Week 3 – Discussion (A-K) Heather Brown POL201: American National Government
Your peer responses should be substantive and at least 100 words each.. As your reply to your classmates, attempt to take the conversation further by examining their claims or arguments in more depth or responding to the posts that they make to you. Keep the discussion on target and try to analyze things in as much detail as you can. For instance, you might consider comparing your classmates’ proposals for changing the Electoral College against your own proposal.
Here is the person I need you to respond to.
| Heather Brown-W3-Discussion(A-K)Heather Brown 2/16/2017 5:45:05 PM |
| Week 3 – Discussion (A-K)Heather BrownPOL201: American National GovernmentInstructor: Matthew SchusterFebruary 16, 2017First, all students should summarize how the Electoral College functions.The Electoral College is a special method used for electing the president of the United States. It was established by the U.S. Constitution and changed in the 12th and 23rd Amendments.The Electoral College consists of a total of 538 members, one for each U.S. senator and representative, and three additional electors representing the District of Columbia. Each state has several electoral votes equal to the combined total of its congressional delegation, and each state legislature is free to determine the method it will use to select its own electors.Explain the positive impact of the Electoral College and defend why the Electoral College should remain as it is currently. Be sure to include both the pros and the cons of keeping the Electoral College as it is currentlyConsiderably distant form disappearing minority interests by depressing voter participation, the Electoral College enhances the status of minority groups. This is so that the voters of small minorities in a State might make a difference between winning all that State’s electoral votes or losing all that State’s electoral votes. Since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to concentrate on the State with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number. The same principle applies to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so forth. Furthermore, in the article, What Are the Arguments Made in Favor–And Against–the Electoral College, Author Nathaniel Bates states, “Members of small states argue that if the system were abolished presidents would never bother visiting–or even advertising. Why visit a small state with a media market that reaches, say, 100,000 people, when a visit to a large state can put the candidate in touch with millions” (2004). Therefore, without the Electoral College to keep a balance in voting, there would be no way to keep any one power from over throwing another, or keeping some form of honesty in elections altogether.On the other hand, there is also the possibility that the winner of popular vote might lose. This is due much in part to the voters of the smaller minorities. Granted this does help to keep things balanced, it also has just as much power to over throw the balance based on whether voters may have been paid off or just swayed to vote against their beliefs because of what they might have heard at a speech. In the article, GOP Leaders United in Defense of Electoral College, Author John Gizzi writes, “Under this scheme, state legislatures would pass legislation that would bind them to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote—even if the candidate that got the most votes nationally did not carry that individual state. In short, this would be a de facto popular vote for President—and done without amending the Constitution” (2011).ReferenceBates, N. (2004, October 26). What are the arguments made in favor – and against – the Electoral College? History News Network. Retrieved from http://hnn.us/articles/8163.htmlGizzi, J. (2011, May 18). GOP leaders united in defense of the Electoral College. Human Events, 67, 5. Retrieved from http://humanevents.com/2011/05/18/gop-leaders-united-in-defense-of-electoral-college |
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