Constitution devised this system as a compromise for the presidential election process. They did not trust the choice of president to a direct vote of the people. Once again we arrive at checks and balance devised to stop mob rule and corruption. At the time, some politicians believed a purely popular election was too reckless, while others objected to giving Congress the power to select the president. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution (Bonsor, K. 2000). Opponents of the Electoral College point to Bush as a reason to get rid of the current system — he was president even though he lost the popular vote. Since the distribution of electoral votes tends to over-represent people in rural states, opponents argue that the system fails to accurately reflect the popular will (Dell, K. n.d.). Several reform ideas have been...
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...chosen by the Electoral College, a group of 538 electors. These electors are distributed amongst the states based on the number of senators and representatives it has in Congress. A candidate must then try to gain a majority of electoral votes from these states to win the election. For many years, the Electoral College has been debated. Some argue the Electoral College is unneeded, while others believe it is necessary. The Electoral College is a necessary system because it ensures the selection of a qualified president, contributes...
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...The standing Canadian electoral system is called the “first past the post” system, which consists of a practice where the candidates of certain parties run, and if elected they win a seat in the house of commons, where they represent their riding. The party with the most seats, and majority vote are appointed by the Governor General to run the Canadian Government. However, simple this process may seem to some people, there is actually more going on behind the scenes, which arises some important questions that we believe Canadians should be informed about. The questions include, how democratic Canada’s electoral system is, what other types of electoral mechanisms are possible, if the current system is the best for the Canadian context, and why or why not, and finally, what type of system the Prime Minister is likely to recommend. The first question we will look at answering is how democratic the Canadian electoral system is, and the...
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...Assess the advantages of the various electoral systems One of the many electoral systems is the First-Past-The-Post system (FPTP), the current system for electing MPs to the House of Commons. There are 659 separate constituencies across the UK each electing one single Member of Parliament. In order to vote you simply put an ‘X’ next to the name of the candidate you support. The candidate who gets the most votes wins, regardless of whether he or she has more than 50% support. Once members have been individually elected, the party with the most seats in Parliament, regardless of whether or not it has a majority, normally becomes the next government. FPTP tends to lead to a two-party system where two major political parties dominate politics within a government. The system tends to produce single party governments, which are strong enough to create legislation and tackle the country’s problems, without relying on the support of any other party. In these single party governments, the FPTP electoral system provides a close link between the MP and their constituency, due to the system also representing the views of the people, as the candidate with the greatest support wins through a fair process. However, only one MP is elected in each constituency, so all the voters who did not vote for him or her are not represented. Their votes do not help elect anybody and so are wasted, they could have stayed at home and the result would not have been altered. In addition to this, there is a...
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...To what extent is First Past the Post a viable electoral system? First Past the Post, also commonly known as FPTP, is the main majoritarian system used in the UK. It has many effects, including usually resulting in a single party government, which therefore results in a strong government. The most important effect of FPTP is the election of a stable government that can stay in power for the full term, and govern effectively while also seeing decisions through. On this basis, FPTP has both positives and negatives in its nature. The first benefit that arises from the FPTP system is the certainty that it will result in a government being elected. This is because the voting is done on plurality’s, which means whichever party gets the most votes in their constituency wins. This structure of voting means that even if you get a low turnout, you will still get a government. For example, in 2001 the turnout for the general elections only reached 59.4%, but a Labour government was still elected. In order for turnout to be high, there needs to be a clear and simple electoral choice. With FPTP, there is, as there are normally only 5 parties to choose from, with only 2 being real contenders- Labour and Conservatives. Although some people might argue that a choice between 2 parties is limited, it could actually lead to tactical voting. Tactical voting is where instead of voting for your preferred party, you vote for the one which is ‘least bad’. Although it might not be their...
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...A proportional electoral system is a system which produces a close fit between votes and seats. A formula is used to match the percentage of seats won by each party to the percentage of votes they won. Simply put; the number of votes that the party receives determines the number of seats in parliament they achieve. Examples of a proportional electoral system included the Additional Member System as used in Wales and the Single Transferable Vote as used in the Republic of Ireland. There are however alternative systems that don’t use proportional representation – these include First Past the Post – a system which means the winner only needs 1 more vote than its closest rival – not an absolute majority and the Alternative Vote where if no candidate secures an absolute majority of first preferences, the lowest placed candidate is eliminated and the second preferences of his or her voters are transferred to the remaining candidates. The purpose of this essay is to discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of proportional electoral systems as well as systems that don’t use proportional representation to come to the conclusion as to whether Proportional electoral systems cause as many problems as they solve. One example of a proportional electoral system is the Additional Member System ; this is where the elector casts two votes – one for their favoured candidate in a single member constituency and one for their favoured party from a party list in a multi member constituency. Additional...
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...First past the post is a simple plurality electoral system. In order to secure victory in a constituency a candidate has to gain a minimum of a one vote advantage over the nearest rival. This system is not proportional which means that for every constituency there is only one MP representing them in Parliament. Even though the FPTP system has come under criticism, it remains as the electoral system used for Westminster and local government elections, and its advantages are the following. The FPTP system is very simple and easy to understand. The voters only have to write an “X” to indicate their choice. There is no need to rank candidates or to make more than one preference, in contrast to other more complicated systems where confusion arises. For example, there are a huge number of spoilt papers under various types of Proportional Representation as a result of voter confusion. In Scotland when STV was used there were thousands of spoilt ballot papers. However it could be argued that the advantage of ease is overrated as the electorate could be prepared enough to cope with another system as they do in other countries such as Germany or Switzerland. Speed is another lauded attribute of FPTP. We can get the results in constituencies just hours after the polls close and a verdict on who will secure the ability to govern alone before the next dawn breaks. By contrast other electoral systems can take days to calculate as votes are redistributed. In the Republic of Ireland it...
