The quote that I chose is from Alexander Keyssar, " As a nation, we have come to embrace “one person, one vote” as a fundamental democratic principle, yet the allocation of electoral votes to the states violates that principle." I chose this quote because it deals with our democratic form of government, in which the government would give power to the people. Representatives are chosen by the people so they can make decisions for them.
To my understanding this quote critiques that the democratic principle is being violated because the electoral vote system not the popular vote is the one that chooses our president. For instance, the popular vote is the total overall of votes in a country where Americans vote directly to chose their candidate in a presidential election, however the president is elected by an institution called the Electoral College where electors officially elect the president. For me, to select the president via the electoral college means that the U.S is not trusting their people and that we are not really a democracy and that by the popular vote we are making people believe that they have some kind of participation on choosing who our next president will be and in reality we are not participating. So I agree that people would feel discourage when they realize that taking their time to go out and vote would not really make a difference on their opinions and what they want best for this country. By choosing presidents by electoral vote our country is giving states a voice in the presidential election and not a voice to our people. I see the electoral vote process as unfair because it is not directly proportional to that state population so because smaller states have less electoral votes their influence on the presidential election would be less. If popular votes were to be use to choose our president every vote would have a significant impact. Why would we have such a complicated method of choosing our future president that a lot of people would not really understand?
I totally agree with your statement I don't believe either that the government trust the common citizens, they make us feel like we are part of the government system when we don't mean much. The government stays in their own circle and we really don't know what's going on in that circle.
ReplyDeleteI wish people would be allowed to be more involved in what is going on in politics overall because I feel that we are not informed properly and that secrets are being kept. Also, in another note , we know that people that people who get into politics are those who have money,power, and wealth and they usually have been doing it for generations so what hope people like us (poor) or immigrants have into getting involved in politics, not so much.
DeleteBy changing state laws, The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the majority of Electoral College votes, and thus the presidency, to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by replacing state winner-take-all laws for awarding electoral votes.
ReplyDeleteEvery vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps of pre-determined outcomes. There would no longer be a handful of 'battleground' states where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 80% of the states that now are just 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.
The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of Electoral College votes—that is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). The candidate receiving the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) would get all the 270+ electoral votes of the enacting states.
The presidential election system, using the 48 state winner-take-all method or district winner method of awarding electoral votes, that we have today was not designed, anticipated, or favored by the Founders. It is the product of decades of change precipitated by the emergence of political parties and enactment by 48 states of winner-take-all laws, not mentioned, much less endorsed, in the Constitution.
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founders in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for President. States can, and have, changed their method of awarding electoral votes over the years. Historically, major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided).
Support for a national popular vote is strong among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group in every state surveyed recently. In the 39 states surveyed, overall support has been in the 67-83% range or higher. - in recent or past closely divided battleground states, in rural states, in small states, in Southern and border states, in big states, and in other states polled.
Americans believe that the candidate who receives the most votes should win.
The bill has passed 33 state legislative chambers in 22 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 250 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
NationalPopularVote.com