Author Question: What are ballot measures? What is an argument in favor of ballot measures, and what is an argument ... (Read 54 times)

Melani1276 · **on:** Jul 10, 2018

What are ballot measures? What is an argument in favor of ballot measures, and what is an argument opposing ballot measures? With which side do you agree? Justify your answer.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

When designing the Electoral College, what were the Framers trying to achieve? What event exposed problems in the original design? What was done to solve these problems? Do any other problems remain?

What will be an ideal response?

meganmoser117 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 10, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Explain how ballot measures, such as initiatives and referenda, give citizens more direct control over policy.
2. Provide an argument in support of ballot measures. This may include the claim that ballot measures can heighten voter interest, and that ballot measures have led to many important reforms.
3. Discuss a criticism of ballot measures. This may include the influence of special interest groups on the process, the challenge for voters in understanding complex ballot issues, confusion in the ballot process, and the fact that ballot measures are not subject to campaign finance limitations.
4. Take and justify a position on the value of ballot measures.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Explain how the Electoral College was the result of a political compromise over whether the president should be selected by Congress or by popular vote.
2. Explain how the original design was constructed to work without political parties, cover both a nomination and election phase, and produce a nonpartisan and nondivisive president.
3. Discuss that the main problem came from the rise of political parties, and that it put the candidates for president and vice president in the same pool and created the possibility of a tie, as in the election of 1800.
4. Explain how the Twelfth Amendment addressed this problem by creating separate elections for each office.
5. Explain how there are other problems that still exist, specifically the possibility for the popular vote winner to lose the Electoral College.