Week 14 notes

Presidential Elections Problems: Electors don’t have to vote the way of the people Popular vote is not always electoral college vote Ex. 2000 election, 2016 election Not all votes are equally weighted Alternative = direct election – popular vote wins

Elections U.S. elections = Winner-take-all or first-past-the-post system Whoever gets 50.1% wins, loser gets nothing Advantages: very simple, easy to get a majority party in power to get things done Disadvantages: minority has no voice, encourages a 2-party system rather than a multi-party system

Elections Alternative = proportional representation Used in most of Europe People vote for a PARTY, not a person Representation in legislature is divided up by % of vote each party receives Advantages: more parties can compete, more people feel represented, having less than a majority doesn’t equal 0 representation Disadvantages: more complex, fringe parties (ex: neo-nazies) get representation, doesn’t work for presidential elections

Voting Voting for candidates: Straight-party ticket: voting for just one political party for every office Ticket-splitting: voting for multiple parties on one ticket

Voting Ballot issues: an issue placed on the ballot to be decided by voters 2 types: Initiative: citizens write law Get signatures to get law on ballot People vote on law Referendum: Legislators write law Legislators vote to put law on ballot Same result, different process

Voting U.S. voter turnout very low 50-60% in presidential elections, 30-40% in off-year Problem: is it democracy if no one is participating? Possible solution: compulsory voting – people by law are required to vote Ex. Australia, Brazil

Voting In early U.S., the following groups were excluded from voting: Women African Americans Other racial minorities Non-property owners Anyone not from the dominant religious faith Only about 5-6% of the population could vote

Voting 15th Am. - African Americans can vote - 1870 Attempts continued to deny voting rights to poor, minorities until Civil Rights Movement Grandfather clause: can’t vote unless grandfather voted Literacy tests Poll taxes – must pay a fee to vote

Voting 19th Am – women can vote – 1920 24th Am – can’t require poll taxes 26th Am - voting age to 18 so that Vietnam soldiers can vote - 1971

Voting Current issue in voting: Voter ID Laws: Laws that seek to avoid voter fraud by requiring all voters to show an ID when voting Issues: people without photo ID tend to be the young, new immigrants, and the elderly Tend to vote Dem Republicans: pro voter-IDs, Democrats: against voter-IDs