AO1: Financing of elections means that large sums of money are needed This means there is a lack of will to carry out serious campaign finance reform, and so this is unlikely to become a political priority AO3: Therefore elections at all levels will continue to become more expensive, so excluding many people and smaller parties from being able to participate/succeed, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Attempts to reform campaign finance rules have failed because of Supreme Court rulings Legislation has been introduced to attempt to limit how much money is spent/raised and how this is done, but judicial challenges have overturned - some rules on the basis of protecting the First Amendment AO3: This has made further attempts to reform campaign finance rules unlikely, as it appears that the right to raise money/ campaign for individuals/parties is constitutionally protected, and politicians may be reluctant to enter into potential conflict with the Supreme Court, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Loopholes in campaign finance rules have allowed Super PACs to flourish This means that problems with campaign finance that appeared to have been tackled have continued, and in fact worsened with the growth of, and candidate reliance on Super PACs AO3: Therefore this has allowed wealthy individuals and corporations/groups to continue to dominate the US electoral system despite attempts to limit this, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Campaigning is also carried out by interest groups and lobbyists- as long as they campaign indirectly, they are less regulated by campaign finance rules Arguably, campaigning is dominated by such groups who have access to more funding and organisational resources than individuals that allow them to campaign for individual candidates/parties AO3: Therefore the rules have failed to tackle the problems of increasingly expensive elections and domination by wealth, which is a problem with the electoral system. AO1: The need for extensive finance for elections means that members of Congress may focus on fund-raising more than the needs of their constituents This is particularly true of the House of Representatives, where short terms of office mean they have only 2 years to fund and run the next election campaign AO3: which may give campaign finance more importance in determining their political priorities, a significant problem with the electoral system.

AO1: Incumbency is also a significant problem This is particularly true in Congressional elections, where states cannot have term limits in place for members of Congress, and so some members of Congress are re-elected because of name familiarity and their electoral record AO3: Therefore the ability of new candidates to succeed is limited in states where there is an incumbent, consequently restricting the democratic nature of the US system, which is a more significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Two-party system is also a major problem that limits democracy within the electoral system This is because FPTP encourages the domination of the two major parties at all levels of local, state and national government AO3: Therefore third parties find it much more difficult to get elected at all levels of government, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Electoral College is also a major problem as it means the executive is not directly elected The indirect nature of this system means that presidential candidates must campaign on an individual state basis rather than a national level, so may focus on winning certain key states to the detriment of other, smaller states AO3: Therefore this system gives disproportionate influence to certain states, and can under certain circumstances give undue power and influence to the electoral college delegates, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: Campaign finance reform has succeeded within the confines of the Constitution, and so allows the necessary finance to allow elections to operate Without the ability to raise large sums of money from individual or organisations, candidates would find it impossible to campaign effectively in modern elections AO3: Therefore having limited campaign finance rules is a necessary evil in a modern society, which is a significant problem with the electoral system. AO1: The electoral system of First-Past-the-Post itself produces unrepresentative results FPTP encourages the two-party system, and makes it much harder for minority parties or independents to achieve electoral success, especially on a federal level AO3: which makes it a more significant problem than campaign finance because it limits potential representation so much.