Basic Essay on Voting Systems

Essay by NickStryker2003University, Bachelor'sB+, October 2003

download word file, 4 pages 3.8

Nicholas Stryker

October 1, 2002+

Paper #2

There are three different types of voting systems. One is majority rule in which one must receive greater than fifty percent in order to win the election. The second is plurality which allows you to win an election with more votes than any other candidate without receiving more than fifty percent. The final voting system is proportionality which awards the political party seats equivalent to the number of votes received. Majority rule has survived as the fittest voting system in the United States.

Plurality has not survived as a system of voting because it is too kind. Again in a plurality voting system a candidate can win an election without receiving more than fifty percent of the votes. Let's use Phillips County, Arkansas as an example to better illustrate why this voting system is not often found. There are three people running for one position two of the candidates are white and one is black.

In Phillips County the voters only vote for the candidate who is of the same color as them. Therefore the white vote would become split between the two white candidates and the single black candidate would receive all the votes the black voters cast. In a society ruled by whites this is not seen as a beneficial system. In this example if there were two white candidates and one black candidate, and it was a majority voting system the whites would almost always be guaranteed a victory. The population is fifty percent black and white; the black candidate receives fifty percent of the vote and the two white candidates receive thirty-five and the other fifteen percent. "The majority requirement would, then, force a run-off two weeks later. And in the run-off, the whites would close ranks and defeat...