The US and Canada Elections Comparison

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Political science¹ involves the study of governance, politics and programs of particular nations and regions. It analyses the way governments manage their political, religious and social issues.

The Recount is a film that depicts a sequence of happenings that took place during the presidential vote in the United States of America in the year 2000. The movie involves the former Governor of Texas, George W. Bush, and the former Vice President of the US, Al Gore. The scene begins with the depiction of election on November, 7^th, 2000 and concludes with the US Supreme Court verdict that stopped the recount of the Florida State elections on December, 12^th 2000 (The Recount).

The scene begins with Al Gore giving an early telephone call to George Bush. Al Gore had already conceded defeat to Bush in the morning of 8^th November 2000. In the scene, Al Gore’s campaign team decides to sue for a manual recount in his Democratic Party’s stronghold. Al Gore suspects the possibility of discrepancies in voting in closely contested states as shown by the electronic election recount.

The Republican Party pressurizes Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris² to give an opinion of the outcome in favor of Bush. The focus turns to the recounts by media, party organs and the citizens at large. The Florida Supreme Court spokesman Craig Waters makes a critical announcement that prolongs the deadline for returns in the initial recount of November, 21^st 2000 and directs a national recount of votes on December, 8^th 2000. The Supreme Court later stops Craig’s directive.

In the new scene, Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris supports her Republican candidate George Bush instead of exercising her duties as a Secretary of State of Florida. Her conduct signifies that she is acting in agreement with George Bush to rig elections in favor of her candidate. The Court of Florida orders a recount of the votes, and the Supreme Court also upholds a win for Al Gore in the elections. American and Canadian elections usually use a single member plurality (SMP) structure of elections. The system favors election winners. It caters for elections of leaders at local, state and federal legislatures. The competitor who gets the highest count of casted votes wins the elections.

The goal of this structure is to represent the popular votes in the district and make sure that the local electoral jurisdictions are well represented.

This paper outlines four types of plurality and majority voting systems which constitute the first past the post (FPTP), single, multi, and majority systems.

A single winner refers to the one who gets the highest number of votes compared to other candidates. The winner in the both national and federal systems in the US and Canada may not gain an absolute majority of votes, but only a plurality which is also referred to as relative or simple majority.

Another similarity in the US and Canada electoral systems involves a single winner plurality voting structure. A voter is entitled to vote for only one candidate, and the winner becomes the contestant who gets the highest tally of votes as in the case of Al Gore and Bush in the US.

The last four elections in Canada also demonstrate this fact especially in Quebec and Ontario. In a presidential contest or competition for a single seat the contestant who gets the highest number of votes represents all citizens (Rangel, 2010).

In a multiple unit plurality vote both in the US and Canada, the tallying of the ballot entails a conclusive iteration mechanism with a singular ballot paper for choosing one contestant. Each ballot caters for a vacant position.

In certain states and regions in Canada and the US, the winner can only be confirmed after two rounds of elections popularly known as “runoff” as in Texas in the US and Toronto in Canada. This aspect only happens when no candidate gains a majority of votes among all the competitors (Garner, 2013). The first two leading competitors with the highest number of votes in the initial format of elections compete against each other. The “runoff” can also involve all candidates who gain votes above a set threshold.

This study prefers the first past the post (FPTP)³ system of elections because it relies mostly on areas of simplicity. It also identifies the winners who are elected to represent the electoral areas. According to FPTP, a candidate only needs to get the highest number of casted votes among the competing candidates. It is also referred to as “single member plurality” or a “first past the post” system.

It pronounces a winner of the election between the two main competing parties. It helps in bringing together minority parties to join the majority or the governing party. Small parties become irrelevant after failing to get a significant number of seats in federal and national parliaments (Edwards, 2010). It helps in creating a strong opposition to evaluate government policies and programs. The opposition performs the role of monitoring the government. It also presents itself as an alternative governance option to the ruling organ of a given country. FPTP encourages unity and diversity among citizens because the parties promote national policies rather than regional, personal or societal concerns.

FPTP promotes a link between the citizens and their leaders. The elected leaders represent all the political entities like cities, towns and regions. The leaders do not represent areas where their parties have strong electoral support.

Voters may be able to make a choice among different candidates without considering the contestants’ political parties. The electorate may assess the performance of individual candidates.

FPTP gives an opportunity to independent candidates to vie for electoral positions without paying attention to their political affiliations. FPTP may be simple and easy to use. A legitimate vote ought to only have a single character beside the identity or sign of one competitor. The competition’s official may be able to provide a verdict of the vote even when there are many candidates on the ballot paper because he can easily identify whom the electorate has preferred (Art & Jervis, 2011).

Electoral systems may be crucial for stable democracies. The best electoral system can fail if it does not meet appropriate standards. Governments across the globe must integrate proper planning mechanisms to avert any suspicions of rigging. Elections enable members of the public to choose their preferred representatives. Governments should not interfere with elections by subverting the course of justice. Electoral systems should have strong evaluation and monitoring systems. People of high integrity should lead the electoral bodies to avoid malpractices.

References

Art, R., & Jervis, R. (2011). International Politics: Enduring concepts and contemporary issues tenth edition. Boston, MA: Longman. Web.

Edwards, S. (2010). Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Web.

Garner, R. (2013). Introduction to politics. Oxford, UK: University Press. Web.

Rangel, C. (2010). The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States. New York. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Web.

The Recount. (n.d.). In Wikipedia online. Web.

Footnotes

This discipline denotes the study of political governments.
Katherine Harris was in charge of policy affairs of the state of Florida.
This structure only recognizes the person who wins the vote regardless of the margin.

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The US and Canada Elections Comparison

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