Elections Electionsand andRepresentation Representation
Elections and Representation By Sandra Deng
T
his issue’s theme of representation is fitting, considering that I am currently writing this piece in the midst of election season. With everyone being bombarded with voting campaigns, from pop-ups on social media to news outlets reporting on the polls, it is nearly impossible to escape thinking about the 2020 presidential elections.
But amidst all this talk about voting, how does it work? Like most modern day countries, the United States has a democratically elected leader. Every four years, a nationwide election is held to determine our next president. How the voting works, however, is largely dependent on which state you live in. For example, all states have different voter registration laws, with North Dakota being the only state that doesn’t require it at all. Unlike most modern day democracies, the United States uses the Electoral College system to determine its president, as opposed to a simple popular vote. Each state is assigned a certain number of representatives, which is reflective of the amount of seats they hold in Congress. Rather than vote for the president directly, citizens are actually voting for who they want their representatives to vote for. So why is the process so convoluted? Why can’t the president simply be chosen based on who the most citizens voted for? The Founding Fathers cemented this system into the Constitution on purpose. Firstly, they didn’t trust the American people, who were largely uneducated at the time. Thus the Electoral College was to consist of educated men, who would be able to elect the best candidate for the country. Secondly, news travelled slowly back then. The Founding Fathers knew that things could drastically change in the days leading up to Election Day, things that could sway the votes of citizens, and that news of these changes might not reach the ears of voters in time. If anything important changed by the time the Electoral College arrived at the capital to officially submit their votes, they would be able to make the decision they thought would be best for their citizens. Finally, the Founding Fathers couldn’t possibly have foreseen our modern political party system, where partisanship has drastically changed elections.
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