Strengths and Weaknesses of the Us Electoral System free essay sample

The electors chosen by each state are called the Electoral College. This consists of 538 members, comprising 100 senators, 435 congressmen, and 3 members from the District of Columbia. States with large populations, like California have over 50 electoral votes, while sparsely populated states like Alaska has only 3 electoral votes. This system of government makes the electoral system highly susceptible to voter suppression. Voter Suppression is the strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing people from exercising their right to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning because, it attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against the candidate or the proposition advocated by the suppressors, while political campaigning attempts to change the possible voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters through persuasion and organization. Voter suppression in the United States of America is mainly done by trying to discourage persons from voting by making the process harder, rather than preventing them from doing so. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 which was last amended in 2006 is the legislation set down to outlaw discriminatory voting practices against Americans. This law guarantees that the    federal government would intervene if any state attempted to deny a citizens voting rights because of race. The Act contained special enforcement provisions targeted at those areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest. This Act has been the main challenge to all possible attempts at voter suppression. Under the American electoral system, every state is able to set its own electoral laws, as long as it is in line with the Voting Rights Act this is good because each state is unique and will have its own unique electoral issues and a broad national law would not suit all states, but this also a key weakness as the lawmakers of each state are able to implement various voter suppression tactics to benefit their party under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right eg. During the 2011 legislative sessions, states across the country passed measures to make it harder for Americans, particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students and people with disabilities to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot. Over thirty states considered laws that would require voters to present government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Studies suggest that up to 11 percent of American citizens lack such ID, and would be required to navigate the administrative burdens to obtain it or forego the right to vote entirely. Three additional states passed laws to require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, though as many as 7 percent of American citizens do not have such proof. Seven states shortened early voting time frames, even though over 30 percent of all votes cast in the 2008 general election were cast before Election Day. Two state legislatures voted to repeal Election Day registration laws, though Election Day registration increases voter turnout by 10-12 percent. Finally, two states passed legislation making it much more difficult for third-party organizations to register voters so difficult, in fact, that some voter registration organizations are leaving the states altogether. A clear example of attempted voter suppression Florida came from Jim Greer, former Chair of the Florida Republican Party, on the Al Sharpton show where he said â€Å"In Florida, as in other states, its not the Democrats imaginations that are creating voter suppression issues; rather, its the systemic and predictable way in which Republicans are trying to discourage people likely to vote Democrat. They do this by creating arbitrary and unevenly enforced laws to create confusion and ultimately discourage the other sides voters. After an electoral spanking last cycle that was largely the backlash to neoconservative overreaches in the Bush Jr. era, Republicans were reflecting on how to deal with the surge of new and minority voters. I sat in on many meetings where it was discussed how to make sure what happened in 2008, when Obama brought out the college-aged voters, the minority voters, never happened again Another example of attempted voter suppression comes from South Carolina, where delegates there like in other states tried to pass a new law requiring photo identification at the polls, but were stopped by the Department of Justice, their submission did not include any evidence or instance of either in-person voter impersonation or any type of fraud that is not already addressed by the states existing voter identification requirement and that arguably could be deterred by requiring voters to present only photo identification at the polls. The department also found that non-white voters were 20 percent more likely to be excluded by the new law, a total of 81,938 registered minority voters lack the requisite identification. In concluding, it is safe to say the American electoral system, for the most part has been able to thwart attempts at voter suppression by the two major political parties. . Bibliography Online Newspaper Article Campbell, Ryan (September 04, 2012). Voter Suppression Series Part II: Florida. Retrieved from http://www. uffingtonpost. com/ryan-campbell/voter-suppression-in-florida_b_1840793. html Caldwell, Patrick (December 27, 2011). â€Å"Voting Wrongs. † What will the DOJ’s rejection of South Carolina’s voter identification mean? Retrieved from http://prospect. org/article/voting-wrongshttp://prospect. org/article/voting-wrongs Online Documents United States Department of Justice. History of Federal Voting Rights Laws-The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Retrieved from http://www. just ice. gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b. php