2016 Presidential Election Results

5.7%

48.2%
46.1%

Homemade
2016 Presidential Election Results
5.7%

Clinton

48.2% Trump
46.1%

Homemade
The U.S. Election System
and how to fix it

Elijah Guttman
27.6.22
 Contents
• Structure
• Types of elections
• FPTP, the spoiler effect and IRV
• Election flaws:
• In general
• House of representatives: districts
• Senate
• Presidential
• Sources
 Structure
• How are the elections conducted?
• What problems arise?
• How can they be fixed?
 Types of Elections
• General Elections
• Fill public offices
• Presidential (4 years): President, House of Representatives, 1/3 Senate
• Midterm (4 years): House of Representatives, 1/3 Senate
• Primary Elections or Caucuses
• Choose party‘s candidates for general elections
• Parties decide how to run them
 Elections in general
• Presidential elections on the first Tuesday in November and midterms in
early November
• U.S. citizens above 18 may vote
• Restrictions in some U.S. states, e.g. prisoners and ex-convicts not allowed to vote
• Voting can be done by mail
• Most voting is at polling booths
• Run by paid volunteers
• Voting via paper ballot or by machine
• In some states, voters must show ID
 Elections in general:
The Problems
• Showing ID is more difficult for people without driver‘s licenses
• Election days are workdays
• Few pollers due to low pay
• Voting machines are easily manipulated

https://media.dhakatribune.com/uploads/2016/09/US-VOTING-MACHINE.jpg
 Voting
technology
• Optical scan 47%
• Machine reads paper ballots
• Direct recording electronic 28%
• No paper trail, machine only
• Optical Scan/DRE mix 19%
• Exclusively by mail 5%
• Hand-counted ballots 0.1%
• Optical scan/hand-counted mix
https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FT_16.11.07_votingTechnology.png?w=640
 Elections in general:
The Solutions
• Making the elections public holidays
• Paying the volunteers more
• Not requiring ID
• Using paper ballots
 House Elections
• Congressional districts send one
representative
• Most votes in the district required
• 435 Districts drawn in all states combined
based on population, every 10 years
• 1 representative per 747,000 people
• Most states‘ districts are drawn by the state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_district#/media/File:Congressional_districts.gif

legislature.
 House Elections:
The Problems
• Gerrymandering
• State legislatures draw districts
unfairly, to help their party
• Minority isn‘t represented
• Inequality between district
populations (Montana = 1.06
million, NY 13th district = 741,000)
• 4.3 million in US territories & DC
can‘t vote https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/03/gerry.png
 House Elections:
The Solutions
• Appointing independant commissions to draw districts, or
• Abolishing congressional districts altogether, countrywide by
population
 Senate Elections
• Every state elects 2 senators
• Problems:
• Inequality among state populations
• US territories & DC can‘t participate
• Solution:
• Countrywide senate elections
proportionate to population
https://www.maps4office.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/usa-states-population-2010-anamorphic.png
 Presidential Elections
• In each state, voters vote for
candidates
• Most votes candidate‘s
party‘s electors vote
• Each state has 3 electors or
more determined by
population

https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/electorl.gif
 Presidential Elections:
The Problems
• States with lower population get more voting power
• Possibility to win the election with minority of votes (down to 22%)
• Has happend 5 times, including in 2016
• The 3.7 million citizens in territories can‘t vote
• Minority voters aren‘t represented
• Electors are free to vote for any candidate
 Presidential Elections:
The Solutions
• Pass laws against disloyal electors and assign electors by
population, or
• Abolish the electoral college and replace it with a countrywide
popular vote
 First Past The Post
• Voters vote for one candidate
• The candidate with the plurality of votes wins
• Problems:
• Often a minority government
• Not voting for a large party is against your own
interests (spoiler effect)
• Voter participation goes down
• Third parties suffer
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plurality_ballot.svg
The Spoiler Effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo
 Instant Runoff Voting
• Voters rank candidates by order of preference
• If there is a majority:
• Candidate with the majority wins
• If there is no majority:
• Votes for the candidate with the least votes get transferred to
the second choice
• Advantages:
• Third parties can grow https://www.ferndalefriends.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ff1671820_Instant_Runoff.jpg

• Government preferred by the majority

 Instant Runoff Voting

A 25% A 25% B 55% +20%

B 20% B 30% +10% D 45% +5%

C 15% D 40% +5%

Green wins!
D 35%
 Sources
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mky11UJb9AY

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k&t=327s

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_States
Thanks for listening! Any questions?