RJA #15a: Word Cloud

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alt="Wordle: Electoral College"
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RJA #15b: Reflection on What You Learned

This semester has been the most helpful in stretching my ability to find strong research to support my ideas, I have written longer papers before but I have never conducted this much research. This particular paper I used several books as my supporting evidence. I have never been asked to use an actual bound book, but I am very glad I did. Because we were required to use this as a source I checked out at least a dozen books because I thought it was going to be a stretch to just use one. The books were by far the most helpful resources I used and I am very pleased that I learned how to scan the books and find what I need.

Out of the other papers I have written I have not really used an outline either. I was surprised how much creating one helped the organization of my paper. Even though I did not follow the original outline I drew out, it got me thinking of what I was going to put in my paper. This skill of planning will defiantly help me with any other papers I am asked to write.

RJA #14: Annotated Bibliography, Part 2

Allen, Jonathan. The Hill N.p., 31 May 2006. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.

Jonathan Allen is a reporter for POLITICO, a well known political news source that is mainly online. The news articles are used by other news commentators and personalities. I used this article for information on Robert Byrd.

Berns, Walter, 2^nd ed. "A "Complex" System?." After the People Vote. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: The AEI Press, 1992. Print.

Walter Berns is also a professor emeritus at Georgetown University. A scholar of political philosophy and constitutional law, he has written extensively on American government and politics in both professional and popular journals. He is the author of numerous books on democracy, the Constitution, and patriotism. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2005. He wrote a guide to the Electoral College that has been used as an academic standard. The information that I found most useful was used as my rebottles to my counter arguments.

Boyd, Richard W. “Decline of U.S. Voter Turnout: Structural Explanations.” American Politics Quarterly 9 (1981): 133-159.

Richard Boyd is a professor at Cornell University and specializes in the philosophy of almost every kind, especially Marxism. He touched on the trends of voters in the United States. He attempts to find the reason for this. The voting turnout was a section of my paper so this came into good use.

CNN N.p., 2005. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. /results/states/WV/P/00/>.

CNN is one of the most widely listened to cable news sources in the world. The information that I used from CNN is the election data in 2000.

Crewe, Ivor. Democracy at the Polls: A Comparative Study of Competitive national Elections, eds. David Butler, Howard R. Penniman, and Austin Ranney. Washington, D.C.: American enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981.

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a private, nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare. This had lots of information on voting statistics and trends, it held more information than opinion.

Gregg, Gary L, ed. Securing Democracy: Why We Have an Electoral College. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2001. Print.

Gary L. Gregg II, Ph.D holds the Mitch McConnell Chair in Leadership at the University of Louisville and is director of the McConnell Center. He is the author or editor of six books. He is an award-winning teacher and has been the national director of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This book was helpful because besides from being in-depth, it was also somewhat recent in comparison.

Hardaway, Robert M. The Electoral College and the Constitution: The Case for Preserving Federalism. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994. Print.

Robert Hardaway is the author of fourteen published books on law and public policy, and 29 law review articles, reviews, and articles in professional journals. He has written over 75 opinion editorials in national newspapers on issues of law and public policy, and appears frequently on television and in the media commenting on legal issues. His book was one of the most indepth books that addressed several issues on why we should keep the Electoral College.

Information Please N.p., 2007. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. .

Information Please has been providing authoritative answers to all kind of factual questions since 1938, but first began as a popular radio quiz show. Then in 1947 they started to produce an annual almanac, which still currently is released today. They have had a website since 1998. I used the information that they had from the 2000 elections.

Lowenstein, Daniel, narr. The Electoral College and National Popular Vote. FORA.tv, 2008. Film.

Daniel Lowenstein teaches Election Law, Statutory Interpretation & Legislative Process, Political Theory, and Law & Literature. A leading expert on election law, he has represented members of the House of Representatives in litigation regarding reapportionment and the constitutionality of term limits. Professor Lowenstein wrote a text book that is the first text on American election laws since 1877. He was in a debate about the Electoral College where he made five point on why it should stay in place.

McDonald, Michael. United States Elections Project N.p., 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. .

Dr. Michael P. McDonald is Associate Professor of Government and Politics in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of California, San Diego and B.S. in Economics from California Institute of Technology. Dr. McDonald has worked for the national exit poll organization, consulted to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, consulted to the Pew Center for the States, served on campaign staff for state legislative campaigns in California and Virginia, has worked for national polling firms, has been an expert witness for election lawsuits in Florida and Washington, and has worked as a redistricting consultant or expert witness in Alaska, Arizona, California, Michigan, and New York. He has worked as a media consultant to ABC and NBC, and is frequently quoted in the media regarding United States elections. His opinion editorials have appeared in The Washington Post, The Politico, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, The American Prospect, and Roll Call.

