Explained : America’s Electoral System of 2020 | UPSC
HEADLINES:
Rethinking America’s electoral system
WHY IN NEWS:
What is the debate around the poll process and why are questions being raised about its viability?
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 2 : Elections
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS a few facts of America’s constitution are present in Laxmikant’s Polity . Here we have covered a little more in depth .
For MAINS go through Loopholes , African-Americans voting power , Women’s electoral power’s in U.S. Read it carefully .Let us dive in !
CONTEXT:
AMERICA’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM
- In a democracy the constitutional structure and electoral laws provide the basic framework within which the nation’s political life functions.
- The 2020 U.S. presidential election has been one of the most bitterly polarised democratic exercises in recent memory.
Explained : America’s Electoral System of 2020 | UPSC
QUICK FACTS
- The winner, Democrat and former Vice-President Joe Biden, has won over 74 million votes, and his rival,Donald Trump, has garnered over 70 million votes.
- The fact that this election has seen one of the highest turnout numbers since 1960 suggests that voters and both campaigns pushed hard to get their chosen candidate elected.
- Despite the presence of both a ‘blue wave’ and a ‘red wave’, the final outcome came down to the wire.
- These circumstances have fuelled anger over the lack of direct representation in the electoral system.
- This also has raised questions surrounding the viability of the institution, the ‘Electoral College’, that renders the popular vote insufficient to determine the victor.
BACKGROUND
- American citizens do not directly make governmental decisions. They elect officials to govern for them.
- Most elections in our country are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
- But elections for public offices may be held at any time, depending on state law.
A CASE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS
- Most states did not at first give the right to vote to women or African Americans.
- This amendment guaranteed the right to vote to male African Americans.
- However, it took another 100 years for African Americans to be able to fully exercise this right.
- In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.
- This law guaranteed that the federal government would intervene if any state attempted to deny a citizen’s voting rights because of race.
- As a result of this act, millions of African Americans in the South were allowed to register to vote for the first time.
WOMEN IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
- American women were not allowed to vote at the national level until 1920.
- The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1971, says that anyone over 18 is allowed to vote.
- On the average, about 60% of voting-age Americans vote in presidential elections. For local elections, voter turn out is usually much lower.
Explained : America’s Electoral System of 2020 | UPSC
HOW DOES THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORK?
- The Electoral College refers to the process by which the winner of the popular vote in each State is allocated a pre-specified number of electors, per U.S. State.
- The electors of each State are appointed by the Democratic and Republican Parties (and third parties, where applicable) of the State.
- The college follows a winner-takes-all rule for the popular vote, giving the first candidate past the post all of the electors of that State.
- Each State has the same number of electors as it does members in its Congressional delegation.
- Across the U.S., there are 538 electors.
- To win the presidency, a candidate would be required to secure at least 270 votes in the Electoral College.
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES
- No political parties officially existed when the U.S. Constitution was written in the late 1780s.
However within 10 years after the Constitution was written, the U.S. had two major political parties–
- The Federalist party that was a proponent of a strong central government
- The Democratic-Republican party (also called the Anti-Federalist Party) that supported strong state governments.
- The Whig party developed in the 1830s in opposition to President Andrew Jackson and his policies.
- The Whig party eventually split apart, mainly over the issue of slavery.
- Proslavery Whigs rejoined the Democratic party and many antislavery Whigs formed a new party in 1854 called the Republican party.
- Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president.
- Today, the Democrats and Republicans remain the two leading parties in our country.
- However, there are other political parties too .
THE ELECTION PROCESS
- When you vote for a mayor, senator, a member of the House of Representatives, a judge, etc. you are voting directly for that person.
- However, when you vote for president, you are really voting for an elector who has pledged to represent that candidate.
- They are a group of people who officially elect the president and vice president.
- Each state has as many votes in the electoral college as it has senators(EX: Rajya Sabha) and members of the House of Representatives.(Lok Sabha)
- Large states like California have more than 50 electoral votes.
- States small in population like Alaska only have 3 electoral votes.
- To be elected, a presidential candidate must put together enough states in the election to get a majority (more than half of the total) of the electoral college.
SOURCES : BBC
- The electoral college meets officially in December. Its votes are sealed and sent to the U.S. Senate.
- When the Congress meets in January, the current vice president of the United States unseals the envelope and announces the results to the Senate.
- This is the official moment at which the president and vice president are really elected.
ARE THERE ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THIS SYSTEM?
- The two electors are based on the winner of the overall State-wide popular vote.
- Once the votes are in, the electors are required to meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December.
- On these days they meet to cast ballots for the President and the Vice-President.
- Howsoever rare, the electors have surprised the college by picking another candidate than the one they were pledged to choose.
COMPLEXITY AND THE SWING STATES
- At the broadest level, there are two reasons why the Electoral College, as a mechanism for representing the will of the people, might be considered suboptimal.
- Firstly, under this system, surprisingly few voters truly matter in an election.
- All the others have historically only voted for the same party, and are likely to do so this time too.
- Not all voters in these States would likely be independent or undecided voters, capable of switching votes from one candidate to another.
- The proportion of voters actually determining the outcome of the U.S. presidential election well below 10% of the total population.
- If Mr. Biden had not obtained an undisputed majority of Electoral College votes, a ‘contingent election’ might have had to be held. #12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
- Under this system, the election of the President would have become the responsibility of the House of Representatives.
- This would also happen in a scenario where legal cases filed by the Trump campaign delay the confirmation of the final result.
- According to the Congressional record, only two presidential elections have been decided in the House, in 1800 and 1824 respectively.
IASbhai WINDUP:
DEVOLUTION OF POWER
- Some among the framers of the U.S. Constitution were of the view that Congress ought to elect the President.
- The other constitutional makers preferred that the power rest with State legislators or Governors.
- This also means that electoral college have independence to break from the popular vote in their States when they deemed that necessary.
- Presidents would be “characters preeminent for ability and virtue” and not merely adept at “the little arts of popularity”.
SOURCES: THE IE | Explained : America’s Electoral System of 2020 | UPSC

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