Elections are a democratic process in which citizens cast a vote to elect certain candidates which will represent them and their ideals. Electoral systems are important in promoting democratic governance. The kind of system embraced by every nation could help inhibit or promote governance and stability. Elections are a series of processes that begin from voter registration to the declaration of results. Knowledge of these processes can help provide insight on the opportunities and challenges to be addressed (Griffin & Newman, 2005). This paper analyses how the US elections work. This will include who votes and the factors that impact election outcomes. The first-past-post system is the most prevalent method of voting used in American elections. …show more content…
This is an indirect election where the votes cast by members of the Electoral College determine the winner (Polsby, 2012). Elections are won by a candidate who has garnered 270 Electoral College votes. A candidate could win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote. Before changing the 12th Amendment of the American Constitution (1804), the vice president became the runner-up during the elections. Congress, on the other hand, has two chambers including the Senate and House of Representative (Jamie & Jason, 2011). There are a hundred members in Senate who are elected for a period of six years. The class is the term used to describe the number of Senate seats available during an election in a particular year. Till 1913 after the passing of the 17th Amendment of the American Constitution, states determine the mode of electing senators. In most cases, state legislatures elected senators and not the electorates. On the other hand, there are 435 members in the House of Representatives who are elected for a period of two years. Elections for the House of Representatives elections are conducted after two years (Jamie & Jason, 2011). There could be Special House elections between in the event
The only office that is directly voted for by the people is part of the legislative branch. The number of representatives in the lower house, the House of Representatives, depends on the population for each state. For example, California remains the most populated state, allowing 53 representatives in the house. Each representative receives only a two year term. Noticeably, the Constitution gives a short term for the large House of Representatives because they are elected closer to the peoples' impulse.
The next elections to be held will be on October 2018 for ⅔ of the senate. The Chamber of Deputies consists of 513 seats, these members are directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation
Because of the winner-takes-all system, some presidents have won the election without the majority of the popular vote. In the 48 states that use the winner-takes-all system, whichever candidate wins that state’s popular vote receives all of the electoral votes for that particular state. The data gathered from the 2000 election demonstrates that despite winning the popular vote by about 540,000 votes, Al Gore proceeded to lose the election to George W. Bush by only 5 electoral votes. Florida’s 29 electoral votes were the deciding factor in this election. Because of the winner-takes-all system, when Bush won the popular vote in Florida, he was awarded with these votes, costing Gore the election.
The Electoral College has a total of 538 electoral votes. Which means in the House there are 435 votes, 100 in the Senate, and not forgetting the three electoral votes Washington D.C. receives. This mean that the number of electors could change according to how the population changes in number, by each decade according to the census. Also for a voter to win they need to have 270 or more votes, to receive a majority rule.
Mystie Robinson American Government Term Limits of Congress The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature of the United States of America’s federal government. Congress has two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of Congress can spend many years in office. They don’t have term limits.
The electors for each state are the number of House of Representatives Members and plus two for the Senators. In the United States there is a two party system consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats. The race between the two candidates is the first one to 270 electors because this is almost half of the total
These standards make it feasible for both contender to get discretionary votes from Nebraska and Maine, dissimilar to the victor take-all framework in the other 48 states. In the event that nobody gets a dominant part of appointive votes, the decision is tossed to the U.S. Place of Representatives. The main three contenders go head to head with every state making one choice. Whoever wins a larger part of states wins the race. The procedure is the same for the Vice Presidency, aside from that the U.S. Senate makes that choice.
In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it
The United States Senate, established under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, must have two Senators appointed from every state regardless of the population of the state. Much like the House of Representatives,
The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.
The number of electors in each state is equaled two plus one for each member of the House of Representatives, and Washington DC has three votes, bringing the total number of electors to 538 (“What is the Electoral College?”). It’s a well-known fact that when the public goes to vote for a candidate they also vote for the corresponding vice president. A much less well-known fact is that they are actually voting for the electors as well; by voting democratic or republican the corresponding electors for the party are elected as well (“Electoral College” 2010). Then on the Monday after the second Wednesday of December the electors assemble in a central location in each state and cast their votes for president. In forty-eight states, there is a “winner-take-all-system” where the highest vote getter in the state gets all the electoral votes, however in two states, Maine and Nebraska, there is a proportionality system in place; where if one third of the votes are for one party and two thirds are for another, the electors will split and one third of the state electoral votes will go to one party and the rest will go to another (“What is the Electoral College?”).
It is clear that American voters tend to avoid local elections and off-year elections. Run-off elections are also likely to register lower voter turnout as compared to first-round elections. The larger the gap between first round elections and run-off elections, the higher the decline in voter turnout. Moreover, there are lower percentages of young people voting as compared to the older population. This is an important point to note since it highlights that young people do not have information guiding them on the importance of voting.
When the candidates are running to be president, there are two systems of voting, the popularity vote and the Electoral College vote. The popularity vote is when the people vote, and choose which candidate they want for president, and then the people who run the polls look at the amount of votes each candidate gets. Which ever candidate gets the most votes in that state, normally gets all of that state 's Electoral votes. When it 's over they count up how may Electoral votes each candidate got. Each state has a different amount of Electoral votes based off of population with s state such as Texas having 38 votes, while one like Vermont has three, and at least 270 Electoral votes are needed for a candidate to become president.
Many people believe that the election plays the most important role in democracy. Because a free and fair election holds the government responsible and forces it to behave on voter's interest. However, some scholars find evidence that election itself is not enough to hold politicians responsible if the institutions are not shaping incentives in a correct way. In other words, the role of the election on democracy, whether it helps to serve the interest of the public or specific groups, depends on other political institutions. I