Preview

Explain The Flaws Of The American Voting System

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
980 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Explain The Flaws Of The American Voting System
Only 57.5 percent of americans vote for the president. That is just over half of our population that votes for the person that is running our country for 4 years. There are many flaws with the american elections process, and there are many other forms of government such as parliament and what those major differences between our system of government which is representative democracy and parliament.
The first problem with the American election system is that the constitution does not state it in what voting rights are. Voting rights have only been touched base in the 15th, 19th and 26th amendments those being race, gender, and age. Nowhere in the constitution does it state what all of your rights as a citizen are to voting. There are many key points missing in this, but the rest of the rights are picked by that state. As a state has it own say in what your rights are that you have to surpass to be an able body to vote. With that being
…show more content…
Another problem with the election system is that each ballout is different. Each state controls it own ballout, and they are designed poorly. For national elections there should be one ballout to make voting easier on the voter, but America doesn't have that. Many people cannot vote because it is so hard for someone who has multiple jobs or is disable. Most of the times that you can vote are during the day which would be during work house. So those who work eight hours or more don’t have a chance to vote. They make absentee ballots, but many citizens do not use that option. This is a major flaw in the election process. One of the biggest flaws to the national election is that a most citizens can’t run

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College is an institution that may have served a purpose 200 years ago when the founding fathers needed a system that would be met with approval by both large and small states. The Electoral College is a flawed method of electing our President that has created problems in previous elections and is likely to be the source of problems in the future. The Electoral College provides an undemocratic method of choosing our president that potentially undermines the will of the voters. Not only can a candidate be elected without actually winning the most votes, it puts our elections at the mercy of electors who don't always cast their vote as pledged. I intend to demonstrate that the problems inherent in this voting method far outweigh any benefits it may provide. Replacing the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes with a system such as proportional representation or eliminating the college altogether in favor of direct election is the best way to ensure a trouble-free and fair election…

    • 2120 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The founding fathers were not gods. Consequently, they were not perfect, and neither were the systems they set up to run the country. Nevertheless, they knew that things would change, and they set up ways to fix the government when needed. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the American people have the right to alter or abolish the government if it does not fit their needs. The Electoral College is flawed, and the American people need to replace it because this system does not fairly represent the people, it forces people to vote a certain way, and it does not always guarantee that the winner of the popular vote will win the election. These imperfections in the Electoral College make voters feel like their votes…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The last problem with the Electorial College is that it seems as if our vote does not count. One of the things that is supposed to be so great about America is that we, as Americans, get to choose our leader. The sad thing is with this system the probability of your vote counting is very…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Instead of major parties or candidates that always have the advantage of winning, minor parties or candidates will have a chance at receiving more votes due to the increased population of voting. Notably, states that are overwhelmingly democratic or republican like California or Texas respectively can have a chance to become swing states free of party support. Simply, the more people vote the more likelihood there is of having closer election results because of all the different views that people possess. Honestly, local and national elections only have a limited number of party groups that win because of all the party political groups that are coherent to that location. All the influence and funding that is put into these groups has tarnished the integrity of the election and has effected the location around them. With the use of mandatory voting, the number of people with nonpartisan opinions will overweigh the votes of political clubs causing fair game. It is sensible to have local communities or states to have equal odds in voting because there will be less inaccuracies on political outlooks in these…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In conclusion the Electoral College is system of the past as it does not truly reflect what Americans think but what faithless partisan electors think and believe, the Electoral College was built in a time where there wasn't any trust in what was a so-called democracy but it was a way for the government to show their distrust of the people. The Electoral College is a disaster and ultimately should be…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ever since the Constitutional Convention of 1787 there has been constant debate as to whether or not our system of voting, the Electoral College, is a democratic institution. After all, how can an electoral system that grants the power of the presidency to the candidate who did not win the popular vote claim to be truly democratic. This debate over whether or not we should dispense of the Electoral College in favor of a system based on a purely popular vote will most likely continue to be an issue, because without a constitutional convention and amendment, which is highly unlikely, it cannot be changed. And if it were changed, such a shift in policy would be sure to have extensive social and political consequences.…

