The Electoral College An Outdated System Politics Essay

The Electoral College An Outdated System Politics Essay Every fourth calendar year the citizens of the United States participate in one of the greatest displays of Democracy in human history, the election of the President and Vice-President of the United States. However, it is not truly democracy. Instead, the democratic election of the President of the United States is tainted by the current use of the Electoral College. The Electoral College system of electing the President and Vice-President of the United States is an outdated system that needs to be replaced with a method that better represents the will of the American people. In the budding days of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers faced a difficult problem, the election process for the President of the United States. There were numerous factors that needed to be taken into account by the Founding Fathers as they debated the optimal election process. The largest factor taken into account by the Founding Fathers was that the nation was comprised of thirteen states which had only recently joined together to create a singular government and were jealously guarding their individual rights and powers, making them apprehensive to any centralized government ideas. The United States also contained four million citizens whom were separated by thousands of miles of land which was scarcely connected by either transportation or communication. Furthermore, the founders believed that political parties were destructive and counter-productive, an idea borrowed from the British (Kimberling 1). After considering these issues and proposing several options, the Founding Fathers developed the Electoral College which can trace its roots to the Catholic Churchs College of Cardinals and the Roman Republics Centurial Assembly (Kimberling 2). The Electoral College as defined by Article Two, Section One of the Constitution, comprises of six points. First, each state is allotted Electors equal to the number of its U.S senators plus the number of its U.S Representatives. Second, the individual State legislatures are allowed discretion in choosing their electors with the constraint that members of Congress and other Federal Servants are prohibited from serving as Electors. Third, States Electors must meet in their States rather than in a national meeting. Fourth, Electors are required to cast two votes for president, one of which had to be from a different state than the Elector. Fifth, the Candidate who obtains an absolute majority of the electoral votes becomes president with the run ner-up becoming Vice-President. Finally, if no Candidate obtains an absolute majority than the U.S. House of Representatives would choose the president from among the top five. In this case, each state would be allotted only one vote. If a tie was reached in the House than the top two would be voted on by the Senate (Kimberling 3). The Electoral College was both elaborate and appropriate at the time that it was created. However, after two hundred years and an amendment, the 12th (1804), the Electoral College has greatly changed. Currently, the election of the President of the United States and the Electoral College functions as follows. The number of each States allotted Electors is equal to the number of States Senators plus the number of the States Representatives. At the beginning of an election, political parties in each State submit a list of individuals whom will act as the States Electors if their candidate wins. Political parties then meet to nominate their presidential and vice presidential candidates, whom are then added to the ballot. On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, the general populace of each State then votes for the electors representing their presidential and vice-presidential choice. It is a Winner-Take-All System in nearly all States. In a Winner-Take-All System, whicheve r candidate gets the most votes gets all the Electors. The exceptions to the Winner-Take-All System are Kansas and Maine which allot two Electors based on popular vote and the rest to individual Congressional districts. The winning set of electors then goes on to represent the State in the Electoral College. On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December the States Electors meet in their individual capitals and cast their votes for both president and vice president. The Electors still must use at least one of their votes on a candidate from outside their home State. All of the Electoral Votes are then opened by the President of the Senate on January 6th before the houses of Congress. Whichever candidate gains an absolute majority in the Electoral College is declared president. The same is true for the vice-president. If no candidate gets absolute majority for president the top three contenders are voted on in the House of Representatives which each State getting one vote. Similarly, if no vice-presidential candidate gets an absolute majority, the Senate chooses between the top two contenders. Finally, at noon on January 20th, the elected president and vice-president are sworn into office. The Electoral College system is neither fair nor balanced. However, there are many proponents of the Electoral College. They claim that the Electoral College is the only feasible system for fairly electing the president of a nation as large and diverse as the United States. That is not a true statement. Instead, there are is a multitude of alternative ways that the election of the president and vice-president of the United States can occur. The most commonly referred to alternative to the Electoral College is a simple direct majority election in which whoever gained absolute majority in the United States would become president. A simple direct majority vote is greatly beneficial because it better represents the will of the United States as a whole than The Electoral College. Under the Electoral College, the presidency has gone to the candidate with fewer popular votes in one out of every sixteen elections (National Popular Vote). The most noticeable of these cases occurred in the 1824 election between Andrew Jackson and John Q. Adams. Andrew Jackson obtained 60% of the popular vote and yet lost to John Q. Adams whom had gained the necessary electoral votes. Similarly, under the Electoral College, not everyones vote is equal. National Popular Vote gives a fantastic example of this: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Gore won five electoral votes by carrying New Mexico by 365 popular votes in the 2000 presidential election, whereas Bush won five electoral votes by carrying Utah by 312,043 popular votes-an 855-to-1 disparity in the importance of a vote(National Popular Vote). It is clear that a simple direct majority vote is a far better representation of the will of the American people than the currently implemented Electoral College. There are a multitude of problems with implementing a simple direct majority election. Perhaps the greatest of these problems is the increased likelihood and affiliated problems of a candidate not being able to gain the majority vote (over 50%) that would be associated with a direct majority election. There are however many solutions to this potential problem. The most promising of these solutions is Direct Election with Instant Runoff Voting which is presented by Fair Vote. Under an Instant Runoff Voting system, each voter would rank their presidential preferences versus the standard choosing of only one candidate. National Popular Vote is a bill that suggests each State simply

