malone pol 296n lecture vii

8/3/2019 Malone POL 296N Lecture VII

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LECTURE VII:REFORMING THEELECTORAL SYSTEM

Dr. Christopher Malone Associate Professor of PoliticaUniversity


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. e ee or ec oraReform?

We have looked at several parts of thenomination and election process for presithe creation and development of the electcollege; changes in the nomination proce

campaign financing for presidential electiand the political environment, or voter turelections. This puts us in a good position make some comments about reforms in a

these areas of the presidential elections.


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.Process

Recall that the national parties made major changes instates chose their delegates in the late 1960s and earlyoverwhelming majority of states now hold primaries to delegates from each state. But the effect of these chanbeen to extend the presidential election season by as mentire year. Before the early 1970s, presidential electio

earnest in the summer prior to the election, when the ptheir candidates at the conventions. With the primary sbeginning the first week of January, candidates begin c(i.e., issuing position papers and raising money) a full yyears before the convention is held. Several proposalsoffered:


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Compression

One solution would be to limit the period whenprimaries could be held. States could not holdprimaries either before or after a certain datedetermined by the parties.

Positive side: voter attention would be focusedshorter period, and candidates would have mobetween the primaries and the general electioprepare.

Negative side: having so many primaries in su


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Regional Primaries

A second reform involves having regions ocountry hold primaries on the same day. Twould solve the problem of states exercisdisproportionate amount of influence - in owords, states like New Hampshire and Iowwhich are small demographicallyunrepresentative of the U.S. would be gro

with other states in their region.


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National Primary

A third approach would be to create one natioprimary for each of the parties. Proposals woplace the primary some time in the summer bthe party convention. Such a system would b

consistent with "one person one vote" since estate would participate on the same day. It mincrease voter turnout in the primaries.

Downsides?


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III. Campaign Finance Law

Campaign finance has emerged as one of the major issuespolitics. We have looked at the way the system is financsome of the proposed reforms. Some general alternativeconsider.

A. Full Public Financing: sometimes called the Clean Mothis campaign finance reform idea seeks to provide full p

financing for campaigns for any candidate who agrees torules through public grants. The Clean Money Option haadopted by many states Maine, Vermont, Arizona andMassachusetts. Candidates would receive public funds athe requisite number of small contributions for instancedonor. The question is: is the public ready for full public f

Second, is the barring of private funds (corporate and un


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Campaign Finance Laws

B. Deregulation: A second alternative wouderegulate the campaign finance systemaltogether: that is, do away with all spendlimits and regulations, abolish the system

public financing for presidential candidatelet the doors to the free market swing widDeregulate and disclose is the mantra hanyone and everyone donate, but disclos

through the FEC.


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C. Alternatives to Buckley v. Valeoand CitizUnited: Any attempt at campaign finance refwould have to consider the Supreme Courtsin 1976 and 2010. One would be to offer aconstitutional amendment on campaign finan

though that is highly unlikely. Another would the existing Supreme Court to overturn thesedecisions and restore constraints on campaigfinance. Such a move might prove equally ungiven the conservative makeup of the Court.

take years of retirements and Democratic pre


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D. Super PAC Money: With the Citizens Uniteddecision, unlimited amount of money from undisdonors is pouring into the system to do issue adby "independent expenditure-only committees."

advocacy refers to the advertising parties and ogroups conduct during campaigns around issuecandidates. There are no limits on the amount ospent on issue advocacy - at least not yet. At sothis will have to be addressed.


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IV. Media CoverageWeve discussed the way that the media covers the modern ca

general points can to be made and possible reforms to be encomes to the media.

A. Deliberation: Elections are supposed to be a deliberation abaffecting citizens and about the nature of civic life in general

democracy, we receive information through the mass (televiscommercials, news shows, etc. But the question becomes: hdeliberation can take place in the system as it now stands?

B. "The incredible shrinking sound bite": Consider what we sound bite politics. The result is that candidates are forced message to the amount of time given to them. The effect is anot on deliberation but on exaggerated rhetoric.


