...The electoral college system, what the United States of America uses to elect the President ever four years, is an outdated system that is not needed and does not make the election process any easier.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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...The system that a country decides to holds elections is important because it will forever influence crucial dynamics of the government. The electoral system consist of rules that determine not only how elections and referendums are conducted, but how their results are determined and carried out. Electoral systems lay out exactly how the voting process is planned to pan out. This includes everything from when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, how ballots are marked and cast, who can stand as a candidate, how the ballots are counted, and any other factors that can possibly affect the outcome. These political electoral systems are defined and protected by both electoral laws and constitutions. Elections are crucial to a functioning democracy since It is the most efficient procedure to place someone in power that is wanted by the people....
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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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...In chapter three of David Farrell’s Electoral Systems he assesses majoritarian electoral systems and their impacts in France and Australia, while drawing comparisons to single-member plurality systems. Majoritarian systems can be seen as a compromise to some of the issues SMP (single-member plurality) electoral systems have because they prevent candidates from winning elections with a small percentage of the vote (44). Majoritarian systems provide the same simple voting process, stable government, and single-MP district magnitude that SMP electoral systems are known for, with the addition of the need for candidates to receive 50 per cent plus one vote and to win, and in some cases, ballot structure reform (44-45). The most notable forms of majoritarian systems are the two-round system and the alternate vote system, these systems are the focus of the chapter in the contexts of France and Australia (45)....
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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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...Election System The American presidential election system, is one of the most complex and confusing election systems in the world, and is only one of the many ways Americans hold elections. The United States has a number of problems related to the methods of voting for president. The who, where, when, how, of voting are very different than most western nations. These differences can cause many Americans and outside observers to believe that the system is broken, or worse rigged to keep power in the hands of those who hold it. While this is an easy conclusion to draw, it shows a lack of understanding of the complexities of the American voting system. In the United State, voting laws not being specifically given to the federal government, are therefore defaulted to the state. Essentially meaning that while most voting regulation laws from state to state are similar, with the exception of a few outliers, there are still 50 different specific sets of laws on voting, for Federal, state, and local elections. This can cause a number of problems, most notably the possibility for states to discriminate against whomever they determine to be ineligible, or possibly unworthy of voting; the most common example are felons. Each state...
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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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...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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...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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