Elections

Reading chapter 8: Public Opinion and Voting and chapter 9: Campaigns and Elections was very interesting especially because the chapters were relevant with Election day a few days away. One thing I learned was there has been an increase of non voters over the last few years according to the text. I thought this was relevant because I believe this led to the outcome of the last election. The Pew Research center did a survey to determine why so many people chose not to vote. The survey’s results showed 70 percent of nonvoters didn’t vote because they felt uninformed about the candidates and 40 percent of non voters didn’t feel they had a duty to participate. Another option chosen by many nonvoters was that they felt their individual vote wouldn’t make a difference. All of these answers are answers I’ve heard from people that explained why they didn’t vote in our last election. These reasons are also reasons I’ve heard many say is why our current president is in office and it has been stressed by many that for participation is needed by every voter in this next election if they want to see a different outcome. Was shocked how many non-voters felt they were not well informed on the candidates. To me, that large of a percentage of people not feeling informed is very problematic in a country that relies on democracy to steer our country. Without voter participation, it is unlikely our government system will represent the people. My personal opinion is that a lot of confusion has to do with media which is talked about in chapter 9 of the text. Finally, I do believe that in our recent presidential debate that was broadcasted on TV, there is no doubt that the people were robbed from being informed and learning about the candidates. Instead, the debate was ego driven and didn’t allow the people to gain information but left the door open for more confusion. A lot of the media covering the candidates this year has not focused on informing the people but rather playing into the chaos by false news. Something that surprised me in chapter 8 was when the text was talking about geographic regions it mentioned that most white southerners were democrats because the Civil War and the outcome of it was blamed on republicans. For me, that was the last thing I was expecting to read. All the information I’ve gained over the years suggested that the south was a republican hotspot. Another surprise was reading that 45 percent of Americans consider themselves moderates and only 21 percent liberals and 35 percent as conservatives. This was news to me because if almost half of Americans consider themselves moderates, why is every election centered around liberals and republicans? In this current election climate there is an intense feeling of us versus them between the liberals and conservatives. This idea of “Us v.s Them” may not be new but the intensity of this concept has grown this year. Not only with elections happening but with a call to action by the movements such as Black Lives Matter that have also put our government officials under a microscope on whether they have every citizen's best interest at heart or if it’s limited to the wealthy and white individuals. In the text it talks about voter suppression and this has happened in this 2020 election. Some states not allowing mail in voting during a pandemic or making voting centers limited in areas that have more residents of color. In chapter 9 the text talks a lot about the expense of campaigns and how over the years, campaigns have become more expensive. One reason for this the text points out is front loading primaries. When primaries are rushed, it doesn’t give candidates time to raise money for their campaign on the road. The initial idea is that candidates would begin their campaign road and if more people liked their stances, the more money they could gain along the campaign trail to propel them. Now, primaries are being pushed to sooner dates which results in only the financially abundant candidates can stay in the race. The text states “the fear is that an accelerated schedule of presidential primaries will likely favor the richest candidates”(p.200). The reason this stood out to me because I feel that it says a lot that our current president is not a career politician but is considered one of the wealthiest people in America. Even though the text talked about the ways campaign donations are regulated, there are also legal loopholes, soft money and independent expenditures that make regulating campaign money seem more like an ideal. It was also a surprise to me that the text states half of a candidate's endorsements come from television advertisements. This surprised me mostly because I am in the younger generation and my personal experience is that most of the canidational information I’ve seen has actually come from social media platforms. Though I have learned about the electoral college once in school before, I learned a lot by reading about it in the text. The electoral college is a group of electors chosen by voters of each state. These electors represent the people of their state in the election. I didn’t realize that voters didn’t directly vote for candidates but instead the electors that will cast the vote. The number of electors from a state is equal to the number of state representatives in both chambers of Congress which was also news to me. Most states except Maine and Nebraska use the “winner takes all” system while crediting the votes during an electoral college. This means that the majority of the votes is the state's choice of candidate. I have heard many people call the electoral college an outdated system. I don’t feel as if I am informed enough to say that however I do think it says a lot that I only learned about the electoral college once in my whole k-12 education. This relates to this coming election because based off the last election, the electoral college does not necessarily depict the popular vote. Hilary Clinton won the popular vote last election but lost because of the electoral college. Regardless of my own political preference, it seems odd to me that we conduct two types of voter representation that result in opposing numbers. It seems that if popular vote and the electoral college don’t align there means something is wrong with the system.