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...out a case in favour of retaining the ‘first past the post’ electoral system used in the UK (25 Marks) First past the post is also known as FPTP or a single member plurality system. It is used in the elections of the House of Commons, the Westminster Elections, the idea is that you simply put an X in the box next to the candidate that you support. The candidate that gets the most votes, regardless of percentage, gets a seat in the House of Commons, after all the constituents have elected their MP the party with the most seats form the government. Some argue that FPTP is unfair and inefficient to suit modern government however, in this essay I will be explaining and demonstrating as to why FPTP is efficient and should remain the UK’s electoral system. The reasons the UK should keep FPTP are; It allows voters to choose a between candidates instead of parties, it enables a strong and stable government, it determines a clear link between MP’s and their constituents, it is easier to understand, we all get 1 vote at the polling station and it eliminates the possibility of the extremist majority in the UK. Firstly, First Past the Post allows the electorate to choose between candidates instead of the parties. this enables each individual voter to establish and assess the performance, advantages and disadvantages of the individual candidates instead of just picking a party that will rule like in some other voting systems. Secondly, FPTP enables a strong and stable government it...
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...To what extent do different electoral systems produce different outcomes? In this essay I will assess the outcomes of Additional Member system, First Past the Post system and the Closed Party List system. The F-P-T-P system is used to elect the members of House of Commons and local government in England and Wales. Voters select candidates, and do so by marking his or her name with an ‘X’ on the ballot paper. This reflects the principle of ‘one person, one vote’. The Additional Members system is used in Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, and Northern Ireland Assembly and Greater London assembly. It is a mixed system made up of F-P-T-P and party-list elements. The Regional party list (or the closed party list) is used to elect the European Parliament. There are number of large multimember constituencies. Political parties compile lists of candidates to place before the electorate, in descending order of preference. Electors vote for parties not for candidates, parties are allocated seats in direct proportion to the votes they gain in each regional constituency. In this essay I will argue that electoral systems produce different outcomes. One of the ways in which first-past-the-post voting system produces different outcomes to other parties is that it leads to no clear correlation between number of vote’s casts and seats won. For example in 2005 general election Labour received 40.7% of the votes but won 413 seats and also during the 2010 general elections Conservatives won...
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...The electoral system in United Kingdom The electoral system in United Kingdom After the examination of Canadian national institution, it has been nominated that a few reforms are intensely needed in the Canadian institutions for the due management of the regional and the inter-governmental issues (Loiacono, 2010). The three suggested reforms are the reforms in the Supreme Courts, the reforms in the senate, the reforms in the House of Commons Supreme Court The need for the reform is elevated by considering the fact that is it logical to consider Supreme Court as a general court of appeal and are their any specialized needs of constitutional tribunals. The scope of judicial proceedings and judgments needs to be institutionalized in the context. Quebec is indeed the province that responds assertively to the importance of a pure judiciary. Quebec highlights that the existing Supreme Courts are totally appointed in the conformance of federal executives, and it does not differentiate the difference between civil law and the British common law. Additionally the decisions of the Supreme Court are confirmed to be biased against the Quebecers. The debate since 1950s still needs a re-modification in the form of a pure Canadian Supreme Court, where the law holds every Canadian equal in the court of law (Sherman, 1999, p. 68). Senate The second modification proposed is the modification in the senate. The Canadian federation has long been considered to seek the reform in the...
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...challenges to these attempts, examine the strengths and weaknesses of the electoral system in the United States. Name: Winston Walker Course Code: GOVT 1000 ID #: 607005957 No electoral system is perfect, but the strengths and weakness of the electoral system is based on the system of government used. The two most common systems of government are the Federal system and the Unitary system. According to dictionary.com, the term electoral system refers to, the legal system for making democratic choices. The United States of America operate under a federal system of government, which by definition, refers to a government in which the powers of government are divided between a central government and several local governments. The electoral system of the United States is set up in this manner, you vote for a mayor, senator, a member of the House of Representatives, you vote directly for that person. However, when you vote for president, you are really voting for an elector who has pledged to represent that candidate. The electors chosen by each state are called the Electoral College. This consists of 538 members, comprising 100 senators, 435 congressmen, and 3 members from the District of Columbia. States with large populations, like California have over 50 electoral votes, while sparsely populated states like Alaska has only 3 electoral votes. This system of government makes the electoral system highly susceptible to voter suppression. Voter Suppression is the strategy...
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...Electoral College is a group of citizens that is representing all of the United States that is voting for only the United States president. The electoral college votes is not considered the same as the popular votes whereas majority rules with popular votes. Electoral votes has a maximum of 270 votes that is necessary to elect the President of our country. There has been many situations where citizens thought that Electoral College votes should be stop; and that the United Stated should go on to popular votes. During my research on electoral college there was many facts that I gained knowledge from. How was the electoral college structured and the different functions of the electoral college? Comparison between the Electoral College and the popular vote. The value of an individual vote under the electoral college system when it comes to...
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