Miller, Warren E., and J. Shanks. The New American Voter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Print.

Warren Miller was known as a renowned scholar and voting expert. He was active in the continuing research on U.S. elections at the Center for Political Studies, which he founded at the U-M Institute for Social Research. His book “The American Voter,” is considered to be the leading original scholarly work that influenced a generation of political pollsters and reporters. He also wrote the 1966 landmark book "Elections and Political Order" and recently extended his past work with a major volume on voting behavior, titled "The New American Voter." In all, he wrote nine books and several book chapters and journal articles. Because this book is a leading original I was able to gather much information because it hit on so many different topics.

Pianin, Eric. "A Senator's Shame." The Washington Post 19 June 2005. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

Eric Pianin writes several articles for the Washington Post as a news journalist. The Washinton Post one of the largest newspapers in America. It has such a large circulation that it is a newspaper of record, meaning it has authorization by the government to publish public or legal notices. Pianin’s article is where I gathered formal information on Senator Robert Byrd.

RJA #13a: Field Research Report

I conducted a survey that I sent out to a couple hundred of my friends over facebook and classmates. I wanted to test their basic knowledge of the Electoral College.

1. Could you explain the Electoral College to someone else?

39% Yes

61% No

Does the Electoral College have a physical location?

8% Yes

92% No

How many total votes are included in the Electoral College?

41% said 538

25% said 500

25% said 435

8% said 400

How many votes does a candidate have to be secured for him to win?

41% said 270

30% said 251

19% said 218

10% said 201

How is the number of votes a state has determined?

5% said the size of state

77% said the population

20% said the number of senators

Is it possible to win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote?

92% said yes

6% said no

2% said they are the same

Is it possible to win the Presidency but loose the popular vote?

88% said yes

12% said no

49% of respondents were male and 51% were female

71% of the respondents were under the age of 25; 25% between 26 and 50; 4% were above fifty.

RJA #13b: Annotated Bibliography, Part 1

Raskin, Jamin B. "Neither the red states nor the blue states but the United States: the national popular vote and American political democracy." Election Law Journal 7.3 (2008): 188+. General OneFile. www.galegroup.com.

Jamin Raskin teaches Constitutional Law, First Amendment, the Constitution and Public Education, and Legislation. He has written dozens of law review articles and essays and several influential books. In September 2006, he won in the Democratic Primary for State Senate from District 20 in Maryland (Silver Spring and Takoma Park), beating a 32-year incumbent, and went on to win 99% of the vote in the November General Election. Judicial Proceedings Committee, the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast, and the Joint Committee on State-Federal Relations. Raskin’s article is an advocacy for a national popular vote, this helped me with the opposing views.

Robertson, Lori. Fact Check N.p., 8 Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2009. .

Lori Robertson is a journalist who covered the media for nine years as an editor and writer for American Journalism Review, a bimonthly media watchdog magazine. At AJR, she won the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism and an honorable mention in the National Press Club’s Arthur Rowse Award. Previously, she was the administrative director of the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families, a resource center for journalists covering at-risk kids. She has written for various publications as a freelancer and is a 1993 graduate of Duquesne University with a B.A. in advertising. This page gave me information on the voter turnout rate in the 2008 elections.

Ross, Tara. Enlihgtened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College. Los Angeles: World Ahead Publishing, 2004. Print.

Tara Ross is a lawyer and a regular columnist for the American Enterpise Online. Her work has been published in several law reviews and newspapers, including The Washington Times, USA Today, the National Law Journal, and the Notre Dame Journal of Legislation. She obtained her B.A. from Rice University and her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. During her time at the University of Texas, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Review of Law & Politics. He book, Enlightened Democracy, is one of the most recent books that I found and touched on multiple subjects.

Streb, Matthew J. Rethinking American Electoral Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Matthew Streb is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science. His research examines voter decisionmaking in low-information elections, specifically nonpartisan elections and judicial elections; questions related to electoral democracy; and polling. His research has been featured on C-Span’s Washington Journal, and has been mentioned in such places as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, Washington Monthly, and Chronicle of Higher Education. I used his information on primary elections.

RJA #12a: Progress Report

What I have done:

I have been able to plan out what my points will be, my outline has helped me decide what I will say and waht sources I need to use. I have looked over a good portion of sources and have enough information to pull from them.

What I need to do:

I really need to continue looking for more sources, mainly books. I have a good list but they are long, I need to set time aside to read over them.

RJA #12b: Presentation Plan

My main plan for my presentation is to give a brief overview on how the Electoral College system works. I will explain why we have it and the objections that people have againts it. I will not argue for it, hopefully just give an unbiased overview. If I argue for the system my presentation will exceed the time limit.

RJA #12c: Introduction Check

I commented on Jane Park's and Su Nguyen's posts.

RJA #11a: Introduction

Over the past few decades there has been a growing dissatisfaction for how we elect our presidents. The system that was written into our constitution has been challenges repeatedly, but none of the challenges have taken any affect. There are several reasons why citizens have been growing a dislike towards the Electoral College. The Electoral College was set in place by the founders of America because they did want there to be a large majority who controls all political branches, but to give representation to the most people and the states; this electorate system must not be removed from our Constitution.

RJA #11b: Visual Aids

Maps:

Red vs Blue Maps- by county, state, city, district.

States in proportion to their population

States in proportion to their electoral votes.

Chart or diagram:

How the process takes place

how electorates are chosen

RJA #11c: Thesis Statement Check

I checked Rob's and Sean's.

RJA #10b: Argument

Argument 1: Creates better representation for all people, not just the majority who would elect the President.

Argument 2: Gives more of a voice to people and groups who would not have any say in a election. It helps the minorities and fights against a tyranny of the majority.

Argument 3: Keeps the elections focused on the states. This is important because it give value to the the average people and the candidates work harder for the state votes.

Opposition:

1. A total vote of all the people would give better representation.

2. The electoral college takes away from the voices of the common people.

3. We should not look at the states but the country as a whole.

RJA #9: Evaluation of Sources

Book: Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College

Person Evaluated: Tara Ross

Conclusion: Tara Ross is a lawyer and has focused on law, public policy, and constitutional history. She seems to be a public figure of sorts; she often appears as a guest on different talk shows. She also has been published in several law reviews and newspapers, including the National Law Journal, USA Today, the American Enterprise Online, National Review Online, WeeklyStandard.com, FoxNews.com, HumanEvents.com, The Washington Times, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics.

Periodical: Don't Mess with the Electoral College

David Lewis Schaefer

Conclusion: David Schaefer is a political science professor. He has written several books and seems to be a credited writer. He has written a lot for periodicals like the Wall Street Journal.

Website: Save The Electoral College

Paul Greensberg

Conclusion: Greensberg is a long time conservative writer. He has written lots of books and has written for townhall for a long time.

NARA

This is a government site. I think most of what comes here is creditable. There are also links to the electoral college website.

Citizendium

This is a lot like Wikipedia. From what it look like the information here is good but there is a works cited to I can check if everything is reliant or not.

PBS: Pros and Cons of the Electoral College

There are two people involved in this dialogue: George Edwards and Alexander Keyssar.

George Edwards is the author of the book, Why The Electoral College Is Bad For America. He teaches political science at Texas A&M. Alexander Keyssar is a history and social science professor at Harvard.

RJA #8a: Websites

Resource: Sweet Search

Keywords: Electoral College Support

Search Strategies: Boolean

Number of Hits: Does not give a cumulative number

Relevance: 5

Resource: Metacrawler

Keywords: electoral college necessary

Search Strategies: Boolean

Number of Hits: 43

Relevance: 2

Resource: Yahoo Directory

Keywords: U.S. Presidential Elections>Electoral College

Search Strategies: Followed the Directory

Number of Hits: 12

Relevance: 3

Resource: incywincy

Keywords: electoral college support

Search Strategies: boolean

Number of Hits: 10

Relevance: 2

Resource: Soovie

Keywords: Electoral college history support pros and cons debate reform system

Search Strategies: boolean math

Number of Hits: N/A

Relevance: 5

RJA #8b: Social Media

Resource: Technorati

Keywords: Electoral, College, System, Relevance, Support, Reasons

Search Strategies: boolean and math

Number of Hits: 0-180

Relevance: I tired several times to use this site but I could not get anything good: 0

Resource: Collecta

Keywords: Electoral college support

Search Strategies: mathmatical

Number of Hits: N/A (does not say)

Relevance: 1

RJA #8c: Multimedia

Resource Used: Blinkx

Keywords Used: electoral college reasons

Search Strategy: Boolean

Number of Hits: 837

Relevance: 3

Internet Research Project

• Viewzi
• Summary: Basically it uses both google and yahoo to search. But what sets it apart is all of the different ways that you can view the results. Some of the options to view are more useful than others, but some are just useless.
• Strengths: Because you can make your own account you can personalize viewzi and make it your own. It is also much more interesting to look at and use.
• Weaknesses: Some of the viewing options are pointless and does not do anything helpful, but it probably depends on what you are searching and your topic.
• Databases: Viewzi does not use it's own database, it uses yahoo and google's.
• Operators: Supports both Boolean and Mathematical operations.
• Case Sensitivity: No
• Stop Words: Everything is searched for.
• Advance Search Function: as far as I can see, there is no advanced option.
• Limits: Does not allow for an advanced search and can become slightly overwhelming with all of the different viewing options.
• Sorting: Sorted by relevance and popularity.
• Display: The display is really what sets viewzi apart from the rest. It is crisper, colorful, and just all around better to look at than most search tools.
• Help Function: There was none that I could find.
• Special Features: Create and account and multiple ways to view results.

