Preview

The Three Types Of Congressional Elections

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1234 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Three Types Of Congressional Elections
Congressional elections are every two years, voters elect all of the members of the House and one-third of the Senate. Although the Constitution lays out certain rules about how members of Congress should be elected, the states determine the details of elections, such as who can vote, how the votes will be counted, and the appearance of the ballots. There are three types of congressional elections: primary elections, general elections, and special elections. The primary elections are a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a part conference or to select the candidates for a principal. General elections are a regular election of candidates for office, there elections are statewid. Special elections are scheduled on a usual date for …show more content…
It was one of the most difficult decisions the founding fathers had to make during the convention. They held at least sixteen votes on one issue. Some of the options that they considered were selection by state legislatures, selection by national legislatures, and an electoral system. They even considered direct election of the president, as many citizens propose today, but they rejected the idea. The fathers framed the constitution so that each public official was selected by a different method. Representatives are democratically elected by their district, and run for re-election every two years, and a most dependent on the public. While the Senators are democratically elected by whole state and serve six year terms and are somewhat dependent on the public. They see the congress relative to the president as being individuals who try and take stands on issues they believe in and what the public thinks should be done about it. Most of our founding fathers didn't envision a two party system and did not expect the government to be this …show more content…
According to the 270 to Win, the republicans are most likely to take control of chamber of congress, given the most polling data. As of October 28, 2016, forty-eight percent of citizens are leaning towards democrats, forty percent republicans, and twelve percent other just in the state of Michigan. Our first congressional district in Michigan contains the entire Upper Peninsula and a part of the Lower Peninsula. Our district in represented by Republican Dan Benishek. Dan has been serving in congress since 2010, left his seat open by choosing not to seek re-election in 2016. Michigan Democratic Party leader Lon Johnson, Diane Bostow, and Ellis Boal will compete in the general election on November 8th, 2016. As we only have weeks before the election, Lon Johnson (democrat) has a lead over Jack Bergman (republican). But jack is still the favor in the race. The Republican primary election in the U.S. House, Michigan candidate jack Bergman had a 38.6% votes but in the Democratic primary election, Lon Johnson has a vote of 71.6%. Lon Johnson has a higher chance of winning this congressional elections because more citizens are in favor of his beliefs which are defending our programs like social security and medicare. He is going to speak up for seniors. Johnson said he is going to protect, preserve and strengthen medicare and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Pt1420 Unit 4 Study Guide

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The reason why the Electoral College was created was because our Founding Fathers were distrustful in allowing the president to be elected directly by the people. As a result, the Electoral College would be a system to determine who will be the next president and who will be the next vice president of the United States though the votes of electors from every state. This would create an indirect way for votes to elect their president.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Meet Your Rep. The Constitution states, “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States…” (Art. I, Sec. 2). Contrast this with the original constitutional language for the other house of Congress, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years…” (Art. I, Sec. 3). The phrase “chosen by the Legislature” was changed to “elected by the people” by the 17th Amendment, but not until 1912. In other words, from the beginning the House of Representatives was intended to be exactly what its name suggests –representative of the people. (Note that in 2010 the Tea Party, and some Republican politicians, called for repeal of the 17th Amendment, eliminating the popular vote for Senators. While most Republican politicians have backed away from that view, many Tea Party chapters continue to demand its repeal.)…

    • 6696 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Their was way too much power in the constitution. It had to be divided. The first one it was divided into was federalism, which…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislatures…” (US Constitution, Article 1 Section 3 Clause 1, Doc D). This is very important in making sure there isn’t tyranny in the US because if the senators were chosen by population, the bigger states would have power over small states. This could end in tyranny. The big states would have more power over the smaller states because senators make big decisions and since the bigger states would have more votes, they would be able to do whatever they wanted to…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first idea was to have Congress choose the President. This idea was rejected because many felt that it would disturb the balance of power that existed between the Executive and Legislative branches. It was also rejected due to the possible divisive fallout that would disable the branches to legislate effectively in the aftermath of a heated Presidential contest. Lastly, this idea was rejected as it could possibly give way to foreign intervention, corruption, and bribes. The next idea was to have state legislatures elect the President, but this was rejected on the idea that it would disregard federal authority which essentially was the glue that would keep the states together. The third idea was to elect the President by a direct popular…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With the Articles of Confederation, each state, no matter what size, got one vote when making important decisions. The delegates from large states were opposed to this idea and felt that they should have more votes since they had a larger population. If the votes were relative to the population, then the people in the larger states would have more say than if there is only one vote per state. The delegates from smaller states liked having one vote because they believed they were…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first option goes against the beliefs of our nation and as Madison says, "It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, it was worse than the disease. " The second option is nearly impossible. Therefore, the Founding Fathers implemented different methods to keep the factions from effecting the government and its policies. The representatives are elected directly to allow for representation of every citizen. The terms for the congress seats are for a short period of time; in the House of Representatives the term is two years and in the Senate the term is 6 years but with new elections for 1/3 of the Senate every two…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 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 Constitution was established on the principals of popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism. Popular sovereignty allowed people to have the power to sustain the government through the representatives they elected. A limited government was set up to have tough restrictions on its powers and abilities. With the separation of powers came the development of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, which also led to the installment of the checks and balances system, keeping the powers equal. Federalism divided the power between federal and local governments. The government now had power to levy taxes, regulate trade, and raise an army. The House and Senate were home to the representation of the states, House based on population and Senate maintained equal representation. With majority vote out of both houses of representatives, plus one, the signature of the president, bills became laws. Laws were proposed by Congress or state and ratified by the states…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the founding of the Constitution, it was assumed the general population would be far too uneducated to properly elect their representatives. From this unfortunately accurate presumption, came the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a gift from the founding fathers that has, in turn, counteracted the impact of low voter turnout.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    17th Amendment

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The old way of picking state senators was by state legislatures choice. This way was used to make sure that the federal government had representatives of the states, and to make them not dependent on popular support. After time they had problems such as the risk of corruption and when an electoral deadlock happened.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    disagreements among the states, and there could be no amendments made to the Articles unless there was a unanimous vote. It is very rare in politics to have a common idea that…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Realigning elections are turning points that cause a significant shift in the motive of politics and in the way voters align themselves. These elections occur when new issues arise that divide an existing party causing a change in policy. Political Scientists have discovered certain characteristics that lead to realigning elections. The pattern include “Intense Voter involvement, disruptions of traditional voting patterns, changes in the relationships of power within the broader political community, and the formation of new and durable electoral groupings”( Magleby, 2009, Pg. 185).…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    United States Congress

    • 5336 Words
    • 17 Pages

    A person becomes a candidate for representative or senator in the U.S. Congress by running in a primary election. Except in a few places, political parties exercise little control over the choice over who is nominated to run for congressional office. Voters select candidates in the primaries because of their personalities, positions on issues, or overall reputation. Parliament tends to be made up of people loyal to the national party issues. A congress tends to be made up of people who think of themselves as independent representatives of their districts who expect to vote as to their own constituents.…

    • 5336 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States legislative system is composed of three parts, the House of Representatives, the senate, and the president. The president is elected to represent the whole United States. The senate is composed of one- hundred people which equals two representatives from each state. Lastly, there is the House of Representative which is composed of four hundred and thirty -five members. The number of people representing each state in the House of Representatives changes based on the state’s population size. Then they will elect one person from each district of the state to make up the representatives in the house. For example, let us look at Michigan. Michigan is composed of sixteen districts giving itself sixteen representatives in the house.…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays