Partisan Gerrymandering is the process legislators go to though, by either drawing or changing district boundaries, to make sure one political party has an advantage when it comes to the outcome of an election. This takes away the whole point of being a democratic country where people have the freedom to choose their own government, and representation. Because elections are rigged and peoples votes don't count, legislators makeup district boundaries that only benefit them, and most importantly keep a party chosen by them and only them in a secure route to WIN, without caring about what the voters actually want. Making partisan gerrymandering a big threat to democracy because instead of having the people choose, politicians are choosing for them. Since legislators draw the district…
In The Week article “How to rig elections, the legal way”, The week staff describes how parties gain an advantage by redrawing voting districts. This process of redrawing voting districts to favor one’s political party is considered gerrymandering. It creates districts that are irregularly shaped and is a legal process unless it violates the 1965 voting rights act which makes it illegal to redistrict based off of minority voters. Gerrymandering has been successful in recent years because in 2012 gerrymandered states such as Pennsylvania won 49% of the vote and took 72% of house seats. Redistricting is overseen by whoever controls the state legislature and happens every ten years with data collected from the recent census.…
The confusion surrounding the Electoral College stems from the ongoing arguments between those who wish to abolish, reform, or keep the system of voting. Yet, many people do not understand the system itself, this adds to the unresolved conflict. When the public wants more influence over presidential elections, would most Americans be equipped enough to make a well-informed decision? In 1787, the founding fathers did not believe so, that is why they created the Electoral College. Currently, citizens of the U.S. have the means to access lots of information on many different topics.…
This leaves many Americans wondering if there vote is actually vital and if our current system depicts all citizens. Although the electoral college was effective when the majority of Americans were uneducated, as the country evolves the United States needs to adopt a system of a…
Democracy relies on representative democracy in the ability of the populace to participate in and take part in general elections for the representative leaders of the country. However there are rules in systems in place in a true representative democracy more complicated than it was in the past. Voters today are also faced with a large and increasing number of hot topic issues that require more knowledge than the average voter is likely to know which in turn makes meaningful presence in the election difficult to fully achieve. Campaigns help to ease this massive influx and information and allow the voter the opportunity to know what they’re going to vote for as the political party a politician belongs to indicates their stances on all the…
The electoral college is here to make decisions the general public can not. The famous federalist Alexander Hamilton said, “It is equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.” (Document #1) This means, in short, that the electoral college is made up of educated men to make electoral decisions. This shows it was created to keep the election out of the hands of the uneducated.…
One main pro of the electoral college, said by defenders of the system, is that it is, “a healthier constitutional form that values the capacity to carry numerous,” political ideals across the nation. Secondly, the electoral college system, “[requires] candidates to assemble multistate and multi regional coalitions rather than focusing,” on large states and urban communities. In a direct election, the largest concentration of voters would be in the large states and in dense metropolitan areas. One main con of the electoral college is that though the small states are overrepresented due to, “the senatorial bump, some persuasive legitimating principle other than the fact that the framers endorsed the idea,” should continue to exist today, but does not (Rakove). According to Gallup Poll in 2011, 62% of americans preferred a popular vote system for electing the president, while “barely a third, 35%, say they would keep the electoral college” (Inc).…
Dear State Senator, the electoral college is an obsolete system of election. Although the electoral college was an idea set by the founding fathers in the constitution, this form of election is not effective any longer. People have the right to vote, but this form of election is not directly voting for a representative. The electoral college essentially makes the people vote for electors who then have the opportunity to vote for whom ever they would like. The electoral system is an archaic system that needs to be exchanged for the popular vote because the people do not vote for an actual representative, the system has failed before, and the system has the opportunity to have an even greater mishap.…
Although many disagree with the electoral college, the vast majority do not truly understand its purpose, and even less know who or what it is composed of. The lack of knowledge about the electoral college allows the simplicity of the NPV to be widely supported. The same people who oppose the NPV have acknowledged that the electoral college is flawed. The population now is far more educated than it was in 1787, therefore the reason our founding…
The Electoral College Dilemma Premise: The U.S. Electoral College voting system needs to be improved upon because whoever earns the majority of total votes cast should be the winner. Definitions: Electoral College-…
However, there is no legislation against redistricting. The most significant point the author made was the pressing issue of racial redistricting in Texas. Gerrymandering is the redistribution in which electoral district boundaries are drawn for electoral advantage. Gerrymandering is often used to hinder political parties, racial groups, or class groups.…
Duncan, the electoral college was created by the founding fathers were still fearful of democracy and “set up a system of election with more than a few fail-safe structures to prevent this from happening—to keep The People from running amok (Duncan 2016).” While this argument would have been valid at the time of the creation of the Electoral College, it is no longer valid today. The fear of democracy has long disappeared with the fear of witches and the plague, today democracy is what all Americans want to keep. Which proves the point that the Electoral College no longer serves its original purpose and when something no longer serves its purpose it must be rid of. Also at the time of the creation of the Electoral College, there was a strong belief that political parties are wrong and that the candidates should not campaign for the presidency, it was believed that “The office should seek the man, the man should not seek the office (Kimberling 2008).”…
For centuries the United States has held many longstanding traditions through history. Most of them were written in the first drafts of the Constitution. However, many policies have changed over the decades, but one of these systems has not changed much since the beginning of America, the Electoral College. Even though the Electoral College system has not undergone any restrictions, it doesn’t mean that it is perfect. There are many ways to refine the process to make it a better fit for the citizens of America.…
The Electoral College is in place to decide the president of the United States. There are people that agree on it and people that do not. The Electoral College System is an inadequate form of electing the president of the United States, there are better ways to go about choosing a president in a more Democratic way. Having a popular vote, or by deciding by congressional districts would be other options that Congress has thought about, and even states have signed in on being for a National Popular Vote. The Electoral College is a representation of the popular vote, on the other hand it makes it unfair at the same time.…
A law involving gerrymandering was passed in 1967 that banned multimember districts for fear of racism or an unfair advantage to one party (Yglesias). The argument for gerrymandering is that it balances the seats in Congress, half Republican and half Democrat, providing the minority more of a majority in congress. It also provides politicians the ability to safely guarantee the majority in the House does not change because of…