Amendment Project-position Paper

Joseph Rainis, Shareesa Bollers, Jasmine Thomas, Moriah Taylor, Charles Williams 10/17/08 Water History Position Paper

Since the creation of this nation, the people have elected the president. However, the process in which we elect the president is not what one might expect. Instead of just going vote by vote, there is an elaborate and unnecessary system called the Electoral College. Under the system of the Electoral College, the people vote by state. The candidate in a state with the most votes gets that state. Each state has a set number of districts based on population. Each state counts up its Electoral College votes and the candidate with the most Electoral College votes wins the election. This system has many flaws. The new way to elect a president should be popular vote. The Presidential voter turnout in America has been horrible in the past. Only sixty four percent of American citizens over the age of eighteen voted in the 2004 election. One of the reasons for low voter turnout is the Electoral College system. Voters that vote against who their state is voting for sometimes just choose not to vote. California almost always votes for the democratic side, so many Republican voters in California simply don’t vote. They know that the majority of

votes will be for the Democratic ticket, so they feel it is a waste of time to vote. They already know what the result will be. Those who still vote have an almost meaningless vote. Theoretically, their vote does not count. When a candidate wins a state, they win all of the Electoral College votes for that state, even though they only earn the votes of a certain percentage of voters. This can alter the result of a closerace. The 2000 presidential elections were a perfect example. Al Gore was running against George W. Bush. Al Gore got more individual votes, but George W. Bush got more Electoral College votes. In March of 2008, President Bush reached a new low for his approval rating;thirtyone percent. If the election system were set up the correct way, using popular vote instead of the Electoral College, the United States would have never had a president who thinks “if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness.” The system of Electoral College is simply out-dated. With the speed at which information can be sent today, popular vote is not only possible, butideal. America is a democracy, and each vote should count equally.

Works Cited

“U.S. Voter Turnout Up in 2004, Census Bureau Reports.” United States Census Bureau. 17 October 2008 “Poll: Bush's Popularity Hits New Low.” CNNPolitics.com 17 October 2008 “George W. Bush Quotes.” ThinkExist.com. 17 October 2008 < http://thinkexist.com/quotes/george_w._bush/>