Ben McCarthy

English 103

Janie Miller

Date

Don’t Bother to Vote in 2012

Who enjoys discussing politics? Not me. In fact, I find that observing or participating in a political argument is one of the most painful things a person can subject oneself to. Watching a republican and a democrat argue over an issue is like watching two dogs with no teeth fight to the death. Each attack has no effect on its proposed target, yet both sides continue to shoot out opinions that they believe are facts. Mark Twain summed this up perfectly when he said, “In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue, but have taken them at second-hand from other.” As you can imagine, election time is a very painful time for a person like me. Being a newly inducted member of the voting body of America, I was obliged to cast my first vote in our nation’s last presidential election. “It is your civic duty to vote” said various celebrities in commercials designed to inspire the youth of America. I find this hard to believe. The Electoral College system renders individuals votes useless, creates uncompetitive states that do not effect the election, and constructs a two party system uncharacteristic of a real democracy. Then, once in office, the President often struggles against an uncooperative congress and is unable to pass any meaningful legislation. I believe that casting a vote is a waste of time and effort in the modern age, as we still rely on an outdated voting system that minimizes the potency of the individual vote.

At a very early point in American history, the founding fathers of our nation decided that the public could not be completely trusted. A true democracy, in which every citizen casts a vote on every law, would not work in a nation composed mostly of un-educated farmers. The federalists decided that the populous must have an illusion of control while the true power lies in the hands of educated persons with experience in politics (Welch). The United States of America is a representative democracy. We elect officials to vote on our behalf in state, local, and federal government. What many people don’t know is that our voting system works in a similar way. Just as we elect senators to create and control legislation, we elect representatives to cast our vote. This system is called the Electoral College, a term which many Americans have heard of, yet few understand. As far as I can understand, it is an archaic system that should have been discontinued centuries ago.

When you cast your vote for your presidential candidate, you do not directly vote for this official. In fact, you vote for a person called an elector. This is usually a prominent member of the party to which your candidate belongs. When one candidate receives the majority of votes in the state, they receive all the electors from that state. The number of electors per state is determined by the state’s population, with three electors being the minimum number for any state. Instead of having one popular vote for the entire country, each state has a winner take all popular vote. This is an all or nothing system. If candidate A receives 51% of the vote, while candidate B receives 49%, only candidate A’s votes will be counted, as he/she is the only candidate to win the electors. This also means that no matter how many votes a third party candidate receives, if they do not get the majority in a state, no votes will be counted for the national election.

Because the Electoral College operates like this, it is possible for candidates who did not receive the majority of votes in the nation to win the election. This of course happened in the 2000 Bush vs. Gore election. Lets say you were a Floridian who wanted voted for Nader, yet preferred Gore to Bush. Your vote for Nader would have actually been detrimental for Gore. For a vote to truly count in the Electoral College, it must break a tie. A tie in an election is extremely rare. Denis Muller makes a interesting point when he states “The probability of being run over by a car going to or returning from the polls is similar to the probability of casting the decisive vote. If being run over is worse than having one's preferred candidate lose, then this potential cost of voting alone would exceed the potential gain (Bohanon, Van Cott).”

Many people argue for the Electoral College system by saying it is the most constitutional system available. It was a specific goal of the drafters of the constitution to create a dual government in the United States with a carful balance of power between the states and Washington. In the early days of our nation, this made sense. Each state had its own popular vote and then the states electors voted in a subsequent election. Unfortunately, this system does not work in present time. The first issue we find is that most states are uncompetitive. These states vote for the same political party election after election. For example, Alabama has not gone Democrat in over thirty years. These states are ignored on the campaign trail and voters for the opposing party are doomed to have no influence on the election. Secondly, the amount of electors per state means some states voters have a stronger vote than others. As mentioned before, states have a number of electors proportionate to their population. Low population states, however, have a minimum of three electors, meaning less people per elector. This makes the votes of these citizens disproportionately more influential than the citizens of populous states. And third, when you vote for your candidate, your elector is expected to cast his or her vote for that candidate. Though it is rare, there have been cases where electors have chosen to vote for another candidate than the one they were expected to vote for. These are called faithless electors. There have been 156 faithless electors since the founding of the Electoral College (Welch). I find this concept hard to grasp. How can thousands of people vote for one candidate, just to have the person they elected vote for the opposing candidate? Though some states have passed laws to deter faithless electors, most lack such legislation. Though the system is wrought with problems, it has somehow evaded reform or abolition since its inception.

In 2008 we saw one of the highest voter turnouts in decades. About 56% of Americans cast a ballot in the last presidential election, compared with about 37% in the last congressional election (NY Times). In reality, people should pay more attention to electing their representatives. In a representative democracy, we entrust our vote on any issue or law to our senators and representatives. The president on the other hand is more concerned with foreign relations and pushing his party’s legislation through congress before his term expires. It seems that each individual expects the president to solve all of his or her problems, and when he fails to do so, he becomes a scapegoat for the worries of the nation. Americans need to realize that the best way to be represented in the government is to elect a competent representative, not the presidential candidate they like most. The Electoral College was purposefully constructed in a way that the members of the general public have little effect on the presidential election. With most states voting the same way year after year, only a few states are considered important. Candidates focus on these states while ignoring the others. Our nation is long overdue for a voting system in which every citizen’s vote matters equally. Until then, I chose to spend my time doing activities more worthwhile than voting, like sleeping.

Works Cited

Bohanon, Cecil E., and T Norman Van Cott. "Now more than ever, Your vote doesn't Matter." Academic Search Premier. Summer 2002. Web. Nov. 2009.

Heckleman, Jac C. "Now more than ever, Your vote doesn't Matter: A reconsideration." Academic Search Premier. Spring 2004. Web. Nov. 2009.

Welch, Susan. Understanding American Government. Wadsworth Inc. Print.

Whyte, Jamie. "Why Voting is a Waste of Time." Times Online. 13 Nov. 2006. Web. Nov. 2009.

“Election results 2008” New York Times. Web. Nov. 2009.