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TruCoz : Your Platform for Political Sound-Off
- TruCoz
- Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
- The only rules for this blog are: 1) Keep it PG 2) Discuss, debate, and argue; but DON'T demean another blogger. If you do, you won't be posted. 3) ENJOY
7 comments:
I was particulary interested in our discussion on the elctoral college last night in class because i have always been somewhat confused about it and i still am a little will someone clear this up for me?
So each state gets a certain number of votes depending on their size right? So does utah usually always end up with the Republican vote since utah is mainly republican? So, if Obama were to win in Utah does that mean more than half of utah voters would have to vote obama and then utahs 4 votes would be for obama? Is that right?
Being a democrat and living in Utah is pretty hopeless... electoral college or not! Our state has always voted republican for as long as I can remember. If we got rid of the electoral college it would still be decided by the majority right?..which are republicans!
Amy- That's right. In Utah, we have five delegates to the Electoral College, and by our law (other states are different) they must vote with the majority or they are removed from their position and another person fills their slot and votes appropriately. So, if the majority voted for Obama here, we would go blue, even though we have been a predominately red state for so long.
So far i'm still undecided on who to vote for, I had been leaning towards Mccain for a few reasons. One I'm definately further on the republican side of major affairs such as abortion and gay issues, and two I really don't think the country should be turned over into the hands of someone with no real experience. I personally think that Obama has too many ideas with no real knowledge of how to back them and get them done whereas Mccain atleast has a lifetime of experience backing him.
However the reason I'm undecided now is a serious lack of confidence in Mccains choice of Pallin. She has the same lack of experience problem as Obama and to put her within arms reach of the Presidency if anything happens to Mccain is also a scary thought. Personally i'm utterly dissapointed that Mccain didn't go with Romney. An opinion I think many republicans share...
Ever since the time of FDR, Utah has voted democrat only twice, according to the records I could find (the other two were Truman in ’48, and Johnson is ‘64). So, when people say it’s pointless to vote Democrat in our state, since we’ll just be Republican, they are forgetting that it has happened in the past.
Turning my attention to the Electoral College, I have been doing some research, to make sure I fully understand how this process works, and there are some very interesting things I’ve learned. Electors, as they are referred to, are selected based on state laws, and cannot be a senator, representative, or any other federal government official. They are not always required to vote based on the popular vote of the state (this is determined by state law), however, they generally do. Electors aren’t selected til the day of the General Election, and they don’t actually cast their vote til December, when all the Electors are required to vote. As a result, it would be possible, however unlikely, that whomever is selected on Election Day doesn’t necessarily become the victor.
For more information on how the Electoral College works, read this: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/procedural_guide.html
Now, this doesn’t end my comments on the Electoral College; it wouldn’t be complete without my own personal views of it. I am completely in favor of the Electoral College. Why, you might ask? Because our nation is based on representation, not majority rule. Quoting the afore-mentioned site: “The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote.”
It is a common misconception that the Electoral College is a throw-back to a time when they had to travel vast distances to collect the votes. Nothing was stopping them from majority vote wins back then. They could have easily written the number of votes on a piece of paper and carried it with them, then handed it over to be added to the tally. Our founding fathers understood that in order for this nation to work, there must be consistency in how it is organized. Representation in all things is vital to that consistency.
I will admit that there are definite weaknesses in the Electoral College, many of which could be improved upon. In particular, I hear the sentiment of those who believe: “why should I vote in a state where it will obviously not make a difference.” There is a way to fix this. Instead of the majority vote taking the state, I am in favor of the idea of splitting the votes of the states based on congressional districts. Basically, within a given district, if the majority votes one way, that district would have an Elector who would represent that area’s voter sentiment. Thus, you would have states like California and Washington, where the voters are very different depending on the area they live in, and now their votes would really make more of a difference. Candidates would then have to focus more on specific areas of states, as opposed to just the ‘big ticket items.’ More people would vote, because they would then feel that their vote really can make a difference, especially in large states. This is something rather difficult to explain without visuals (which I am at a lack for), and may not solve all of the problems, but it would be a step in the right direction.
I think that the Electoral College is both good and bad. Good in the sense that it needs to be there to ensure that the majority doesn’t just take over; that the smaller states have an equal chance in the voting system as well.
Bad in the sense that the people representing the state should actually do just that and not just vote for whom they personally want. That way all the states have an equal chance at making a difference in the vote and being represented correctly. Maybe then more people would be willing to vote, knowing that they can and are making a difference.
I feel in many ways the electoral college has done us a disservice in the past. The most recent time being the 2000 Bush, Gore presidential election. Where Al Gore actualy won the popular vote, but because of the electoral college lost the election. I also feel that if we as a society accepted the popular vote as the way to select a president, then everyones vote would count. I hate to say it, but with the electoral college in a state like Utah my vote does not even count. No matter how i vote it will turn out in the favor of the republican canidate. Doing away with the electoral college would make it so every persons vote does count.
I do understand there is a method behind the madness of the electoral college. However i feel that it is out dated, bigger states have more electoral votes and i think it can be easily manipulated hints Florida 2000. Al Gore won that election in 2000, George W. Bush cheated Al Gore, the state of Florida, and The United States of America with that. I just think we needed a different president. Along with a new way of determining our president.
Electoral College + George W. Bush = Trouble!
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