To What Extent Does the Democratic Electoral System of the United States Really Aid Its People?

See the original article HERE with citations in footnotes.

Introduction

In light of the upcoming election, I thought I'd explain how America elects its president and how well the system really works. Here is a brief summary on how the America elects its president; through the democratic electoral system of the United States.

What is the democratic electoral system of the US?

Simply put, it is the democratic system through which politicians are elected in the United States of America. If we wanted to break this down even further it would be, the voting process and system through which politicians are chosen for their offices. The purpose of this system is to make the process for electing candidates into different offices (President, Senator, Representative) much easier and fairer.

How does the system work?

The electoral system works in a systematic way to elect candidates into different offices. The system doesn’t just elect the president, it also elects Representatives and Senators at the state level and under. The House of Representatives and Senators are the legislative body which means they are responsible for creating laws.

For a Representative from the House of Representatives to be elected, they would have to be a resident of the state and district they are going to represent. They would also have to have been a citizen of the United States for a minimum of 7 years. They must also be at least 25 years old and need not belong to a specific political party. A Representative is the voice for a district in a state and will work to ensure that the people of their district are getting what they need. Representatives are also elected every 2 years by the people of that district and the membership of the House depends on the population of each state. The House holds the sole authority to impeach federal officials and is the larger of Congress’ two legislative bodies. ‘James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, described the U.S. House of Representatives as a legislative body with “an immediate dependence on, and [an] intimate sympathy with, the people.”’ At the moment there are 435 total representatives in the House.

For a Senator to be elected, they would have to be a resident of the state they intend to serve and they have to be a minimum of 30 years. There are 2 Senators to represent each state which brings the total number of Senators to 100. Unlike the House, only a third of seats are filled with each general election. “Longer, overlapping Senate terms provide Congress with stability and continuity” and this helps the Senators to bring about more change during their terms. Senators are also elected by the citizens in their states just like Representatives.

For a president to be elected, they must go through an arduous process. The candidates have to have lived in the US for a minimum of 14 years, be at least 35 years old and they have to be natural-born American citizens. At some point, candidates start to drop out of the race when they lose support. After most candidates have dropped out, parties start to decide who of the remaining few from their party, they will be funding and who they are going to put forward to represent their party.

Contrary to popular belief, the president isn't actually elected by the people; they’re elected by the Electoral College. When the Constitution was being written, the Founding Fathers didn’t believe the voters could be trusted to pick what was best for them so the Electoral college was designed as a fail-safe. The Electoral College is made up of 100 Senators, 435 Representatives and 3 extra representatives from Washington D.C. Each state has the same number of votes as the number of Senators and Representatives combined. For example, California has 53 Representatives and 2 Senators so they have a total of 55 votes in the Electoral College. Most states go by a “winner takes all” vote, which means that if the majority of the people in California vote for one candidate then that candidate gets all 55 of California’s electoral votes. The only two states that do not follow this system are Maine and Nebraska. Maine has 2 Representatives and 2 Senators which makes a total of 4 Electoral votes. The two “Representative” votes go to whichever candidate wins each of the two districts respectively and the 2 “Senatorial” votes go to whoever wins most votes overall.

For a candidate to win they would have to secure a minimum of 270 electoral votes, which is one half plus one of the total votes.

Who gets to vote?

To vote, you must be at least 18 years old and a citizen of the United States. Some states also require you to have lived there for a certain period of time before you are allowed to vote. Before voting, you must register with the proper authorities in most states (except for North Dakota). In many states, you can send in a form via mail to register yourself but in some places, you have to make the trip down to your local government office. Only some states allow you to register on the day you vote. If you have not registered prior to election day, you cannot vote. The only major exceptions for who gets to vote are convicted criminals and the mentally incompetent.

Just how good is it?

The first benefit is that the Electoral College was designed in such a way that it compromises between both the people and Congress having a say in who gets elected president. The Electoral College was designed as a safeguard against uninformed voters. The electors who have been chosen all have access to the information needed to make the best decision. Alexander Hamilton himself said, that if the Electoral College is “not perfect, it is at least excellent”

Another benefit of the Electoral College is that it ensures that the entire population of the United States takes part in electing the president. If it were based entirely on popular vote then candidates would only target the bigger, more populous states with their campaigns. To win, the candidates need votes from across the states, so the campaigns are built with a focus on the entire nation. If it wasn’t for the system currently in place, groups like the Iowa farmers and the Ohio factory workers would be ignored in favour of influencing big metropolitan areas with larger populations. This would be very unfair to smaller, more rural towns and they would probably be greatly affected by this.

Why isn’t it perfect?

However, some say that the electoral system isn’t very fair because they feel that presidential candidates have too much focus on ‘swing states’ and not enough focus on others. The Electoral College allows the election to be decided by a smattering of states. This is because usually there are states that different parties can count on to support them, like California for the Democratic Party and Indiana for the Republican Party. Most candidates focus on the ‘swing states’ because they are tied with the other candidates in the polls and they need to be winning to gain more votes in the Electoral College. In a November 2016 episode of PBS NewsHour, it was announced that “Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have made more than 90% of their campaign stops in just 11 so-called battleground states. Of those visits, nearly two-thirds took place in the four battlegrounds with the most electoral votes—Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina.”

The Electoral College also grants votes to some states that are disproportionate to their actual population. For instance, Wyoming, the least populous state, has 3 electoral votes and that means there is 1 electoral vote for every 177,556 people. Most other states average out to 1 electoral vote for every 565,166 people. This means that smaller states like Wyoming have more influence over the election and how many electoral votes a candidate gets.

One of the biggest issues with the voting system is the restrictions many people face when going to vote. Despite registering with the authorities a lot of minorities face discrimination when they are going to vote a the ballot boxes. Ever since the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in 2013, many states have tightened their grip on voter requirements and laws. Some have put barriers in front of ballot boxes, cut voting times, restrained registration and purged voter rolls. These efforts have resulted in significant drops in voter turnout, but have also placed burdens on racial minorities, the elderly and young voters. In an interview from 2018, Barack Obama claimed: “We’re the only advanced democracy that deliberately discourages people from voting.” In 2016, voter suppression in more than 30 states led to the black voter turnout dropping by 7%.

In conclusion?

Overall, the democratic electoral system of the United States of America is very complex and was made to be as fair as possible. While the system could be improved and criticized, it does prove to be fair in some situations and is one of the most advanced in the world.