Download or read book Let the People Pick the President written by Jesse Wegman and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with..." —Publishers Weekly The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose? Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president. Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president? In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

Download or read book The Election Book written by Carolyn Jackson and published by Scholastic Paperbacks. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Find out the answers to all your questions about the presidential election race.

Download or read book What Is a Presidential Election written by Douglas Yacka and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised edition (updated for the 2024 election) explains American presidential campaigns and includes stickers, activities, and a color-your-own Electoral Map! Who can run for president? What are the differences between America's two major political parties? Is the Electoral College really a college? The newly updated What Is a Presidential Election? answers these questions and many, many more. From stump speeches to campaign slogans, debates to nominating conventions, and finally to Election Night and Inauguration Day, readers will learn all about what it takes to run for--and win--the most powerful job on earth. Activities throughout prompt readers to think about the issues they care most about and consider what makes a good president, sparking discussion with friends and family. Includes a sheet of presidential bobblehead stickers and a color-your-own Electoral Map for the upcoming 2024 election!

Download or read book The Timeline of Presidential Elections written by Robert S. Erikson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In presidential elections, do voters cast their ballots for the candidates whose platform and positions best match their own? Or is the race for president of the United States come down largely to who runs the most effective campaign? It’s a question those who study elections have been considering for years with no clear resolution. In The Timeline of Presidential Elections, Robert S. Erikson and Christopher Wlezien reveal for the first time how both factors come into play. Erikson and Wlezien have amassed data from close to two thousand national polls covering every presidential election from 1952 to 2008, allowing them to see how outcomes take shape over the course of an election year. Polls from the beginning of the year, they show, have virtually no predictive power. By mid-April, when the candidates have been identified and matched in pollsters’ trial heats, preferences have come into focus—and predicted the winner in eleven of the fifteen elections. But a similar process of forming favorites takes place in the last six months, during which voters’ intentions change only gradually, with particular events—including presidential debates—rarely resulting in dramatic change. Ultimately, Erikson and Wlezien show that it is through campaigns that voters are made aware of—or not made aware of—fundamental factors like candidates’ policy positions that determine which ticket will get their votes. In other words, fundamentals matter, but only because of campaigns. Timely and compelling, this book will force us to rethink our assumptions about presidential elections.

Download or read book The Electoral College written by William C. Kimberling and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College written by Alexander Keyssar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Statesman Book of the Year “America’s greatest historian of democracy now offers an extraordinary history of the most bizarre aspect of our representative democracy—the electoral college...A brilliant contribution to a critical current debate.” —Lawrence Lessig, author of They Don’t Represent Us Every four years, millions of Americans wonder why they choose their presidents through an arcane institution that permits the loser of the popular vote to become president and narrows campaigns to swing states. Congress has tried on many occasions to alter or scuttle the Electoral College, and in this master class in American political history, a renowned Harvard professor explains its confounding persistence. After tracing the tangled origins of the Electoral College back to the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Keyssar outlines the constant stream of efforts since then to abolish or reform it. Why have they all failed? The complexity of the design and partisan one-upmanship have a lot to do with it, as do the difficulty of passing constitutional amendments and the South’s long history of restrictive voting laws. By revealing the reasons for past failures and showing how close we’ve come to abolishing the Electoral College, Keyssar offers encouragement to those hoping for change. “Conclusively demonstrates the absurdity of preserving an institution that has been so contentious throughout U.S. history and has not infrequently produced results that defied the popular will.” —Michael Kazin, The Nation “Rigorous and highly readable...shows how the electoral college has endured despite being reviled by statesmen from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson to Edward Kennedy, Bob Dole, and Gerald Ford.” —Lawrence Douglas, Times Literary Supplement

Download or read book How America Chooses Its Presidents written by Alexander S. Belenky and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2007-04-11 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How America Chooses Its Presidents addresses in a simple manner the whole spectrum of issues relating To The Electoral College from the perspective of its logical foundations. This is the first book to question the applicability of the Presidential Succession Act, a Federal Statute, In certain extreme but possible situations. The book argues that the act may not protect the country from election stalemates. Today, 50 states and DC rather than a college of electors award electoral votes in presidential elections. This appears to violate the "one state, one vote" principle, The constitutional norm governing the electing of a President by states, since a state's electoral vote quota is based on the size of its population. Despite the counting of the nationwide popular vote since the 1824 election, its tally does not have any constitutional status, since the popular vote in every state is no more than a means for determining the winning slate of presidential electors in the state. The "winner-take-all" principle of awarding electoral votes makes many states "safe" for either major party candidate. This narrows election campaigns to a "battleground minority" of the states and contributes to keeping more than 40% of the electorate uninterested in voting in presidential elections. Abolishing the existing election system in favor of a direct popular presidential election—by means of a constitutional amendment—seems unlikely. Seventeen small states—with five and fewer electoral votes each—have no reason to voluntarily surrender the "one state, one vote" principle in electing a President in the House of Representatives, As well as the chance of having a say in the Electoral College. The book analyzes a controversial proposal to "circumvent" the small states by introducing a direct popular presidential election without a constitutional amendment and argues that this proposal is unlikely to prevail either. The book proposes a modification of the existing election system to allow the country to choose a ticket carrying two mandates that the electorate can give in the election—from the nation as a whole and from the states and DC as equal members of the Union. If any two tickets carry one mandate each, The number of electoral votes won by each ticket helps determine the election outcome. If neither a majority of voting voters nor a majority of 51 members of the Union favor any ticket, The Electoral College mechanism takes over as a backup, and if it fails, The election is thrown into the US Congress. The book, written for a general readership, provides an overview of original election rules, determined by Article 2 of the US Constitution, and contemporary ones, determined by the Twelfth Amendment. Understanding the book does not require any special knowledge, making it accessible to people of all walks of life at any age. At the same time, The readers of How America Chooses Its Presidents will undoubtedly improve their ability to think logically, making them more critical of statements about the Electoral College and about election campaigns.

Download or read book The Selection and Election of Presidents written by Daniel Gasman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States' presidential selection process is intricate, constantly evolving, and imperfectly understood by most American voters. The long campaign brings to light conflicting concepts of the role of the president, inherent constraints on his powers, contradictions in the selection process, and possibilities for change or compromise that are at once its strength and its weakness.The Selection and Election of Presidents is based on a series of meetings and seminars organized by a French-American organization concerned with the presidential selection/election process. A varied group of experts ranging from former presidential candidates, to party leaders to professors engaged each other in an informal setting with much give and take between the speakers and questions from participants. The result is a primer on how political parties operate, their relationship to other elements in the American political system, and how eff ectively parties operate in the light of changes or reforms.The exchanges resulting from the seminars that are the basis of this volume provide a still-valuable outline of how the American system works when presidents are selected.

Download or read book Who Will Be the Next President written by Alexander S. Belenky and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the peculiarities of the current presidential election system not yet addressed in other publications. It argues that any rules for electing a President that may have a chance to replace the current ones should provide an equal representation of states as equal members of the Union, and of the nation as a whole. This book analyzes the National Popular Vote plan and shows that this plan may violate the Supreme Court decisions on the equality of votes cast in statewide popular elections held to choose state electors. That is, the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The book proposes a new election system in which the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole are determined by direct popular elections for President and Vice President in the 50 states and in D.C. This system a) would elect President a candidate who is the choice of both the nation as a whole and of the states as equal members of the Union, b) would let the current system elect a President only if the nation as a whole and the states as equal members of the Union fail to agree on a common candidate, and c) would encourage the candidates to campaign nationwide. The second edition has been updated to include a proposal on how to make established non-major party presidential candidates and independent candidates welcome participants in national televised presidential debates with the major-party candidates.

Download or read book Predicting the Next President written by Allan J. Lichtman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-07-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the days after Donald Trump’s unexpected victory on election night 2016, The New York Times, CNN, and other leading media outlets reached out to one of the few pundits who had correctly predicted the outcome, Allan J. Lichtman. While many election forecasters base their findings exclusively on public opinion polls, Lichtman looks at the underlying fundamentals that have driven every presidential election since 1860. Using his 13 historical factors or “keys” (four political, seven performance, and two personality), Lichtman had been predicting Trump’s win since September 2016. In the updated 2024 edition, he applies the keys to every presidential election since 1860 and shows readers the current state of the 2024 race. In doing so, he dispels much of the mystery behind electoral politics and challenges many traditional assumptions. An indispensable resource for political junkies!

Download or read book Presidential Elections and Majority Rule written by Edward B. Foley and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his latest book, Presidential Elections and Majority Rule, Edward Foley asks how the American electoral system can better represent the people. What kind of winner truly reflects the nation's votes: the plurality winners of winner-takes-all elections, as currently used, or the majority-preferred winners of a reformed system? How do third-party candidates affect American presidential elections? What, if anything, would change in a two-candidate run-off?And how can electoral reform be implemented without sowing chaos? Ultimately, Foley outlines a solution in which the Electoral College can be restored to its original majoritarian ideals through state law rather than Constitutional amendment.

Download or read book Electing a U S President written by Xina M. Uhl and published by 'The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc'. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The president of the United States holds the most important office in the country. The person who is elected to fill this position represents the nation's highest commitment to the rule of law. The process by which this job is filled can be difficult for struggling readers to grasp, leaving them uninformed. With a focus on simple language and helpful graphics, this book makes the ins and outs of a presidential election easy to understand. Readers will be directed to the Constitution for ultimate guidance, but this primary source is explained with clear examples of its use, from the founding of the nation to modern times.

Download or read book The U S Presidential Election Process written by Paul F. Kisak and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-02-28 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The election of the President of the United States of America is an indirect vote in which citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the U.S. Electoral College. These electors cast direct votes for the President and Vice President. If both votes result in an absolute majority, the election is over. If a majority of electors do not vote for President, the House of Representatives chooses the President; if a majority of electors do not vote for Vice President, the Senate votes. Presidential elections occur quadrennially on Election Day, which since 1845 has been the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, coinciding with the general elections of various other federal, state, and local races. The process is regulated by a combination of both federal and state laws. Each state is allocated a number of Electoral College electors equal to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress. Additionally, Washington, D.C. is given a number of electors equal to the number held by the least populous state. U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, each state legislature is allowed to designate a way of choosing electors. Thus, the popular vote on Election Day is conducted by the various states and not directly by the federal government. In other words, it is really an amalgamation of separate elections held in each state and Washington, D.C. instead of a single national election. Once chosen, the electors can vote for anyone, but - with rare exceptions like an unpledged elector or faithless elector - they vote for their designated candidates and their votes are certified by Congress, who is the final judge of electors, in early January. The presidential term then officially begins on Inauguration Day, January 20 (although the formal inaugural ceremony traditionally takes place on the 21st if the 20th is a Sunday). This book outlines the rather complex process of electing The President of The United States of America (POTUS).

Download or read book Presidential Elections written by Nelson W. Polsby and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brimming with data and examples from the heated 2004 election, and laced with previews of 2008, the twelfth edition of this classic text offers a complete overview of the presidential election process from the earliest straw polls and fundraisers to final voter turnout and exit interviews. The comprehensive coverage includes campaign strategy, the sequence of electoral events, and the issues, all from the perspective of the various actors in the election process voters, interest groups, political parties, the media, and the candidates themselves.

Download or read book The Presidency written by Stefan Lorant and published by New York : Macmillan. This book was released on 1951 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here's a superb record of every presidential election in the United States, from the days of George Washington to the struggle between Dewey and Truman. Over 1,000 fascinating pictures vividly illustrate this story of election drama--heroism, scandal, rugged conflict, and stirring ballyhoo. The pictures and text give abundant proof that politics brings out some of our most picturesque--and most American--behavior! Story by story, and picture by picture. author Lorant builds up his striking portrait of an important side of American democracy--our free elections. The forty-two chapters, one for each presidential election and an introductory one on the Creation of Office, make up a lively political history of the United States. With swift, sure strokes Lorant draws in the background of each campaign, portrays the characters of the opposing candidates, and describes the battles that took place. He gives the statistics: always the Electoral vote, and after 1828 the popular vote as well. Thus the reader can quickly see how each state voted for each candidate, the majority by which each election was won, and which Presidents won the popular vote but lost the Electoral vote. The contemporary illustrations do the rest--portraits, engravings, old prints, broadsides, pages of newspapers, facsimiles of letters, hundreds of pungent cartoons, and the best photographs of all the modern campaigns. Lively glimpses of the candidates in action, the rise and fall of parties, vivid bits of historical by-play, election-night scenes, nominating conventions, inaugurations all are here. The portraits of each major candidate for the presidency and vice-presidency from 1789 to 1948 precede each chapter. Never before has the story of presidential elections been so graphically told. This book gives you history at a glance, and will prove as valuable to the historian as to the reader for pleasure.--Jacket.

Download or read book The Selection and Election of Presidents written by Robert S. Hirschfield and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States' presidential selection process is intricate, constantly evolving, and imperfectly understood by most American voters. The long campaign brings to light conflicting concepts of the role of the president, inherent constraints on his powers, contradictions in the selection process, and possibilities for change or compromise that are at once its strength and its weakness. The Selection and Election of Presidents is based on a series of meetings and seminars organized by a French-American organization concerned with the presidential selection/election process. A varied group of experts ranging from former presidential candidates, to party leaders to professors engaged each other in an informal setting with much give and take between the speakers and questions from participants. The result is a primer on how political parties operate, their relationship to other elements in the American political system, and how eff ectively parties operate in the light of changes or reforms. The exchanges resulting from the seminars that are the basis of this volume provide a still-valuable outline of how the American system works when presidents are selected.

Download or read book The Presidential Counts written by and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: