The United States and Texas Electoral Process
Texas has four types of elections, that is, the primary elections that select one elective member for the general elections, run-off elections that break a tie between two candidates, special elections to fill vacant positions, and the general elections. The general elections are normally held every four years, where governors, representatives, senators, and other members of the public officials are elected. The most common method of voting is the ballot method although email voting is also used. The state permits early voting but does not cater for facilitating voter registration through online platforms, and no-excuse absentee voting, meaning that every late voter has to explain the cause of their absenteeism before being given the chance to vote (Meredith & Endter, 2015). Registration is done 30 days before the day of elections but there are allowances for post voter registration.
To be able to participate in the state election, voters must be of US citizenship, they must be residents of the county they are registered in and they must be at least 17years and 10 months old. During the day of the election, the voters are required to provide any form of identification before being allowed to participate in the election. On the other hand, candidates vying for electoral seats are required to also be of US citizenship, be above eighteen years of age, although this varies with certain electoral seats. The gubernatorial and senatorial seats, for example, require that the candidates be at least 30 years of age, while the representative seat, 25 years of age. They must also have no records of conviction, and be consistent residents of the country for the past one year.
The state laws of Texas stipulates that the electoral candidates are chosen through party primaries. Every party holds mini elections to choose one candidate that they wish to send to the main elections. Thereafter in the general election, a single winner is chosen through a plural vote. The winners of the election have fours averagely in office, after which other elections are held in the counties and congressional districts.
Federal elections share some similarities differences with the state elections. In the federal elections, the President and his deputy are elected through the Electoral College system unlike in the state elections where the governors, senators, and other candidates are chosen through the popular vote. The electors are chosen from every state. The number of from each state is based on how many representatives the state has in the congress (Colomer, 2016). Another election is held where each elector casts one vote for their preferred presidential candidate. The Electoral College consists of 538 members, and the candidate who gets more than 270 votes is declared a winner. A candidate is eligible for the presidency if they are citizens of the USA, are at least 35 years of age and have been US residents for more than 14 years.
One gaping inconsistency in these forms of elections is how the winners of the elections are chosen. The state elections declare its winners through the popular vote while the federal elections declare the winner through the electoral vote. The potential effects of this are variations in the principles in which the overall winner is chosen and the democracy it allows for. The Electoral College, for instance, is undemocratic. Individual votes of the people, which directly represent the leader they want, play a lesser role in determining the winner of the elections. It consequently erodes what Abraham Lincoln advocated for – government of the people by the people for the people (Rathbun, 2007). This leaves the ordinary citizens with minimal or no influence at all in public policies. Furthermore, it allows the election of a candidate who does not win most votes, and it promotes the unpopular winner-takes-it all approach where votes from a losing candidate are canceled.
In the same line of thought, it reduces incentives for voter turnout in small states because much attention by the candidates is focused on a few potentially competitive states. Candidates also tend to focus more on voter issues from more competitive states, and in the process ignoring voter issues and concerns from smaller states.
References
Colomer, J. (Ed.). (2016). The handbook of electoral system choice. Springer.
Meredith, M., & Endter, Z. (2015, August). Aging into Absentee Voting: Evidence from Texas. Working Paper. URL: www. sas. upenn. edu/marcmere/workingpapers/AgingIntoAbsentee. pdf Precinct Depress Future Turnout.” Working Paper, Presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
Rathbun, D. P. (2007). Ideological endowment: The staying power of the Electoral College and the weaknesses of the national popular vote interstate compact. Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions, 106, 117.