Lost at the Fair

Lost at the Fair Every august the family would load up and head to the big fair in Leitchfield. Always excited to get there and head to the rides while dad went to the tractor pull. It was always a great experience until the year 1993. Mom was taking me and my brothers to the rides. We had been to several was having an absolute blast. Then my world froze and I was scared for my life. We were coming out of the fun house my brothers were ahead of me and suddenly I couldn’t find them.I looked in front of me then behind me no where’s around I decided to take the exit and go to my mom. I thought she’d be right around the corner, but when I rounded it she was no where’s insight. I started walking around scared and crying I couldn't find my mom no where’s. Suddenly this woman came to me. I wasn’t sure if she was going to help me or take me she was just a stranger. Luckily this was a very sweet woman who took me to the announcer box; she was going to help me get back to my mom.The announcer asked me my mom’s names and they hollered several times I was worried she couldn’t hear them and what was I going to do. Four years old in the middle of a fair with hundreds of people. Finally my aunt came to the announcer box after they assured she was my aunt they released me to her. Then out of nowhere I heard my mom’s voice hollering for me. Both scared and crying we were reunited and thankful I was safe. I learned a valuable lesson that day and I wasn’t going to wonder off anymore.

Explore The Character and symbolic significance of Simon Essay

After the end of the Second World War, novelists had fighting time writing on events that had just happened. It made a lot of writers think deeply about mankind and themselves. One of these writers was William Golding who Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship; his first novel was an allegory called â€Å"Lord Of The Flies† published in 1954 it asks the question is humanity all evil/self-destructive. Through out the book mankind is portrayed in a very pessimistic way. The characters in the novel reflect a particular part of humanity Jack reflects dictatorship and he creates a division between the group of children, very cleverly he becomes the leader of a ‘tribe’ of animalistic savages that remind the reader of early man in its time. The ‘Littleuns’ symbolises the vulnerable in society, Simon, on the other hand, is their ‘saviour’ he picks the ‘Littleuns’ fruit from the trees, which they cannot reach. He represents the spiritual aspect of humanity. Simon as a character is a caring and compassionate child who has not a bad intention in his mind. He is not govern by the negative human traits that influence our day to day reactions; human traits such as aggression or hate red even to the children that treat him badly, he treats all the children equal and helps them when ever it is need. An example is when he helps the ‘littleuns’, ‘Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach,†¦, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands’. Simon or though his caring and compassion, he is quiet inarticulate, this is his only weakness, he finds it extremely difficult to communicate with the other children, this has an extremely bad effect on his ability to change the events on the island. Although his wisdom he never mangers to show the others how he could change the mistakes they make. He is physically weak and doesn’t really take part in the greatly physical activities. At the beginning of the novel, as they all meet at the platform, you find out that he has fits, so he is epileptic or has a disability similar to that. He sometimes tries to interact with the other children but he feels the pressured of personality, on his views on the island and the beast, an example is when he says the wrong thing. â€Å"What’s the dirtiest thing there is?† â€Å"Simon. He helps†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"Simon’s always about† This quotation describes how Simon lives in peace with the island and all the children on it. Simon is the only one with unreal view and the beast he is genuinely different to all the others. But he still mangers to live in peace with everyone, even ‘Jack’ he mangers to get on with, there not friends as such, but the don’t really bother each other. Does with show that the other children can see that’s he is different and is some who respected because of this? Or though Simon does live in peace with all the others he is still treated and considered as an outsider by them all this is one of the unfortunate affects of being different, no matter how wise or intuitive you are. This is so easily sensed in the quote, when jack and Ralph go to find Simon. † He’s queer. He funny† They don’t not like him they just realise that Simon is total Different to them selves. The one thing about how the children see Simon is that it changes though the novel and by the end, most of the children, not all of them but a proportion of them, respect him and are quite fond of him. Simon, you can tell is instantly different to the rest of the boys, his absolutely wise view on the beast and island. But William Golding in this novel made him more than just a mere boy he represent intuitive thought, this is to say that he get his knowledge from nowhere really he just know it’s, When he is talking about the beast existents â€Å"What I mean†¦.maybe its only us† No child really think that way, William Golding is making it so that he symbolises Intuitive thought but it doesn’t end there. At one time as he goes to prove the beasts inexistent, it reach’s it climax when he meets an ‘the lord of the flies†, he has an encounter with the pigs head on a stick, the creature is crawling with flies hence calling it ‘the lord of the flies’. â€Å"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"You knew, didn’t you? I’m a part of you?†

