It’s All About the Voter

Andrew Yoo

Professor Garrick Percival

Political Science 10

28 April 2004

“It’s all about the Voter”

In order for one to become president of the United States, he or she must gain the votes from the public. There are various ways of getting votes. Nominees go through months of campaigning to get the votes necessary to win the state. Some believe that the public makes the decision for president long before the campaigns even start, and others believe that the campaigns are necessary to gain votes for a president. A campaign in itself is not necessary to influence the public’s decision. The focus is not whether the campaign has the influential power to change people’s opinion, but the focus is on the actual individual who is voting. The individual has the power to choose whether to let the campaign influence his or her opinion or to make the decision before the campaign. There are both cases when the individual makes a decision for president before the campaign starts and when the individual makes a decision for president because of the influence of the campaign. Campaigns do matter in a democratic society and they are important to a certain extent for those who actually follow the campaigns, but they are not as important for everyone.

Not anyone can just run for president. There are certain qualifications that a person must have to become president. He or she must prove the nation that he or she is able to lead a nation. The, “…qualities of the candidate are extremely important influences on how people vote” (Fiorina and Peterson 302). Campaigns are a way to prove one’s qualifications. Campaigns are important to a democratic society because they provide information for the nation about the candidate. Robert Dole is an example of how campaigns show one’s qualifications. Due to Dole’s uninspired campaign, he was viewed as a horrible candidate. In 1994, Dole was viewed as a strong