State's Electoral Votes example essay topic

... manual recounts. The Bush campaign hired former Secretary of State, James Baker to oversee the legal rulings. The Gore campaign hired former Secretary of State, Warren Christopher on their behalf. This eventually led to the Gore campaign appealing to the Florida Supreme Court.

It was ordered that the recounting procedure to move forward. Then the Bush campaign appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. They agreed to take the case of Bush vs. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board on December 1. On December 4, the matter was returned to the Florida Supreme Court for clarification. This was the birth of Bush vs. Gore. Florida Controversy Since the 2000 US Presidential Election, many studies have been conducted of the electoral process in the state of Florida.

There have been a number of flaws that have been discovered in the process. Some of these controversies include:" h News media call the state of Florida for Gore at approximately 7: 48 EST. However, the western panhandle of the state is in the Central Time Zone. The polls were still open and people were still voting.

It was also reported that the polls were closed in Florida while in fact the polls in the western CST were still registering votes. Did this error cause a number of voters, maybe as high as 15,000 not to vote? A survey done estimate by John McLaughlin & Associates feel that this mistake could have cost Bush around 5,000 votes in an area that is traditionally seen as Republican. The confusion to the voters in the state could have been avoided had the networks hadn! |t been too quick to make the call". h The brother of George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, was the governor at the time for the state of Florida. This lead to accusations by the Gore team of various improprieties charges. They felt that the brother connection was too strong and the assurances by Jeb for a Republican victory greatly adverse the final results.

This also led to the requests for the removal of Florida election officials". h There were also a number of invalid overseas ballots. Some were missing postmarks and others will filled out wrong. A poll worker went so far as to fill in the missing information on over 100 of such ballots. The Democrats wanted the entire overseas ballot forms to be discarded. The largest group of disputed ballots was the military's ballots. The Republican argued in favor of keeping the disputed ballots. "h There were almost 180,000 ballots that were omitted in the official final total.

These had been mistakenly filled out and in some counties the voting machines returned the ballot to allow voters to try again. In yet other counties, the reject mechanisms were not in place, therefore, giving a voter only one chance to have marked the ballot correctly. It was later discovered that these reject mechanisms were disabled in counties with a trend in voting Democratic. Decision Ultimately, Al Gore conceded the election to Bush. This was based on the decision of the Supreme Court on December 11, 2000 to end the recount. The basis of this decision was based on the various standards in different counties of Florida.

It constituted an equal protection violation. The court vote was 7-2. Although Al Gore strongly disagreed with the decision, he finally conceded for! SS the sake of our unity of the people and the strength of our democracy.! |Electoral College Method The American people do not directly elect the president; the Electoral College does. This leaves many mixed feelings among American citizens and the need for change is pressing.

Our founding fathers set up the Electoral College for several reasons. At the time, there was no radio or television. It was difficult for people to learn about candidates outside of their own states. It was felt that voters should choose electors who would take it upon themselves to learn about the candidates and ultimately decide. It was set up to be fair to all states. Each state receives one electoral vote for each of it US Senators and one vote for each of it US Representatives.

The number of Representatives is based on population. The number of senators is different. Every state has two Senators. Therefore, small states have bigger advantage in the Electoral College than the popular vote. No state has less than three electoral votes.

The voting process takes place after the election. There are meetings in state capitals and the casting of votes begins. To win, a candidate must receive at least 270 electoral votes out of 538. If the result ends without a majority, the House of Representatives select the President with the Senate choosing the Vice President. Reform Do we need a change in our election process? Some think so.

Today, the Electoral College just isn! |t working the way it thought to. With increasing technology, information spreads quicker and more efficiently than was ever imagined possible. Electors are not supposed to make up their own minds when they cast their vote. They were intended to follow the wishes of the people who voted for them. In most cases, the candidate who wins a majority of the popular vote will receive all of that state's electoral votes. The Winner-Take-All System could be the ideal system.

If the popular vote declares a winner, shouldn! |t it be fitting that the electoral votes should be awarded to the candidate with the most votes? Without reform, Americans begin to wonder why bother. Why vote if their vote won! |t be counted? Conclusion There are both advantages and disadvantages in the current Electoral College System. Some of the advantages include the contribution of the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of the popular support to be elected president. It can also enhance the status of minority interest.

It maintains the political stability of the nations with the encouragement of a two party system. It also maintains a federal system of government and representation. Disadvantages that are considered are the possibility of electing a minority president. Also the possibility of the Electoral College's role in suppressing voter turnout.

It also could fail to accurately reflect the national popular choice. It can be argued that we shouldn! |t change what our founding fathers intended. However, we must also remember that they denied the vote to blacks and women at first. They also didn! |t trust citizens to elect US Senators as well. Things change with time for good reasons. It is time to change the voting process in the United States today.