The Strengths of the System to Elect the American President Essay Sample free essay sample

The American presidential electoral system consists of five different phases. the chief two being the primaries and the Electoral College. Although the Electoral College has been used since the establishing male parents wrote the fundamental law. significance there are many strengths in the system. the failings of the system outweigh well the strengths. Some of these being. the campaigner without the popular ballot can be elected as president. For illustration in the 2000 presidential elections. George Bush won against Al Gore with no popular ballot. This is merely one of the many grounds as to why the failings outweigh the strengths. The Electoral College is the system used in the US to vote on a campaigner for the presidential term. Voters from each province cast their ballots for presidential voters who are representatives for the existent presidential campaigners. These voters so cast their ballots for the presidential campaigner that won the bulk of popular ballots within that province. Each province has a different sum of Electoral College votes dependent on their population size. for illustration New York has 35 ballots. However there are some failings of this system. these including unequal representation from province to province. Smaller provinces tend to be over represented and larger provinces such as Florida tend to be massively under represented. For illustration. California with a population of about 38 million. merely has 55 Electoral College votes. this in comparing to Wyoming’s population of 500. 000 and 3 Electoral college ballots means that per Electoral College ballot California has 617. 000 people compared to Wyoming holding 165. 000. This enables the smaller provinces to do each person in the province better heard significance that minority voices are regarded more. Some may state that this is more democratic. nevertheless it is unjust and most rebelliously undemocratic as some voices are heard â€Å"louder† than others. Meaning that the consequence of the Electoral College is under representative of the true population’s positions. Therefore the system used to elect the American president is massively unequal in the sense that it under represents the bulk and over represents the minority. This being merely one ground as to why the failings of the presidential election system outweigh the strengt hs. Another failing with the Electoral College procedure is. the construct of victor takes all. This means that no affair what per centum of the ballot the victor gets. whether it is 50. 1 % or 98 % they will both be elected as president. This is seen every bit undemocratic as the other campaigner may merely hold 0. 2 % of the popular ballot less than them intending that there is about equal support for both campaigners. This means that half the population of the US will be under represented and will non hold with the policies of the presently elected president. This besides means that they can non show their position easy and most of the population is non made happy by the determinations of the president. A major illustration of this is in the presidential election of 2000 ; George Bush stole Al Gore of the presidential term. Al gore won 48. 4 % of the ballot to Bush’s 48 % . nevertheless Bush got 271 Electoral college ballots to Al Gores’s 266 significance that he was ann ounced president without the popular ballot. This is massively undemocratic. as the true victor. in this instance Al Gore. did non win the election. Thus this failing adding to the sum they outweigh the strengths in the presidential election system. Primaries are another chief portion of the Presidential election system in the US. there is the unseeable phase which is the really first phase of the presidential run. in the twelvemonth continuing the election campaigners show their purpose to run. Primaries nevertheless are the more important type. they are held around February or March of the twelvemonth of the presidential elections. This twelvemonth in 2012 Super Tuesday. which is the day of the month that the bulk of provinces hold their primaries. was held on the 6th March. Although some provinces take portion in forepart burden which is where they bring the day of the month frontward. this is an act in order to do smaller less important provinces have more influence on the consequences intending campaigners run more in these provinces. An illustration of these early provinces in 2012 is Iowa. Looking like a just and simple manner to elect a campaigner. this system has its failings. A chief one being intra-party differences that it creates. As the campaigners that are contending against each other are from the same party this can do a split within the party and can do problem and tenseness. intending that they find it hard to work in unison and to the best of their ability in order to win the election. An illustration of when this occurred was in the 2008 primary elections. Clinton and Obama both from the Democrats party where the two favourite campaigners and this caused a divide within the party as some supported Obama and some supported Clinton. doing it highly hard for the party to map sufficiently. This significance that the failings of the Primary subdivision of the presidential election outweigh the strengths. turn outing one time once more that the system has many mistakes. On the other manus. the establishing male parents seemed to make a successful occupation with the manner they wanted their president to be elected. there are many strengths of the system. The NPC’s. National Party Convention. are held by each of the major parties. They are held in the summer clip normally around the terminal of August and start of September and last around four yearss. The chief parties hold them in big metropoliss all over the provinces. for illustration in this current 2012 election the Democrats held their convention in Charlotte. North Carolina and the Republicans held theirs in Tampa. Florida. The National Committee decides the locale in which the party holds their convention and it is attended by delegates and the media. It has formal maps and informal maps. the most of import formal map being the choosing of the presidential campaigner and the frailty presidential campaigner. Although some say that it is more the confirming of the campaigner instead than the choosing of. as the parties tend to be certain from the primaries which candidate they will be picking. These conventions seem to hold much strength. an illustration being the fact that they promote serious party integrity as there are no more intraparty differences and the party is all now endorsing the same campaigner. It tends to be the lone clip in the whole four-year procedure that the whole of the party is in the same topographic point and is endorsing the same campaigner. Conventions heal the lesions that the primaries create. they give the defeated campaigner a opportunity to back up the chosen campaigner and demo the greater public that they believe they will do a good president. For illustration when Clinton lost to Obama. she showed that she supported him in this clip and this could hold been a ground that he won the election. as they were demoing party integrity. The Electoral College. although holding many failings there is mark that the system has its strengths and that it works good for the undertaking it is set abouting. A chief strength is that it ensures that the States even with the smallest populations can hold important impact on the result of the election. Meaning that while it is of import to run and dressed ore on the provinces with the most Electoral college ballots. such as Texas and Florida. in a close cervix race between two campaigners. as the 2012 election is turn outing to be. the smaller provinces still carry Electoral College ballots which could go compulsory for the campaigner who hopes to win to derive. This means that the smaller provinces are non neglected and it is more representative of every province instead than the merely the larger provinces positions being voiced. This gives the president more legitimacy due to the fact that he manner in which they campaigned and won their ballots was more democratic and relati ve across the whole of the States. alternatively of it being concentrated greatly in one country. This means that in the approaching 2012 election provinces lying Wyoming and Alaska will hold equal opportunity of being represented. as California or Texas will. Therefore the democratic and representative factors of this system demo there are many strengths to the system presidential elections. Although the Primary system creates intra-party differences and acrimonious personality conflicts. it does hold some strength. for illustration it has shown that really runing and winning a primary is a really demanding undertaking. This significance that whatever candidate decides to run they will be tested a great trade in all different state of affairss and if they fall at any point during this procedure it could free them the opportunity of going the campaigner for their party. Thus any campaigner that makes it through this vigorous system is said to be tried and tested and ready to run the US. If they can cover with the primary system so they are fit to be a president and can manage about everything if non everything that comes their manner. For illustration in the battle between Obama and Clinton in 2008 Obama proved to be a strong campaigner and so in bend went on to win the presidential elections. This system gives the citizens who are voting for the campaigner religion and i s hence a great strength of the system that elects the American president. Although there are many strengths to the system that is used to elect the US President. these being the demanding trial the president are put through in the primaries or the manner that the Electoral College preserves the voice of smaller provinces. there is many more failings. such as Primaries being a acrimonious personality competition doing intra-party struggle or the unequal representation that the manner the Electoral College ballots are distributed creates. turn outing that the failings of the system used to elect the President of the USA in fact outweigh the strengths.