How Democratic Is the Presidential Election Process?

Overall, I think the presidential election process is very democratic, or at least much more democratic then it was. The Founders’ original plan was to have the state legislatures decide how the electors would be elected and the only role the people would play would be to elect the people in the legislature who would then vote for the electors. However, the introduction of the political parties has made the presidential election process more democratic since the founding, as seen through its effects on the Electoral College, the nomination process, and the development of a two-party system.

The Electoral College has become more democratic as parties have become involved. Instead of having the state legislature elect electors based on how wise and knowledgeable they were, the emergence of political parties has now enabled the citizens to be the ones to vote for the electors. On the ballot, the citizens choose which candidate they wish to elect, but whom they are really voting for are the electors who have pledged to vote for that candidate. The electors whose candidate got the most votes are now able to go and vote for their candidate and win that state’s electoral votes. Even though people are still indirectly voting for their president, it is a bit more direct than having to elect the people in the legislature who would then decide how the electors were chosen (and even then, the electors could vote for whoever they wanted and were not pledged to a certain political party).

Parties involve the people in the presidential election process through primaries and caucuses, as well as the national convention. This is the nomination process and is actually similar to the presidential election. People from every state go to primaries/caucuses and cast their vote for the Democratic/Republican nominee, this is similar to the presidential election process because they are actually voting for the delegates that have pledged to vote for that nominee. The nominee that...