To Preserve or not To Preserve

The Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. Over the duration of our Government course, we have taken a portion of that time to educate ourselves on the importance of the electoral college, along with the disadvantages that accompany it. In spite of the disadvantages of the electoral college, I have learned, the system should be preserved in the future. 

The Electoral College comes with several disadvantages. Some disadvantages to the Electoral College system include that candidates that win more popular votes can be still denied the presidency. Also, many people argue over the fact that depending on which state you live in, citizens experience presidential campaigns in vastly different ways due to the Electoral College. In the case that no candidate gets the majority of the electoral votes, the vote is settled in the House of Representatives which takes out the people’s vote entirely. Furthermore, the Electoral College “is ‘dangerous,’ not only dangerous but undemocratic” (Berns, 122). The danger that Berns describes is “said to consist in the possibility that a candidate might receive a majority of the electoral votes while receiving fewer popular votes than his or her opponent” (Berns, 122). However, along with the disadvantages are many advantages.

The Electoral College is incredibly crucial to our voting system. “It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Electoral College in American politics… in every presidential election, this awkward procedure shapes the election process – from party nominations to the selection of running mates, overall strategy, fundraising activities, candidate events, distributing resources, media coverage…” (Shea, 122). The Electoral College system gives the small states a chance against the large states. Because the large states have so many more voters, it puts the small states at a disadvantage. According to the textbook, “if the selection of the president was based on popular vote, the largest states (states with the most voters) would elect their favorite son every time” (reader, 121-140). However, a candidate must receive the majority of Electoral College votes, meaning at least half of the overall number of electoral votes. This gives the small states a better chance at getting their candidate elected.

The Electoral College is therefore a necessary piece of the American democracy. Without the Electoral College, smaller states would have no chance at getting their opinion voiced because they have smaller populations and less voters. It makes each election an equal race and must be preserved.

 

The Political Process in an Age of Technology

Over the course of this last trimester in our government class, we’ve ventured through so many branches of our government and the processes within it that it was difficult to even start to think about what I wanted to write my reflection on.  After a while, I began to think about not only what I found interesting, but what actually was important to me in regard to become a better citizen of the United States. I spun the wheel and I finally landed on technology’s impact on elections and the political process today. As technological advancements are made each and every day, political leaders gain more and more access to the public via the internet, the media, and more. Examples of these are: campaign commercials that can be accessed from all over the world, candidates gaining donations through the internet, and the ability to connect more to the public through the ability to really hear what they have to say. All of these things are both good and bad; however, I believe the increase in access to the public via technology is, in the long run, a good thing. The fact that political leaders are able to get themselves out there much easier allows for people to participate more and be more engaged. As the United States has become more reliant on technology (which is not a good thing for it promotes laziness), it has become all that people do. This is why I chose this topic to reflect on; simply because I, myself, spend so much time utilizing technologies that are available to me.

The campaign commercials’ availability on the internet is a good thing because it allows those who rely on technology to receive political news to see them. It began with only those who had access to a radio could hear the candidates, then it went to television which progressively increased until now, when “47 percent of non-Hispanic whites use the Internet, e-mail or text messaging to get political news or exchange their views, compared with 43 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 50 percent of English-speaking Hispanics” (1). This statistic shows just how many people solely rely on their access to technology. This allows a more technical fight for presidency because it allows more people to see commercials that are both for and against the candidate of their choice, giving them a broader perspective.

http://dekerivers.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/2008-presidential-predictions/

                Candidates now have the ability to take in donations and other sources of money to spend through the internet. This is a fantastic thing because it helps prevent the “risk of money power dominating the candidate” (2). For so long, candidates that have more money are simply always going to have a better chance to win. This is because, from the get-go, they are able to campaign more, influence more people through said campaigning, and more. Now, with this availability of technology to aid in this financial issue, candidates can be more evenly matched. There will always be a candidate that is funded more heavily than others; however, with technology, hopeful candidates can start their campaigning over the web before the really start it in the political process. This allows for more equality for all.

