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//**__Joshua Hendarto Kiara Thomas Cassandra Townson Patrick Woodburn Jeff Cauvin.__**//

__**Amendment XXII**__

__Section 1__: //The twelfth article of amendment of the constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.//

__Section 2:__ //U.S. Citizens of voting age, regardless of personal history and background, shall have an equal vote in all presidential elections. The presidential election shall be resolved by popular vote.//

__Section 3:__ //The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.//


 * __Position Paper__**

The twelfth amendment, which is the Electoral College system, is not 100% accurate on choosing presidents of the United States. It has always been that whichever party won the Electoral College won the election no matter how many regular votes the candidates may have. By popular vote, each vote is distributed equally so that the candidates may win the presidential election fair and square. No party from both sides can have too much power over the voting rights of the citizens of United States in the elections. This system supports no party because of its character being independent and fair, while the Electoral College can be unfair in judging the winner of the election by supporting party who has the most votes in a certain state and ignoring other voters who has voted for a different party.

One case where the Electoral College has been proven a faulty system is the election of the year 2000, where George W. Bush and John Kerry went head to head in the presidential election. At the end, George W. Bush ended up winning the presidential election even when he received less votes than John Kerry. John Kerry lost the election because of the Electoral College. Bush, apparently, had most Electoral College from many different states and won the presidential election. This proves that the Electoral College is an unfair system that gave the Republicans with too much power over the election. Where their vote counts more than the votes of the Democrats.

With the Electoral College, disproportionate voting power is given to the states. Smaller states get more Electoral College votes per person. For instance, each individual vote in Wyoming counts nearly four times as much in the Electoral College as each individual vote in Texas. This is because Wyoming has 3 Electoral votes for a population of 493,782 and Texas has 32 Electoral votes for a population of over 20 million people. By dividing the population by Electoral votes, we can see that Wyoming has an "Elector" for every 165,000 people and Texas has an "Elector" for every 652,000 people. This shows that this is not a fair way to go anyway because no two states are exactly the same size so the same system shouldn’t be used to elect the President. So if the popular vote is used, every person will be counted as one vote so the election happens fairly. Something that might happen as a result of the Electoral College is that a minority president might be chosen. This means that the president elected won’t have the majority of the popular votes. The way this could happen is if America was so deeply politically divided that the candidate did not receive the complete majority.

This system leads to the deprivation of American citizens full voice in electing the president. The voting process is meaningless leading to less and less citizens voting. The votes that the media push you to go cast, are not even tallied and not counted equally. But since every state has two senators and one representative at the least, the votes of citizens in smaller states is worth substantially more that that of one in a larger state. The issues with the Electoral College reach far beyond fairness issues. The Electoral College single-handedly continues to defeat the purpose of democracy in America. An example of an Electoral College disaster was in 1824 in the election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Jackson won more than any other candidate but not the absolute majority. And none of the candidates won a majority of the electoral votes so it was up to the house to decide. The third candidate Henry Clay had no chance of winning the run-off so it was up to the house to choose between Jackson and Adams. Because of their similar politics the house stuck behind Adams and he won the election.

__**Rebuttal Paper**__

The twelfth amendment will allow any candidates from any party to win the election fairly. This system is fair and independent (it supports no one). Not only that by popular vote the candidates can win the presidential election fairly, it also sets the voting rights for the average U.S. citizen voters. The new amendment says that anyone regarding of personal background or history can vote.

People coming out of jail should have the right to vote; no matter what or who they are and no matter whether they are being reincarcerated or not. People with criminal backgrounds are a part of this nation too- therefore, should be able to vote like any other United States citizens. Their vote shall be counted as 1 vote. The only time where they cannot be allowed to vote is if they are not at a voting age. No one is allowed to vote if he or she is not yet at a voting age, which is 18 years old.

The Electoral College is unfair because the votes of regular voters (voting for party B) would not be counted and ignored if the majority of the Electoral College voters vote for a different party (Party A). This is the reason why not many people out there care so much about voting. Why would they vote if at the end their vote wouldn’t count anyway. Only about 52% of the eligible American population voters vote. According to a newscast, more than 102 million people vote, which yields the 52% figure. More than 123 million people were registered to vote and 198 million people are eligible to register, so 83% of those registered actually voted. 275 million people live in America (80 million are under 18 or otherwise ineligible). So what happens to the millions and millions of others who didn’t vote? The main reason why a lot of people don’t vote is because they can’t vote. They can’t vote because of their criminal background. No matter how small/minor their crime was, if they spent time in jail, they still can’t vote. They should be allowed to vote because it is their future also. They should have the right to choose what happens to their future by picking the next president, no matter what had happened in their past. They are human just like everyone else and everyone makes mistakes, some more severe than others. And they spent their time in jail, they did their time for the crime they paid; why should the have continue to pay when they already did their time? Just because an ex-criminal/ex-felon did a crime in the past, it shouldn’t have anything to do with them voting because it’s a past thing, not something that’s happening now.

The new amendment states that everyone 18 and older has the right to vote, disregarding his or her personal background/history. This amendment should be passed because it gives everyone the right to vote, even people with a criminal background. This gives everyone the chance to vote that is of legal age and no one gets left out because of something in their past.

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