Our discussion about political elections

Today I participated in a very interesting conference about US and Italian elections, together with Valentina, Laura and Allyson. We discussed mainly about our own political views and the differences between the American and Italian electoral systems. Among other questions, I asked Allyson these five questions:

1. What are the most important features a political leader must have?

2. Are you influenced by the political campaign or do you have a specific political idea?

3. Do you think you are really represented by your candidate?

4. Is the electoral system really effective?

5. What do you think about the means candidates use in order to promote themselves?

Basically, the most striking answers she gave us consist of the way US people perceive elections. As a matter of fact, Allyson told us that 'theoretically, each “elector” should vote in the way that most people in that area want him/her to, but that does not always happen. That’s how the popular vote can predict that one candidate will win, when in fact they do not have enough electoral votes.'

On Monday we discussed in class the controversial issue of the American electoral system. To sums up, I can say that in the US each state can decide whether to adopt a proportional electoral system or a 'winner takes all system'. For this reason, there are states which result to be much more important than other states. Here is the explanation Sarah gave us in class:

Let's say that in Vermont, one candidate can gain 10 electoral votes and in Florida, he or she can gain 50 electoral votes. While Vermont has a proportional system, Florida has a 'winner takes all' system. The results are the following:

e.g. Vermont

candidate A takes 80% of the popular votes, he/she takes 8 electoral votes

candidate B takes 20% of the popular votes, he/she takes 2 electoral votes

e.g. Florida

candidate A takes 51% of the popular votes, he/she takes all 50 electoral votes

candidate B takes 49% of the popular votes, he/she takes none electoral vote.

So, Italian and American electorla systems are very different and we all agreed in saying that they should be reformed in order to be more effective. If you want to read more on the subject, please, ahve a look at our forum and leave a comment.