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Media Coverage

C. "Horse Race": one study found that only 17news coverage during campaigns was devotpolicy and the issues. The rest focused campstrategy and tactics or the "horse race". Whoahead? Who is behind? Part of this stems frofact that complex issues take a long time to esomething that voters are either unwilling or to give, and something that commercial televfinds unprofitable.


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Media Coverage

D. Politics as a Spectator Sport - So the tricknews organizations is to make politics entertathe same time the news broadcast appears tinformative, much like sports. We watch; thepoliticians/candidates are the players; the joubecome the commentators.. We become speto this game that we have an interest in muchsense that we are interested in a football orbasketball game. But the difference is that th

decisions made in politics affect the welfare o


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V. The Electoral College

We have seen that the electoral college still playimportant role in the election of the president. Anpresidential contender has to win 270 electoral vorder to win the office regardless of the populacount. Theoretically, this means that a candidateas few as 11 states and win the office. Hence, cadecide which are the battleground states and wthe states out of play. In other words, candidata calculated decision as to which states they willtime and money in, and which states they have nchance of winning. Some possible reforms to co


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The Electoral College

A. Proportional plan: Currently, the electoral college in mis a winner-take-all institution. That is, you win the popula state, you win all the electoral votes of that state (only of states do not allocate electoral votes in this manner). an alternative would be some type of proportional systemthe losers in the states popular vote nonetheless rece

electoral votes. But the question becomes: what happenand again candidates do not receive the necessary 270 votes to win? This would be especially true if third partycandidates ran for president. Under the Constitution, theRepresentatives decides the winner in this scenario. Thewould be forever beholden to the Legislative Branch of

government in the choosing of the Executive the very Framers sou ht rotections a ainst.


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The Electoral College

B. Direct Election vote: The other alternative is to abolishelectoral college altogether and make the presidency andecided solely by popular vote. This would mean a consamendment to abolish the electoral college. Such a movunlikely, whether it is desirable or not. It would also essechange the way candidates run for the presidency. In oth

candidates would go where the votes are, which would murban and suburban campaigning versus rural campaignElectoral College forces candidates to focus on big statesmall states. Many rural states would be neglected with abolition of the Electoral College, and by contrast urban suburban areas would be inundated.


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VI. Voter Turnout

With the exception of the 2008 election (the higvoter turnout since 1968), voter turnout has bdeclining in the twentieth century. While theremany explanations for this phenomenon, soluhave focused on legal, institutional, and politi

obstacles standing in the way to higher voter Most people assume that the anemic voter tuthe United States is something of an embarraHence, possible solutions have been put forthto consider:


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Voter TurnoutA. Automatic Registration: Statistics show that about 80% of all those

vote actually vote. Should we have automatic registration, thus lowerbarrier to voting?

B. Election Day a National Holiday: Federal elections in America are hTuesday. Should it be a national holiday? Should we move it to a we

C. Mail in Balloting/E-Voting: Some states such as Oregon have movein ballot which stipulates a period of voting up to 21 days prior to the Should it be a national requirement? Or how about voting on the intebias in this method? The possibility of fraud?

D. Compulsory Voting: Some European countries and others around t

compel their citizens to vote should we do the same in the United S


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Voter Turnout

E. Proportional Representative System: We winner-take-all system in the United States foelections, meaning that the one who gets thevotes wins the seat or office. Losers get nothsome countries, proportional representation

norm, meaning that the losers will get a perrepresentation in office (e.g., a party that getthe vote will gain 30% of the seats in the natiParliament). Many argue that more voters withey are guaranteed some type of representa

Should we move to this type of system?


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Voter Turnout

F. Increasing Access to the Media forCandidates: Free airtime for candidates mmake voters more aware of the issues rathof the sound bites of the candidates, hence

interested in the election and more likely toNegative campaigning, goes this line of thiwould be transformed because candidatesspend more time on what they would like to

accomplish in office A good idea?

malone pol 296n lecture vii

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