Americans Elect: The Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem

Tired of being forced to choose between the presidential nominees that the Democratic or Republican Parties have decided to put on the general election ballot? Well Americans Elect, a non-profit group, is attempting to fix that. Americans Elect was founded with the goal of nominating a presidential ticket that puts aside party politics by nominating a presidential candidate that is beholden to the people rather than a political party. Americans Elect has led an exciting effort to put its candidates on the general election ballots of all fifty states. They will be holding online elections, and will have delegates determine what the platform is for its eventual candidates. Despite, the rather impressive attempt to provide America with a realistic third presidential choice come November 6^th, Americans Elect is trying to solve the wrong problem with the wrong solution.

First, let’s analyze a major problem that Americans Elect is attempting to remedy; that partisan politics is hurting the country by forcing the government into partisan gridlock over most legislation. AE focuses on the presidential race because it believes that AE’s eventual candidates for president and vice president can unify the country in a spirit of bipartisanship. Admittedly partisan politics is an immensely difficult issue in today’s politics. Unfortunately, the Executive branch is not the place to resolve those problems. A casual look at Article II of the Constitution makes it pretty clear that the president has very little power to do anything out of self-initiative. As Justice Jackson noted in Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer, there are three categories of power that the Executive branch operates under with descending levels of legitimacy: 1) cases where the President acts at the behest of congressional legislation, 2) situations where Congress is silent, 3) cases where the President defies Congress but has specific Article II authority to act. The core takeaway from Youngstown is that the President has scant authority to do anything politically without Congress first giving the President the legislative authority to do so. In terms of policy, this means that the President is hamstrung by the realities of the Constitution’s structure, namely that Congress creates policy, and the President implements it. Considering this, it seems that Americans Elect should focus its efforts on Congress, where legislation is introduced and manufactured, rather than the Executive branch.

Secondly, another serious error in Americans Elect’s stated problem is that partisanship in our elected officials is borne out of our primary election system thanks to median voter theory. It is very obvious that primary election turnout is significantly less than general election turnout. For example, in 2008, 57% of the population voted in the general election, but roughly 30% of people voted in the primary elections. This election cycle many states have reported lower than normal turnout rates for primary elections. Generally, individuals who show up for primary elections are party adherents, people who have strong feelings about being a conservative or a liberal, and tend to identify further on the right or the left as opposed to being independents in the middle. Median voter theory states that given a universe of potential voters, a candidate running against other candidates will attempt to attract the median voter in that universe to garner the most overall votes. The problem is that in primary elections, the universe of voters is made up of people who generally align themselves further right or left than the median voter in the general election. Given this, a candidate in a primary race is forced to run further to poles of political ideology to win the primary nomination to the general election. We have seen this happen in this year’s Republican presidential nomination; one of the key concerns is that Romney has positioned himself temporarily to the right and now that he has effectively won the nomination, will swing back to the center. The conservative concern over Romney is a perfect example of the median voters in the Republican primary, who are far more conservative than the average overall voter, voicing their concerns that Romney will bolt from conservative principles to win the general election. Ultimately the primary nomination process winnows out candidate whose political ideology aligns closely with the general election median voter because those candidates cannot capture the median primary election voter who is likely to be far to the right or left of the ideologically centrist candidate.

Given the above, AE’s solution will likely do little to break partisan gridlock. AE would be better served by ensuring more moderate congressional candidates survive the primary election process and end up on the general election ballot. As noted above, there is a vast gulf between the number of voters between primary and general elections. The solution is to increase the number of voters that show up at primary elections, rather than focusing on general elections when it is too late to change the ideological leanings of a candidate. AE should work to get Americans used to the idea that there are generally two elections every year, and focus its efforts on educating and notifying voters who normally do not participate in primary elections. If AE wants to make a meaningful impact, and help end partisan gridlock, the key is to make sure the average general election voter, who is more moderate than a primary election voter, participates in the primary election process. Until then, we can count on continued partisan bickering in Congress, stymied presidential efforts, and a lack of grand policy solutions in America.