Electoral

The 2020 US election is unleashing several significant issues taking into account the contemporary world scenarios. The opinions and stance revolving around electoral policies and execution is one such. Financing for the respective candidates’ campaign, voting rights, and execution of a fair election are all being talked about with diverse points of view on the candidates’ front. 

This is the 59th quadrennial presidential election going to take place on November 3, 2020. Voting policies are enacted and brought into effect primarily at the state level. These policies set guidelines for American citizens in casting ballots in their respective states. The policies include areas like voter accessibility policies, election integrity policies, same-day voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, and online voter registration. These include, for instance, “voter accessibility policies,” which come into picture when an improvement in the access to the ballot is required. Policies like “election integrity policies” may be implemented to ensure the integrity of the voting process by minimizing fraud and error. 

Americans cast their vote for the president at their polling place. However, the tally of those votes (popular vote) does not directly lead to choosing the president. To complete the process, the Electoral College comes into the picture. To win the election, a candidate is required to win a majority of electoral votes. If at all, no single candidate attains a majority, the House of Representatives (lower house) chooses the president, and the Senate (upper house) chooses the vice president. 

Campaign Finance

The Democrats have always been looking to reform the campaign finance system. Thus, the candidates are now all geared up to come up with their ways of raising money for the election campaigns. Also, the leading candidates are determined not to take any monetary help from corporate PACs as they are coming up with notions of reforming campaign finance systems.

A total of seventeen candidates stand with the opinion that unlimited spending should not be allowed in politics.

Electoral College

This is a constitutional body of 538 members with the responsibility of electing the president and the vice president, prior determined by the winner of an absolute majority of 270 electoral votes. This may lead to a situation like that of the 2016 election when President Donald Trump won the White House without winning the overall majority votes. Democratic candidates are arguing to eliminate this body and wish that the presidency be chosen by the popular vote instead. 

In this regard, twelve Democratic candidates are extensively in favor of eliminating it, whereas five others have said they are open to the idea. Senator Elizabeth Warren says that she wishes to have an amendment. However, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee stands in favor of states joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Some others like Mayor Pete Buttigieg called the body “undemocratic,” but haven’t clearly stated to abolish it. 

Sen. Kamala Harris said that she was open to the idea. Whereas, Sen. Bernie Sanders said that it was hard to defend the current system and talked about reexamining the concept of the body. 

 

Felon Voting

These voting rights of convicted felons vary in different states. Some candidates argue that nonviolent offenders should be allowed to vote. While others say that they should be given back the right to vote after release from prison. Some other candidates say that the topic should be first studied thoroughly.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders believes that felons should be given the rights during incarceration while former Rep. Bete O’Rourke supports the idea of restoring voting rights for nonviolent felons. 

On the contrary, some candidates argue that voting rights should be given after release from prison. Andrew Yang also stands for allowing felons to vote after prison. He argues that this will lead to their engagement with society.