Swing States and There Influence
“A Democrat who lives in Kansas will never cast a meaningful vote in a presidential election in his or her life,” according reporter Ed Grabianowski. With this extreme statement Grabianowski is relaying the idea that in a democratic majority, like Kansas, one single persons vote isn’t significant. However, in contrast, states with where there is no definite majority each individual vote is central to which party the state will fall. These “important” states are called swing states. To the statement posed for this assignment, “only swing states matter”, I am in partial agreement. Swing states are not the “only” votes that matter but they do matter greatly. Swing states matter in presidential elections because
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In the 1992 presidential election the candidate that got the most swing state votes also won the election; out of 17 swing states for that year Clinton, the winner, won 11 of them. For every rule there is an exception and the 1996 presidential election is just that. President Clinton ended up winning the election over all; however his opponent won in the swing states. Clinton was only able to win his second term because he won 31 out of 50 states over all. During the following national election, 2000, Bush won the swing states by 72,949 votes. In the following presidential election, in 2004, Bush won again; his victory is similar to that of Clinton in 1996. Bush won 30 of 50 states signaling that he had no real need for the swing states; this type of situation again falls under the exception. During the 2008 elections, Obama won the elections and took the swing states as well. By the same token, President Obama won the following election, 2012, and collected all the swing states. Keeping in mind the one exception to the rule swing states have a history of making a difference which makes them extremely important along with seeming inability for them to be
Citizens from all over the country are also writing Bud, encouraging him to vote for their candidates. He quickly becomes the center of attention of the nation. Eventually, with the help of his daughter, Bud educates himself about the election and casts his vote. The movie Swing Vote depicts American elections in an unrealistic manner because the electoral college is set up in a way which allows for faithless electors, and the critical votes are those of the electors, not the citizens.
This means that a "battleground state" could give the Democrats their electoral votes in one election cycle, and the Republicans their votes in the
"Ohio Is the Most Influential Swing State- OhioWins. " OhioWins. N.p., 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.
We see multiple successes of voting equality attempted through amendments, however, the Supreme Court’s decision on Shelby County v. Holder has pushed back years and years of effort for voting rights. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling was in Shelby County’s favor, stating that the Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional along with Section 5. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, who wrote the majority’s opinion, said that the power to regulate election was reserved to the states, not the federal government. As a result to the court’s decision, the federal government can no longer determine which voting law discriminates and can be passed. After the case, many states had freely passed new voting laws; the most common voting law states passed
The significant election of 2000 with George W. Bush and Al Gore made a huge impact. With the close statistics of the race, there are various polls taken that suggest whether Bush or Gore should have won. Others may believe that the difference in votes throughout different groups may have had an effect on the numbers. Statistics show that Al Gore’s popular vote was 48.38%, while Bush’s was 47.87%.
Party strength is a measure of the ability of a party to get people to vote for its candidates. The post-World War II shift in party strength was part of a massive shift in policy over time. Scholars saw Republican politicians increasingly excel at getting elected at the local level (Lublin 2006), to offices in the state (Hayes and McKee 2007), and federal governments (Black and Black 2002, 1992; Shafer and Johnston 2006). It is difficult to see how the Republican Party would have become the majority in Congress in 1994 without the increased voting strength in the South. This marked a dramatic shift in national policy.
The amount of influence a state has on the election depends on how many districts it has, and a district is determined by population. The more people in a state the more powerful that state is on election day. This is because one candidate can win the popular vote by a landslide but if the opposing candidate wins key overall state votes he or she would win. Many people do not agree with the way the United States elects the president. Some believe it should be abolished
The United States Presidential election that took place in the year 2000 was between George Bush and Al Gore. The vote was very close and it ended up all coming down to Florida. Once the votes were counted and it was revealed that Bush had won, Gore wanted a recount of the votes. The matter was taken to the Florida supreme court and Gore ended up winning the case.
First, with the specifications of the electoral college there only needs to be 270 electoral votes to a person for them to win. With this rule only 12 states need to be won CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, OH, MI, GA, NC, and NJ(DOC A) and this is only a part of the overall population of America. While
The electoral college also helps the small states have an opinion that actually is heard in the presidential election. In class, it was discussed that Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota together, though their combined population is less than that of Oklahoma, each of those states has three electoral votes, whereas Oklahoma just has seven votes. Going by electoral votes, a candidate would have a better chance at winning the election if they won over Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota versus Oklahoma. With the electoral college, a candidate could win over all thirty-nine small states and win the entire election. Though the candidate could be supported by less than a quarter of the population,
In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.” Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it
Many Americans hold the philosophy that they are drops of water in an endless ocean, so what’s the point in voting? The answer is, there is power in numbers. Every vote adds up. In 2000, President George W. Bush won by only 537 votes.
In our history there have been 5 times where this has occurred - most recently in 2016 when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton without winning the popular vote. In Schlesinger’s opinion, most Presidents in this scenario are not set up well for success and usually enjoy ineffectual administrations (Schlesinger 2000). In a big state like California or Texas, the weight of each vote is much lesser than that of a person in Idaho or Wyoming. However, one of the biggest challenges Schlesinger found is figuring out just how many extra votes winning the popular vote should count for. Schlesinger decided on 102 - two votes for every state and two votes for Washington, DC.
The Electoral College system the founding fathers devised helps to balance out the power of the large, populous states. This system forces candidates to campaign in all states since they all carry some sway in the elections (“Understanding the Presidential Election”). However, other issues present themselves as well, like states with large independent voters that can be swayed and the issue that a candidate can lose the popular vote and win the election. The first issue is that states that are equally divided between democrats and republicans and hold a large number of electoral votes like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered swing states. (“Understanding the Presidential Election”)
During the same period, Florida maintained its status as a swing state up until 2020, consistently being unpredictable during national elections. As fewer Democratic voters showed up at the polls in Florida every year, West Virginia had the opposite problem; Democratic voters showed up in droves and voted red instead. The average ages of Floridians and West Virginians also contribute to how they vote. 40–60-year-olds are the age group most represented in national elections and the majority of that age group vote Republican. Even though there are more registered Democrats in both states, if they do not show up to vote, it does not matter who is in the majority.