The United States Presidential Election Process美国总统选举过程.pptVIP

The United StatesPresidential Election Process: Undemocratic? The Bill of Rights Institute Chicago, IL October 2, 2008 Artemus Ward Department of Political Science Northern Illinois University aeward@ /polisci/faculty/ward Introduction The Electoral College system had led to presidents who do not win the popular vote. The state-by-state electoral process that America uses to select its president has led to a situation where only about a dozen states are relevant. Voter turnout is irrelevant, except in the small number of states that matter. Issues and resources are skewed to “battleground” states. The process for resolving an election where no candidate reaches a majority of electoral votes is even more undemocratic than the electoral college. The People’s Choice Is the President of the United States “the people’s choice?” In 1960, Richard Nixon received 34,108,147 votes to John F. Kennedy’s 34,049,976. In 2000, Al Gore received 50,999,897 votes to George W. Bush’s 50,456,002. Of Course Kennedy and Bush won in the electoral college but consider this, Nixon’s votes constituted only 49.3% of the total votes cast and Gore’s only 48.3%. Nixon won the presidency in 1968 with 43.4% of the popular vote. Bill Clinton won in 1992 with only 43% of the total votes. Woodrow Wilson won in 1912 with 41.9%. Abraham Lincoln won in 1860 with 39.8% of the popular vote—the all-time winner in the “least popular successful candidates” sweepstakes. The Electoral College Presidential candidates and their campaign managers are not trying to win the popular vote. Instead, they attempt to put together a coalition of states that will provide a majority of the electoral votes. With 538 votes possible, it takes 270 to win. Main (4) and Nebraska (5) award their votes based on winning congressional districts and two for winning the statewide vote. 48 states and DC (3) have a winner-take-all system: whichever candidate gets the most votes in the state gets all of its electoral votes. This syst