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    U.S. citizens are given the right to vote every four years in November. The electoral votes are based on the population of a state and affect the election in the long run. The Senate of a state is granted two electoral votes towards the national election. The rest of the electoral votes are based on the popular vote in the districts of a state. The Electoral College was created by the U.S. founding fathers because they were afraid that a dictator could manipulate the votes of the people. The Electoral College is a controversial topic because some people believe in keeping it, others believe in abolishing it, and some would just like it to be changed. The Electoral College should be abolished because it is outdated in the common era, it is unfair…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I will be discussing the detriments and downfalls of the Electoral College. Now, before we delve into the gritty details of what the Electoral College actually is and how it functions, I must ask, do you actually know how the President of the United States is elected? The majority of Americans would simply say that they cast their vote and call it a day. They are entirely complacent with the system because they feel grounded in the belief that they are the ones truly in power. They believe in the “democratic ideals” that are encompassed within America. The fact of the matter is that their vote goes to a group of electors chosen by the state, who then choose the president. And the best part? These electors don’t necessarily have to pledge their vote to who the majority of people chose. This is not a true democracy in any sense and we should aspire to eradicate any system that limits our constitutional freedoms. The Electoral College is one of those systems, and it is defined as being “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president”. Are all eligible voters included within this “body of people”? If not, then…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every four years, Americans stand in lines, eager to vote for their candidate and hope they win. Sadly, many Americans don’t realize their influence on the election is pretty minimal. The votes go to the state, and whatever candidate has more votes in that state, wins the state. Even if the popular vote is for the opposite candidate that wins, hence 2016’s election. The Electoral College should be abolished, and be replaced in the constitution by the popular vote, which represents each individual's real vote.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American presidential electoral system consists of five different stages, the main two being the primaries and the Electoral College. Although the Electoral College has been used since the founding fathers wrote the constitution, meaning there are many strengths in the system, the weaknesses of the system outweigh substantially the strengths. Some of these being, the candidate without the popular vote can be elected as president. For example in the 2000 presidential elections, George Bush won against Al Gore with no popular vote. This is just one of the many reasons as to why the weaknesses outweigh the strengths.…

    • 1664 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    That is why I agree with the Electoral College. I think it is the best and fair way to run the election. The Electoral College has performed over 50 presidential elections. I think that the Founding Fathers were trying to let everyones vote count. It contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Electoral College follows a winner-take all representative system, which means that the voices of some citizens will not matter. The Electoral College is a system of representatives included in the U.S. Constitution, created by the Founding Fathers, to help ensure that voters selecting the president were qualified and knowledgeable. These voters were chosen, because they knew what they were doing, rather than possible unreasonable voting by the public. However, this system is not required anymore, and can be detrimental to citizens of the United States of America. The Electoral College should be abolished, because it favors’ the voters of small states and because it does not accurately represent the voice of the people of the U.S.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many Americans believe they pick the President of United States on Election day. The truth is, we really don't have a say so. We, in reality, just vote for State Electors who then hold the electoral vote to vote for the next president. This is an unjust way to do this in a “democratic” country. I do not believe the electoral college is an equitable way to elect the President of United States.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Electoral College Failure

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The American people have had a way of telling themselves that they are choosing the candidate to become the next president of the United States. Though while they feel like they are doing this, their vote really goes to an “elector”, only a small number of which each state gets. This method of election would make more sense if all states had a number of electors representative of the population, but that’s not how it is being run currently; there are 12 states in the U.S. which, if you can get popular vote from 11 of these 12 states, you can still win the whole election and become the next president, even if you don’t get a single vote from any of the other 39 states. This is in no way fair to the American people who truly care about who takes office. Though the Electoral College was created to represent the will of the American people, it is a failure at reflecting that…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The electoral system is “regarded as an anachronism, a non-democratic method of selecting a president that ought to be [overruled] by declaring the candidate who receives the most popular votes the winner” as pointed out in the article In Defense of the Electoral College: Five reasons to keep our desired method of choosing the president. The United States was founded upon the ideologies of freedom and representative government, which begs the question, why would we have a non-democratic method to decide the most powerful person in a nation where democracy remains as a provocative principle? The Electoral College is not a true democratic way to choose a president as a popular vote is. Equally importantant, is the belief of “faithless” electors. The article that was previously cited choosing against the Electoral College states that “’faithless’ electors have occasionally refused to vote for whomever they please”. These “faithless” electors are chosen to choose president that the people want them to choose but they ultimately change their minds. Getting rid of the Electoral College would ensure that untrustworthy electors would never betray the people putting the voting power in the hands of the people. According to the article, that was previously mentioned defending the Electoral College, it states that the electoral system “is not democratic in a modern sense… it is the electors who elect the president, not the people”. People cannot specifically elect the president, instead that job goes to the electors. Many people believe that we are voting for the president but in actuality we are not. A group of electors versus an entire nation in the choice of the president would obviously be determined by the peoples’ choice based on a belief of a democracy, but we still cling onto the Electoral College as the primary process. Many people have argued that if the popular vote were to be…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays