presidential election process requires reform

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

process includes primary process to select presidential candidate and the electoral college which is used to decide the president in the election

Question 2

paragraph 1: does require reform as primary process long and some states have more influence

Answer 2

-2016 CLINTON success in primaries was due to our raising opposition with $250 million
-2024 REPUBLICAN primary RON DESANTIS focus all campaign on Iowa and New Hampshire as they came first
-2020 SOUTH CAROLINA 4th primary was crucial for BIDENS victory

Question 3

paragraph 2: doesn’t require reform as primaries uphold democracy and voter say even if not party favourite

Answer 3

-OBAMA successful in 2008 primaries due to opposition to iraq war which his party supported
-TRUMP 2016 success in invisible primaries allowed him to succeed as voters wanted change

Question 4

paragraph 3: does require reform as electoral college undemocratic, don’t need to win popular vote

Answer 4

-2016 TRUMP won but lost popular vote by 2.87 million votes
-2000 BUSH won but lost popular vote by 543,000 votes

Question 5

paragraph 4: doesn’t require reform as EC upholds a two party system and produces a clear winner

Answer 5

-1992 ROS PEROT 19% popular vote 0 ECV
-only 2 cases of unclear winner most recent is 1888
-2020 democrats and republicans shared 98.1% vote

Question 6

paragraph 5: does require reform as some states have far more influence over election outcome

Answer 6

-CALIFORNIA 60x bigger than WYOMING but only has 18x more ECVs
-FLORIDA 1 ECV per 700,000 people, Wyoming per 195,000 people

Question 7

paragraph 6: doesn’t require reform as protects interests of smaller states and upholds federalism, prevents candidates focusing on one region

Answer 7

-2008 OBAMA appealed to states such as VIRGINIA that hadn’t voted democrat in decades
-2020 BIDEN focused on re building blue wall that had swung to trump in 2016 (mishigan, wisconsin)