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools

Like most, I usually just use google. It is mostly because it gets the job done for most day to day searches and it is on my toolbar in my browser. Like most complaints with google, a too many results come from a search and they may not be very great. So far I really like the search tool that was given to me, I will probably use it a lot. I also get a lot of good stuff from the school resources.

RJA #7b: Internet Research Tool Test

Because of how viewzi is set up there are lots of different ways that my results came up. One of the first searches I did that brought up a good amount of results was "importance*electoral*college". I got 37 results in the simple text option, 20 from the yahoo option, and there are a lot more options to choose from. As far as relevance goes, it is a 5 of 5. I can't really see anything that is not relevant. This specific search is very useful.

RJA #10a: Thesis Statement

Research Question: What does the Electoral College System accomplish and should it be in place?

Reasons:

1) Represenation

2) Political Corruption

3) State Power

The Electoral College was set in place by the founders of America because they did want there to be a large majority who controls all political branches, but to give representation to the most people and the states; this electorate system must not be removed from our Constitution.

RJA #7c: Field Research Plan

In regards to my field research I am wrestling with condutcing and interview with one of my past political science professors who also published a book. Also I am considering creating a survey to give to the general public.

In the interview I would ask him questions regarding what his thoughts are about the electoral college and if it is working the way it was intended. Depending on what he thinks I would cater my questions accordingly and would try to have him express both sides of the argument.

In the Survey my goal would be to see what the general population thinks about the system and if they have much, if any knowledge of the topic.

RJA #6a:

Should we elect the president by popular vote? After hundreds of attempts to abolish Electoral College, opponents are promoting a plan to work around it.
New York Times Upfront 140.10 (Feb 25, 2008); p 22
September 14

Save the Electoral College
Paul Greenberg
Monday marh 9, 09
Townhal.com
Sep. 22

The question of the merit of our electoral college system. pro.
J. Tanger
congressional digest; mar1952, vol 31 issue 3, p88-90, 2p
Sep 22

RJA #6b:

What does the Electoral College system accomplish and should it be in place?

Boolean Operators:

Electoral College AND effective*

Electoral College AND accomplish*

Electoral College AND reason*

Electoral College Theor*
American National Government Theor*
American Presidential AND Election AND System

Math:

Electoral College + effective*

Electoral College + accomplish*

Electoral College + reason*
Election+ System
Constitutional+ Election

RJA #6c:

My Protopage:
http://protopage.com/davidlholden

RJA #5b

The politics of electoral college reform, by Lawrence D. Longley and Alan G Braun. With a foreword by Birch Bayh.
Published: New Haven, Yale University Press, 1972
Series: A Yale fastback, YF-11
Yale fastback ; 11


Democracy's moment: reforming the American political system for the 21st century.
Ronald Hayduck; Kevin Mattson
Publisher: Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002
Series: People, passions, and power

Selecting the President
Bower Aly
Columbia, Mo., Artcraft Press
Discussion and Debate manual

The great debate: the need for constitution reform.
Rodney D Scott
Chicago : Rampant Lion Press 1999

Pro/con
Sally McFall; Grolier Educational (Firm); Grolier Incorporated.; et al
Publisher: Danbury, Conn. : Grolier Educational, 2002-<2005>
Summary: A series of essays analyzing questions or dilemmas relating to social issues.

RJA #5c

Kenneth Leverock
http://kennysengblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/rja-4a-generating-keywords.html#comment-form

Megan Wallace
http://meganwallace1020blog.blogspot.com/2009/09/rja-4b-writing-search-strings.html#comment-form

RJA #5a: Finding Reference Articles

List of Online References:


"The Electoral College"
"The electoral college." Social Education 72.6 (Oct 2008): 304(7). General OneFile. Gale. Auraria Library. 24 Sept. 2009
http://0-find.galegroup.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS.

"Neither the red states nor the blue states but the United States: the national popular vote and American political democracy."
Raskin, Jamin B. "Neither the red states nor the blue states but the United States: the national popular vote and American political democracy."Election Law Journal 7.3 (Summer 2008):188(8). General OneFile. Gale. Auraria Library. 24 Sept. 2009
http://0-find.galegroup.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS.

"Popular election of the president: using or abusing the electoral college?"
Hendricks, Jennifer S. "Popular election of the president: using or abusing the Electoral College?." Election Law Journal 7.3 (Summer 2008): 218(9). General OneFile. Gale. Auraria Library. 24 Sept. 2009
http://0-find.galegroup.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS.

"Rewriting the Constitution's basic "structural" provisions: when a constitutional convention for electoral change is necessary, and what it might be expected to accomplish."
Amar, Vikram David. "Rewriting the Constitution's basic 'structural' provisions: when a constitutional convention for electoral change is necessary, and what it might be expected to accomplish." Election Law Journal 7.3 (Summer 2008): 245(8). General OneFile. Gale. Auraria Library. 24 Sept. 2009.
http://0-find.galegroup.com.skyline.cudenver.edu/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS.

RJA #4a: Generating Keywords

What does the Electoral College System accomplish and should it be in place?

FO

Forms: electoral college system, voting system,

representative aspect, election system

accomplish, accomplishment(s)

RE

Related Terms why, reason, explanation, power, used

ST

Synonymous Terms achieve, succeed, position, representative

LOG

Ladder of

Generalization Political Science>Government Systems>Democratic Republic>

Voting System>Electoral College

RJA# 4b: Writing Search Strings

What does the Electoral College system accomplish and should it be in place?

Electoral College AND effective*

Electoral College AND accomplish*

Electoral College AND reason*

Electoral College Theor*

Equations:

Electoral College + effective*

Electoral College + accomplish*

Electoral College + reason*

RJA #4c: Checking Research Questions

Links to comments:

http://tyleratauraria.blogspot.com/2009/09/research-journal-assignment-3c.html#comment-form

http://gstoneeng1020.blogspot.com/2009/09/research-journal-3c-develop-research.html#comment-form

RJA #3a: Exploring Research Topic

All of the research I am finding is being added to my delicious account; weather that be specific articles or larger search results that help me narrow my research down.

From this I am finding more controversial points that I did not originally think of when I initially picked my topic. Possibly the most interesting question I can talk about in my paper is weather the electoral college system favors the current two powerful political party system that dominant. The largest discussion is if it takes away the democratic aspect away from the vote.

Also I have found a little bit on the issue of redrawing county lines. This is not affect the presidential vote but the vote at the state level. This is a way that demographics can be used to milk a certain vote from county to county.

RJA #3c: Developing Research Question

Why do the majority of United States citizens not understand the system?

How does it change the vote?

Why was it put into place?

Does the system take away the democratic aspect of the vote?

Do we get better representation form this system?

Could it be better?

What does it accomplish?

Should it be in place?

JA #3b: Narrowing Research Topic

When the assignment was first given to us and we were told that we had to pick a topic that was controversial and one that was in our field of study, I was not worried. Basically every thing in the realm political science is quite controversial, so I had a lot to choose from. I was initially thinking of taking our political system, pointing out one or more aspects, and then comparing it to others. But there are so many areas from which I could choose. The Electoral College System is very important but not may understand it, or even know what it is by name. After narrowing it down to this I feel I can write a more pointed paper.

RJA #2c: Delicious Account

My Delicious Account

RJA #2b: Research Topic

The Electoral College System is what really chooses who is the leader of the United State, but it is also one of the least understood. Because it is so important it is pivitol that the general public has a basic idea what it is, how it works, and why we have it. There is a large group that says that we should not have it because it is unfair, while the other side says that it is more fair.

I am not an expert but I have a good idea of how the system works. I had a political science teacher that once said that every one should be able to critizise and defend the system. That is what I hope to do in this paper, discuss all aspects of it.

Like I said, I am not an expert and I still have much to learn about the topic. I want to look a lot into what the founders said about it and the background. Right now I feel like the argument against the Electoral College is somewhat childish, so I want to understand their position better.

RJA #2a: Possible Topics

• The Electoral College System-Why do we have it and should it stay in place?
• Illegal Immigration and How It Affects Our Country
• State Soverenty
• Alternative Energy and Transportation-Is It Realistic and Economic?
• Are We Becoming a More Socialist Society?
• Health Care and It's History

Research Journal Assignment #1: Areas of Academic Interest

• Past Government Systems
• The Electoral College
• The Electric Car
• Alternative Energy
• Fabian Socialism
• Immigration
• Health Care
• Judicial Corruption
• Today's Leaders Compared to Past