Année Universitaire 2019-2020

Deuxième semestre /session 1

Licence 1 droit
Anglais
D.GRZYMKA

Durée : 1H30
Documents autorisés : AUCUN

NAME: Marciniek SURNAME:

Amidou

Section: section C Group:

Millions of Democratic votes were lost in the primaries. Is
this the fix?
Americans who vote early may ‘waste’ their vote on candidates who drop out
of the race. There’s an easy way to remedy that
Mohit Nair and Colin Cole
Wed 11 Mar 2020 16.07 GMTLast modified on Wed 11 Mar 2020 17.43 GMT
often voting for candidates no longer in the race on election day.
In Colorado and Texas, early voters for candidates other than Joe Biden and
Bernie Sanders might have made a statement, but they didn’t have the chance
to influence the primary election. Some of the estimated 20% of Californians
who voted early asked for a do-over. In Minnesota, 40,000 people had
reportedly cast their ballots a week before Super Tuesday – and days before
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out.
Just yesterday, more than a million Washington voters finally had the chance
to weigh in. Unlike other states, which saw long lines and voting machine
errors, the state votes by mail and has a highly engaged electorate. As a result,
a significant proportion of ballots were returned early, essentially throwing
away their vote.
Early voting is generally viewed as a good thing by civil rights advocates – it
helps avoid errors on election day, and curbs long lines at the precinct. But
voting for soon-to-be unviable candidates is not only a frustrating reality for
proactive voters, but intrinsically harmful to the democratic process.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution: ranked-choice voting (RCV). And it’s
one that has the potential to address a host of other problems that plague our
electoral system, including negative campaigning and lack of minority
representation.
Four states – Alaska, Kansas, Wyoming and Hawaii – are already using
ranked-choice voting in the current Democratic presidential primaries, and
one state, Maine, uses it for state elections and for US Congress and
president. New York City also recently adopted ranked-choice voting
beginning in 2021. But most of the country has yet to catch on.
Under ranked-choice voting, voters rank their favorite candidates in order of
preference, and if their first choice is no longer viable, their vote would count
towards their next choice. The process would continue until all votes are
supporting viable candidates.

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If ranked-choice voting had been in place in Washington, voters who turned
in their ballot early for Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg or
Elizabeth Warren could rest assured that their vote would still count towards
their next preference rather than being wasted on a candidate who is no
longer in the running. And candidates would probably face less pressure to
drop out of the race early.
But reforming our primary elections is only one benefit.
Under the current plurality voting system, candidates benefit from attacking
their opponents and highlighting their ideological differences in an effort to
appeal to their base. However, in a ranked-choice election, candidates are also
campaigning to be voters’ second and third choices.
We saw this happen in the 2018 San Francisco mayoral race: two candidates,
Mark Leno and Jane Kim, actually campaigned together to fight for shared
values as they reached out to voters in a ranked-choice election. In a political
field that is often fraught with negativity, this kind of positive campaigning is
a welcome change.
This same system, meanwhile, can help historically marginalized
communities achieve representation in their own cities.
Here in Washington, for example, Yakima county is in the middle of a legal
challenge under the Washington Voting Rights Act. The population of the
county is approximately 49% Latino, but the county has only ever elected one
Latino candidate to the county commission – partly because it has an at-large
general election system that dilutes minority voting rights.
“We are trying to ensure that we have a more equitable election system here
in Yakima county,” Dulce Gutiérrez, a plaintiff in the case, and one of the few
Latinx city council members elected told us. “We believe that there are
remedies that can improve the likelihood of representation.”
Historically, the remedy has been to move to majority-minority districts that
concentrate minority voters in a particular geographic district in order to
garner representation. However, such a system is vulnerable to
gerrymandering and vote splitting and, perversely, only protects communities
of color that live in highly segregated neighborhoods.
In Yakima, a switch to ranked-choice voting with multi-member districts
would help achieve “proportional representation” and guarantee that roughly
every one-third of the residents is able to pick one of the three commissioners.
Latino candidates regularly get more than a third of the countywide vote, but
historically are unable to win countywide races.

