Electoral College, Not People Real Voters in U.S. Elections
November 19, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN Ten days after the U.S. elections, the results of the presidential elections of a country that boasts to be a superpower is still in a shroud of ambiguity.
Many experts believe that the democracy which the United States has been boasting of is a mere sham. There are others who blame the election system for this undesirable state of affairs and yet there are others who believe that the main reason for the failure of U.S.-style democracy is that the people are not really taken into account in the United States. What is taken into account in its real sense is the Electoral College.
However, the Electoral College seems to have been devised unjustly to the extent that discrimination against some states is quite obvious.
What does not matter in the structure of the Electoral College is the population of every state. Some people argue that the Electoral College has laid the foundation of discrimination against certain states for various reasons.
In order to realize the real process of voting and election in the United States the functioning of the Electoral College is discussed below.
The Electoral College in the United States was set up for the first time in 1804 which was a compromise move between those who believed that the U.S. president should be elected by direct vote of the people and those who believed that he should be elected by the Congress.
The Electoral College functions according to the following formula: The political parties register the voters in the state conventions.
The registered voters elect their president. The votes are counted in every state. The voters cast their votes for president and vice president. In a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, the votes are counted and the candidates are elected if they get 270 electoral votes.
If none of the candidates win the majority, the Congress would elect the president from amongst the three top candidates, that is, the representative delegation of each state irrespective of the population of that state would cast one vote in the ballot box.
Overall some 538 voters are elected in proportion to the representatives of each state in the Congress; the Washington D.C. has three voters.
Thus the required vote for victory in populous states like California is 54 electoral votes, in New York 33, in Florida 25, in Ohio 21, Michigan 18, and Pennsylvania 23.
The elections are held in the first Tuesday of November. Every state has a certain electoral votes; 54 electoral votes belong to California while the least electoral votes belong to Alaska, Montana, and Weymouth. The United States has 50 states and a district called Colombia. The level of the electoral cards of each state is set on the basis of its representatives in the House of Representatives and Senate. Every state has two senators in the Senate irrespective of its population.
The representatives of the House of Representatives (HR) are determined on the basis of their population. Hence the HR has 435 members and the cards of the electoral voters are determined on the basis of the representatives of each state in both the houses.
Many experts believe that the democracy which the United States has been boasting of is a mere sham. There are others who blame the election system for this undesirable state of affairs and yet there are others who believe that the main reason for the failure of U.S.-style democracy is that the people are not really taken into account in the United States. What is taken into account in its real sense is the Electoral College.
However, the Electoral College seems to have been devised unjustly to the extent that discrimination against some states is quite obvious.
What does not matter in the structure of the Electoral College is the population of every state. Some people argue that the Electoral College has laid the foundation of discrimination against certain states for various reasons.
In order to realize the real process of voting and election in the United States the functioning of the Electoral College is discussed below.
The Electoral College in the United States was set up for the first time in 1804 which was a compromise move between those who believed that the U.S. president should be elected by direct vote of the people and those who believed that he should be elected by the Congress.
The Electoral College functions according to the following formula: The political parties register the voters in the state conventions.
The registered voters elect their president. The votes are counted in every state. The voters cast their votes for president and vice president. In a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, the votes are counted and the candidates are elected if they get 270 electoral votes.
If none of the candidates win the majority, the Congress would elect the president from amongst the three top candidates, that is, the representative delegation of each state irrespective of the population of that state would cast one vote in the ballot box.
Overall some 538 voters are elected in proportion to the representatives of each state in the Congress; the Washington D.C. has three voters.
Thus the required vote for victory in populous states like California is 54 electoral votes, in New York 33, in Florida 25, in Ohio 21, Michigan 18, and Pennsylvania 23.
The elections are held in the first Tuesday of November. Every state has a certain electoral votes; 54 electoral votes belong to California while the least electoral votes belong to Alaska, Montana, and Weymouth. The United States has 50 states and a district called Colombia. The level of the electoral cards of each state is set on the basis of its representatives in the House of Representatives and Senate. Every state has two senators in the Senate irrespective of its population.
The representatives of the House of Representatives (HR) are determined on the basis of their population. Hence the HR has 435 members and the cards of the electoral voters are determined on the basis of the representatives of each state in both the houses.