 http://www.prx.org/pieces/25096-clinton-addresses-money-in-politics

                Lastly, the ability to have access to the true voices is crucial when talking about the benefits of technology in today’s political process. As Prof. Daniel Kreiss from Stanford University said, “These technologies are bringing about a radical change in the political process as ordinary citizens are increasingly participating and making their voices heard”(3).  As more people turn to technology to get their news and see the latest updates about their candidates, it allows more people to communicate in some form with them. In the 2008 election, people made videos and posted them to YouTube to ask questions to candidates of the presidential election during various debates. This alone speaks at length at the vitality of technology in regard to communication between the people and the candidates.

http://socialmediasaturday.eventbrite.com/

                This is just a glimpse at what I learned in my government class. As I conclude this post, I think about the fact that before this was brought to my attention, I didn’t even think that this was a factor in the political process. I have been raised in such a technologically advanced age that I wouldn’t have ever known the difference. Before, I can’t imagine what campaigning was really like and the challenges they must have faced. Voter participation wasn’t a big issue because of the universal patriotism during that time, but during the years after that and before the age of technology began, the hoops that candidates must have had to leap through to promote voter participation must’ve been crazy. However, now, “people need little more than an Internet connection to become a more active part of the political process” (1). This is what makes technology so important. At the end of the day, promotion of voter participation and having the peoples’ voices heard are the things that make technology such a benefit in today’s political process.

(1) : http://articles.cnn.com/2008-06-26/politics/technology.election_1_mindy-finn-political-process-online-media?_s=PM:POLITICS

(2): http://www.sbs-resource.org/technology-in-the-political-process-a-grey-area-with-no-clarity-yet.htm

(3): http://www.stanford.edu/~dkreiss/Comm111S.html

270 to Win!

After learning about the electoral strategy in class, I became very interested and I wanted to learn more about it.  It interested me so so much primarily because I always imagined that candidates traveled the whole country, spreading his ideas and hoped that a state would vote for them on election day.  I was VERY wrong.  In class, as a group we participated in an activity where we divided up the states and predicted their vote in the upcoming election based on past election’s results and even the GDP and unemployment rates of the state.  This exercise made me think about how if a President outsmarted another he could win because he won a crucial swing state.  This idea made me feel like the electoral strategy was an unfair tool because a President should be elected because of his ideals and not how well he can campaign.  However on second review, I feel that this method is available to anyone and whoever strategies the best can most certainly win.

In class we did our own mock election using 270 to Win, which helped to realize that one state can win or lose an election for a candidate.  In class for our group, the swing states that were crucial for the upcoming 2012 election were Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.  We figured that the candidate to win the majority of these states would have a clear advantage over the other.  After doing extra research I came upon some statistics form the University of Central Arizona that show the swing state from the 2008 election.  These stats prove our groups mock election because the candidate that won 2 out of these 3 states ended up winning the election.

The easiest way to see how the Electoral Strategy is used is to look at past elections and see how the states with the heaviest amount of votes can affect a election so greatly.  In the picture above it is easy to see that states like Texas, California, Florida and New York clearly affect the election the most and explains why the Electoral Strategy is so important.  This specific representation of the Electoral Strategy is taken from the 2008 election.  Obama ultimately won the election outright because of his ability to take over the swing states and keep the already democratic states, which proves the true importance behind the Strategy of winning the Presidential Election.

Overall, after the learning in class and after this reflection, I have learned many things after my reflection of the Electoral strategy.  One of these thing is that Presidential candadites don’t go into election day with hopes to win but they usually have a good idea who is going to win because of the Electoral Strategy.  It is also very nice to know that an idea developed in class represents real life statistics from an actual election.  This is very important to my knowledge of elections and that’s why it is so crucial to learn about.  This will also help me follow along with the current election because if I can pinpoint the states of where I think campaigners might go to then I can match up to see if I was right.  This kind of awareness is vital to people everywhere because all people are affected by the results of each election so greatly.