In the United States the president is elected not through direct-popular vote nor through congress but instead through the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a very unique and complex way to elect a head of state.
There are two stages of a presidential election, the first stage is the primaries. During the primaries candidates are campaigning to be the party nomination and represent their party affiliation. But an Independent campaigning has to gather signatures on a petition to be put on the ballot. Depending on which state a voter lives in determines whether or not they vote in open primaries, where any registered voter can participate regardless of party affiliation, or closed primaries, where only registered members of a particular …show more content…
If the country where to use a direct vote rural areas would have very little power compared to metropolitan areas. According to the 2010 census 80.7% of Americans lived in urban areas. So people in rural areas would receive very little attention from candidates because they would obviously focus all of their time on urban areas to get more votes. The cons of using the Electoral College is that for many citizens their votes don’t matter. Citizens that affiliate with the minority party in states that are a very strong red or blue states don’t affect the election at all, due to the winner take all system. This also makes it extremely hard for third party candidates because they must win the state to receive any electoral …show more content…
This system still allows for small rural states to have an impact and creates more competitive elections in strong red or blue states. An example would be the 2008 election where Barack Obama won one electoral vote in Nebraska, which allowed the group of people that voted for him in that district to have their votes actually count. This isn’t a perfect system as minority citizens in certain districts will still have votes that don’t count, but it is a much fairer system that still protects small rural states. Also for this system to be fair someone independent from the elections should draw the district borders to stop
There are two stages of a presidential election, the first stage is the primaries. During the primaries candidates are campaigning to be the party nomination and represent their party affiliation. But an Independent campaigning has to gather signatures on a petition to be put on the ballot. Depending on which state a voter lives in determines whether or not they vote in open primaries, where any registered voter can participate regardless of party affiliation, or closed primaries, where only registered members of a particular …show more content…
If the country where to use a direct vote rural areas would have very little power compared to metropolitan areas. According to the 2010 census 80.7% of Americans lived in urban areas. So people in rural areas would receive very little attention from candidates because they would obviously focus all of their time on urban areas to get more votes. The cons of using the Electoral College is that for many citizens their votes don’t matter. Citizens that affiliate with the minority party in states that are a very strong red or blue states don’t affect the election at all, due to the winner take all system. This also makes it extremely hard for third party candidates because they must win the state to receive any electoral …show more content…
This system still allows for small rural states to have an impact and creates more competitive elections in strong red or blue states. An example would be the 2008 election where Barack Obama won one electoral vote in Nebraska, which allowed the group of people that voted for him in that district to have their votes actually count. This isn’t a perfect system as minority citizens in certain districts will still have votes that don’t count, but it is a much fairer system that still protects small rural states. Also for this system to be fair someone independent from the elections should draw the district borders to stop