Insight into the United States Political System

By Catarina Vita

October 11, 2020

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With the US elections swiftly arriving this November, the whole world divides itself into red or blue. However, we often ignore the intricacies of the US Political system, including how it works. The United States has a unique two-party system, in which a candidate of either the Republican or Democratic party can win the presidential election. The US voting system is known as the Electoral College, which votes through the members of Congress and Senate. Absentee voting and in-person voting have also been talked about in presidential discussions and in the media, but non-US citizens are often excluded from this conversation since the details on how to vote in the US are often not available.

The Two-Party System

As the name itself implies, the two-party system in the US is when the nation’s president belongs to either of two parties, Republican or Democratic. Although other parties can also run for the presidency, they receive a small number of votes. This is due to the winner-takes-all concept that will be addressed later. Defenders of the two-party system say that it prevents the United States from extremism and keeps American politics centrist, but opposers argue that both parties are alt-right and neither of them address issues that are important internationally, such as war crimes and poverty in developing countries.

The Electoral College

Voting in the United States is indirect: people besides the ones signing the ballots are involved in determining who the next president will be. The Electoral College is a group of electors that determine who will be next in line for the presidency. Like Congress representatives, each state receives a certain number of electors based on the size of their population. The states with the most electoral votes are California, Texas, and New York. When you cast your vote, you are voting for electors: if you vote for the Democratic party, a Democratic elector will be in the electoral college in your state.

There are 538 electors in the United States; the same number of Congress and Senate representatives. Whichever candidate wins more than half of the electoral votes, 270, becomes president.

One of the causes for the Two-Party system in the US is the winner-takes-all concept in the Electoral College. Implemented in 48 out of the 50 US states, this concept gives all electoral votes for the most popular party in each state. For example, the state of California has 55 electoral votes, casting 33 votes for the Democratic representative and 22 for the Republican one. Since the Democratic party won, they will receive 55 electoral votes even though the Republican party also received some votes.

This is a cause for the two-party system because only the Republican and Democratic parties are represented largely in electors, so other parties will barely receive votes; if they did, these votes wouldn’t be counted because they wouldn’t win.

Types of Voting

The two types of voting in the United States are absentee voting and in-person voting. Absentee voting allows voters to cast their vote by mail instead of going to the ballots on Election Day. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, absentee voting was only allowed under specific circumstances: if the voter was ill, would be out of the country on Election Day, and others. Although absentee voting is allowed in many states due to the pandemic, some states require explanations for absentee voting. While no excuse is necessary in Delaware, some states have implemented restrictions where only voters who have been tested positive for COVID or are under quarantine measures can be absentee voters.

Controversy in the US debate has emerged regarding the topics of voting by mail and voting in person, with candidate Donald Trump arguing that electoral frauds happen with the absentee voting method. "You get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebody's living room, signing ballots all over the place,” Mr. Trump mentioned in the latest presidential debate. However, research by the Brennan Center for Justice shows that the chances of voting fraud by mail are minimal, from 0.0004% to 0.0009%.

US Politics does not only determine how the lives of US citizens will be, as it also determines how the rest of the world will be. A climate catastrophe is imminent seen by the fires in the West Coast of the country, racially-based violence is not receiving as many solutions as they should be, and many other nation-wide problems are not being addressed. It is important to not only know about these issues, but also know how the people that have the power to directly make a change get the power they have.

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