Dr. Mario Guerrero

Associate Professor of Political Science

Archives for December 2016

Student Blog Post: The 2016 Election throws the Electoral College into disarray

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The “Student Blog Post” series invites students from my PLS 321: Electoral Process course to author their own blogs about recent election events.

trump tweet loser

Proponents of the Electoral College are more emboldened after the 2016 presidential election which sent shockwaves throughout the country. For over a year, the media has been predicting a Democratic victory, but on the night of the 2016 election, pundits were shocked to report a Republican victory with Donald J. Trump as the United States 45th President.

The Republican candidate won in the Electoral College, but he failed to win the popular vote. This phenomenon confuses many Americans whom assume that their votes count and are equal to other citizens. The now visible gap of over two million votes between Secretary Hillary Clinton’s popular vote lead and President-elect Trump’s own popular vote brings to question the new president’s legitimacy. Timothy Noah, in his article titled America’s Worst College, highlights the shortcomings of the Electoral College. He strongly believes that the Electoral College system is an unfair outdated voting system because it fails to give all Americans an equal vote.

While Noah admits that the Electoral College has certain advantages, such as giving smaller states a voice, he also argues that this system leaves candidates to ignore states with large populations. Both candidates in the 2016 presidential race were unpopular, but Donald Trump’s campaign managed to isolate many social groups that reside in larger states. Since Trump’s surprising victory, many protests have taken place throughout the country, most occurring in large states with large populations. California and New York protested heavily, but they often get ignored during presidential campaigns, even though most citizens live in these states. Many protesters are declaring that President-elect Trump is “not their President”. They feel that since Trump failed to win the popular vote, the American people did not elect him. The questioning of Donald Trump’s legitimacy is a danger to American democracy. However, many proponents of the Electoral College sympathize with concerned citizens and believe that they have a right to be upset when the majority of the country did not vote for Donald Trump to be president.

In his 2004 article, America’s Worst College, Noah used the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush to point out the flaws of the Electoral College. Al Gore had the popular lead over the victor George W. Bush but lost the election. After the 2016 election, Timothy Noah published an article in Politico titled “The Trouble With the Electoral College”. In this article, he used the latest election to point out the ridiculousness of the Electoral College. He still feels that the popular vote is a far more fair and democratic way to choose a president.

Noah, along with many other proponents of the Electoral College system are now calling to repeal the Electoral College. However, it is not so simple. The Electoral College is protected by the American constitution and would require smaller states to repeal a system they benefit from. While the Electoral College system is protected by the Constitution, America’s status as a fair democracy is being questioned by many citizens that no longer feel represented. In his latest article Noah points out that the current President-elect himself has criticized the Electoral College in the past in several social media tweets. President-elect Trump has tweeted many comments regarding the Electoral College such as “The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy”. Of course, since winning the Electoral College himself, Trump has backtracked on his previous statement against the current American voting system. However, many proponents agree with Trump’s previous sentiments on the Electoral College. Democrats are especially frustrated with the Electoral College system after losing a second election while winning the popular vote. Several bills, petitions and protests are now being pushed to repeal this outdated traditional American voting system.

Aisha Siddiqui is a third year Political Science student at Cal Poly Pomona. She plans on pursuing a law degree after completing her undergraduate studies.

Student Blog Post: The recount efforts throw legitimacy into question

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The “Student Blog Post” series invites students from my PLS 321: Electoral Process course to author their own blogs about recent election events.

recount efforts fake rigged

After three weeks, Donald Trump has won the presidential election, exceeding all our expectations, but the electorate has still not conformed. Trump did the impossible, being the first Republican presidential nominee to win states like Michigan since 1988. Across the country, citizens have rallied, claiming Trump is “not our president”, and Jill Stein (with support from the Clinton campaign) declared they would start recount efforts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

The recounts will be occurring in the states in which President-elect Donald Trump won or is leading by narrow margins. Recounts can change vote counts on the margins, but Trump’s edge of more than 22,000 votes in Wisconsin is all but impossible to eliminate, bearing a massive, unprecedented and unexpected failure of the state’s voting machines. Jill Stein stated that “she knows she won’t win — but she’s concerned enough about hacking of election machines that it’s worth the inquiry.” Each state has their own rules on how they are going to go about the recounts but Trump an advantage in Wisconsin, but also in Michigan where he is leading with 10,704 votes, and Pennsylvania, where he is leading by 70,638 votes.

As we have seen with the 2016 presidential elections voting choices and electoral outcomes can be extremely important in the United States. The formal opportunity to participate in elections serves to convince citizens that the government is responsive to their needs and wishes. As we discussed in class, elections are important because they give citizens an outlet to exercise the power, and elections give the government legitimacy and authority. Elections are also the main form of institutionalized political activity. Meaning that elections are the best way to convey our voices. With the recount, Americans are questioning the government’s legitimacy. With allegations made such as the system is rigged and the possibility that there could be voter hacking it makes us doubt the real outcome of our votes. This state of affairs draws concern: Has this election has been fairly conducted?

It also leads us to wonder if our needs and wishes are being met. The recount does question the legitimacy of the government, but in a way, the recount could put the people’s minds at ease, ultimately finding that the election was fairly conducted. Therefore, the citizenry will stop with the statements that Trump is not our president and accept the election. Elections give us the opportunity to elect who we want and this is what the people have decided. Even though many might not agree, hopefully, this election encourages people to take elections seriously and subsequently, hopefully, voter turnout will increase. Therefore, events like these will not occur again, where individuals feel the need to protest a president-elect.

Mayra Lopez is a fourth year political science major at Cal Poly Pomona. She plans on pursuing a law degree following graduation. She enjoys taking long hikes and playing soccer. Hopes to travel to Rome and Greece someday.