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Washington state has been a leader in adopting commonsense reforms, like
mandating marriage equality or legalizing marijuana, but it is well behind the
curve in electoral reforms like ranked-choice voting.
We have plenty of real-life examples of ranked-choice voting working for
communities. It’s already used in several countries, including Australia,
Scotland and New Zealand. It’s also gathering momentum in the United
States, where it is used in over 20 jurisdictions.
After all, our democracy is at stake.
• Mohit Nair is partnerships director of FairVote Washington.
• Colin Cole is legislative director and a co-founder of FairVote Washington.
He is also policy director at MoreEquitableDemocracy.

I) Vocabulary (2.5pts)

Find in the order of the text the words matching the synonyms here after (do not
forget title and subtitles)

- Solution, answer: remedy

- Change, repeat, renew: do over
- Choose, select, pick, designate:voting
- To restrain, limit:ranked
- Constituency:
- To tackle, cope with:
- To rate, grade, place, categorize:
- Filled with, full of:
- Collect, acquire, amass:
- Dividing:

II) True or false (8pts)

Say if these statements are true or false and justify your answer by quoting the text (not
giving any line number instead)

1) Every American citizen has a say in the presidential election primaries and therefore
has an impact on it.

True :
Across the country, millions of voters turned in early ballots for the US presidential
primary elections,

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 2) Voting in advance is a positive point and helpful for the election organization.

True :Early voting is generally viewed as a good thing by civil rights advocates – it
helps avoid errors on election day, Surprisingly, some states can choose candidates by
eliminating the ‘resigners’ along the process.

3) The vote in Washington was not lost thanks to that so-called system (mentioned in
question 3) used in the state.

False :their next preference rather than being wasted on a candidate who is no longer
in the running. And candidates would probably face less pressure to drop out of the
race early.

4) cited state has always been one step ahead in terms of reforms.
True :
In a political field that is often fraught with negativity, this kind of positive
campaigning is a welcome change.

5) Candidates could wait longer instead of abdicating promptly if that system was used
as the norm.
False

6) Hispanic communities have often representatives due to their high population in the
state.
True :
The population of the county is approximately 49% Latino, but the county has
only ever elected one Latino candidate to the county commission – partly
because it has an at-large general election system that dilutes minority voting
rights.

7) That innovative system (keeping a candidate aside if one resigns) is specific to the
US.

False :We have plenty of real-life examples of ranked-choice voting working for
communities. It’s already used in several countries, including Australia, Scotland and
New Zealand.
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Detailed comprehension (4.5pts)

Find the answer in the text.

1) What is the request of Californian voters?

In Minnesota, 40,000 people had reportedly cast their ballots a week before
Super Tuesday – and days before Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped
out.
Just yesterday, more than a million Washington vo

2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of voting by mail?

3) What do people do in the four states using another smart system?

Maine, uses it for state elections and for US Congress and president

4) What would be the result of that way of selecting candidates for the Latino
community?
Latino candidate to the county commission – partly because it has an at-large
general election system that dilutes minority voting rights.

5) What would be the risk of using this way of selecting candidates?

Latino candidates regularly get more than a third of the countywide vote, but
historically are unable to win countywide races.

6) Give an example of rational, down to earth reform that has been taken by the state
using votes by mail.

whasington

IV) Free expression (5pts)

What would be for you an ideal democracy in the way of electing its leaders and
respecting every citizen’s rights (10 lines at least)

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 The best democracy in the way of electing the leaders could be a
democracy were there is many ways to vote with the vote by mail, the
ranked choice voting …
But also were everybody could vote and this without separating the states
and communities (Latinos…) to favorise the diversity , furthermore that
the candidate have the same opportunity to be elected.
The states should have the same representation of votes (because in the
American country ,some states have a better representation than others
( according to their size, number oh citizens…) and in this case the
democracy is not really representative but is unequal.

For me ,to have the best democracy we have togged many ways to vote,
had a diversity of candidates and respect diversity and the
representativity if the citizens

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 Name: Surname:
Section: Group:
Answers

I) Vocabulary
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II) True or false

1)

2)

3)

4)

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5)

6)

7)

8)

III) Detailed comprehension

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

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6)

IV) Free expression.

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