Explore The Character and symbolic significance of Simon Essay

After the end of the Second World War, novelists had fighting time writing on events that had just happened. It made a lot of writers think deeply about mankind and themselves. One of these writers was William Golding who Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship; his first novel was an allegory called â€Å"Lord Of The Flies† published in 1954 it asks the question is humanity all evil/self-destructive. Through out the book mankind is portrayed in a very pessimistic way. The characters in the novel reflect a particular part of humanity Jack reflects dictatorship and he creates a division between the group of children, very cleverly he becomes the leader of a ‘tribe’ of animalistic savages that remind the reader of early man in its time. The ‘Littleuns’ symbolises the vulnerable in society, Simon, on the other hand, is their ‘saviour’ he picks the ‘Littleuns’ fruit from the trees, which they cannot reach. He represents the spiritual aspect of humanity. Simon as a character is a caring and compassionate child who has not a bad intention in his mind. He is not govern by the negative human traits that influence our day to day reactions; human traits such as aggression or hate red even to the children that treat him badly, he treats all the children equal and helps them when ever it is need. An example is when he helps the ‘littleuns’, ‘Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach,†¦, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands’. Simon or though his caring and compassion, he is quiet inarticulate, this is his only weakness, he finds it extremely difficult to communicate with the other children, this has an extremely bad effect on his ability to change the events on the island. Although his wisdom he never mangers to show the others how he could change the mistakes they make. He is physically weak and doesn’t really take part in the greatly physical activities. At the beginning of the novel, as they all meet at the platform, you find out that he has fits, so he is epileptic or has a disability similar to that. He sometimes tries to interact with the other children but he feels the pressured of personality, on his views on the island and the beast, an example is when he says the wrong thing. â€Å"What’s the dirtiest thing there is?† â€Å"Simon. He helps†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"Simon’s always about† This quotation describes how Simon lives in peace with the island and all the children on it. Simon is the only one with unreal view and the beast he is genuinely different to all the others. But he still mangers to live in peace with everyone, even ‘Jack’ he mangers to get on with, there not friends as such, but the don’t really bother each other. Does with show that the other children can see that’s he is different and is some who respected because of this? Or though Simon does live in peace with all the others he is still treated and considered as an outsider by them all this is one of the unfortunate affects of being different, no matter how wise or intuitive you are. This is so easily sensed in the quote, when jack and Ralph go to find Simon. † He’s queer. He funny† They don’t not like him they just realise that Simon is total Different to them selves. The one thing about how the children see Simon is that it changes though the novel and by the end, most of the children, not all of them but a proportion of them, respect him and are quite fond of him. Simon, you can tell is instantly different to the rest of the boys, his absolutely wise view on the beast and island. But William Golding in this novel made him more than just a mere boy he represent intuitive thought, this is to say that he get his knowledge from nowhere really he just know it’s, When he is talking about the beast existents â€Å"What I mean†¦.maybe its only us† No child really think that way, William Golding is making it so that he symbolises Intuitive thought but it doesn’t end there. At one time as he goes to prove the beasts inexistent, it reach’s it climax when he meets an ‘the lord of the flies†, he has an encounter with the pigs head on a stick, the creature is crawling with flies hence calling it ‘the lord of the flies’. â€Å"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"You knew, didn’t you? I’m a part of you?†

A Change Can Be Made - 2086 Words

Jason Phillips Shana Kraynak April 29, 2015 Writing Project 4 Final Draft A Change Can Be Made For questions about your romantic life, where do you go to find the answer? Is it a parent? The internet? Film and television? For some, this is a difficult question to answer. Many members of the LGBT community struggle to find an outlet to ask these questions due to the negative stigma surrounding homosexual relationships. In a recent study, LGBT teenagers â€Å"ranked television, film, and magazines as more useful sources† than â€Å"parents, religious leaders, counselors, and therapists† (Sutton et al., 2002). In addition to teens, seventy percent of adults reported that media outlets are â€Å"their primary means of gathering information and learning about LGB lifestyle, culture, and sexual behaviors (Bond 22). Media serves as the foundation for many homosexuals’ of all ages self-identification process. However, most shows on television offer primarily stereotypical representations. Homosexuals are taught that their sexuality is the mo st defining aspect of their character because â€Å"gay adolescents have few if any opportunities to learn how to manage their sexuality in a positive manner,† which typically leads LGBT teens to â€Å"give more significance to their sexual identity than heterosexual adolescents do† making it â€Å"a primary focus of their self-concepts†(Bond 16). Specifically, gay males are constantly presented with negative and insensitive images regarding homosexuality. TheShow MoreRelatedWhat Changes Can Be Made To Solve Inequality For Women1183 Words   |  5 Pages What Changes Can Be Made To Solve Inequality for Women in the 20th Century Marisol V. Rangel Lancaster High School Word count: 1231 It is a constant battle women still have to face living in the 20 century of the unfair treatment between men and women. Two factors that are most often understood to demonstrate the inequality are occupational segregation and wage disparity. 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