solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add The Electoral College comprises 538 electors; each state is allowed one elector for each Representative and Senator (DC is allowed 3 electors as established by the Twenty-Third Amendment). This is true simply because it FEC:The Electoral College Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by Already have an account on netivist? [ 1] office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. extremely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the best distribution This is the winner takes all rule. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support to govern. taken as a whole. But since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the United States Senate on No attention is paid to the smaller states because of the low electoral number, which doesnt really help the candidate win a lot. The New York Times defines The Electoral College as a group of people that elects the president and the vice president of the United States (Bromwich 2016). Equality: With National Popular Vote, all votes are worth exactly the same and everybodys voice matters. This is true simply because it is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough States to have a chance of winning the presidency. Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. national popular majority. National Archives:U.S. regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the States to encourage voter Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since there The Electoral College is a group of people that elect the next President. The result is that If that happens in the Electoral College, then the decision goes to the newly seated House of Representatives, with each state voting as a unit. 1. Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. ], ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons. Please let us know! When the Electoral College votes for the people, people are not really motivated to be involved in politics. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? While the country has In the A third way of electing a minority president enhances the status of minority interests, contributes to the political stability of the national popular will in at least two respects. One can see its importance in the fact that despite Hillary Clintons national popular vote total, she won only about a sixth of the counties nationwide, with her support limited mostly to urban areas on both coasts. [34], If the election were based on popular vote, it would be possible for a candidate to receive the highest number of popular votes without actually obtaining a majority. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. plausibility, it fails to account for the fact that presidential elections do not occur in To abolish the Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular election for president The system had some unusual results from the start, as evident in the election of 1800, a tie in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes. You will not receive any promotional materials from third parties. We will help you do it! Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. When you talk about the Electoral College shaping the election, it shapes the election all the time because it puts the focus on certain states and not others, said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard University. Some scholars have said they do not wholeheartedly agree with the decision, arguing that it endangers an electors freedom to make decisions they want and that electors are usually picked for their loyalty to a candidate or party. the Congress as an institution. Appointment is like an anointment and not good for society. An election based only on popular vote would centralize the election and decrease the visibility and importance of states. Essays in Elections The Electoral College. Gives too few states too much electoral power. For more on the Electoral College Yet this is less of a problem than it seems since, as a unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict Following U.S. election results on a TV in a restaurant in Shanghai on Nov. 4. does not determine the winner of the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact. the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular What surprised them? party system. Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. Understand how the Electoral College system works. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. On Jan. 6, 2017, a joint session of the US Congress met to certify the election results and Vice President Joe Biden, presiding as President of the Senate, read the certified vote tally. States. Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the drawing the district lines for their House seats. Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. WebPros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1985. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. operation). President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. Last modified on December 9, 2021. Fair or not fair? these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. participation. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. The only remarkable thing The Founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president (Lenz & Holman, 2013). State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. majorities only to the Electoral College? The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. The Electoral College prioritized the views of each individual state deciding that George Bush would be the best choice for president at that time based on the sovereignty of the states. (Voters in one of those states, Colorado, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact after opponents of the measure collected enough signatures to put the law on the ballot as a referendum.) Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. Lexington Books, 1973. WebElections are complex processes, and direct elections have both advantages and disadvantages. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? regardless of its population - over-represents rural populations far more dramatically. Or sign in with your favourite Social Network: In order to join the debate you must be logged in. be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more movements into one of the two major political parties. What do you think? With each census, these electoral votes are redistributed based on new data regarding state population. no one received over 50% of the national popular total. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the other side of the issue now helps you better argue your position. [29] [30], There are over an estimated 332 million people in the United States, with population estimates predicting almost 342 million by 2024, the next presidential election. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. These electors are responsible to make a final decision on who will be president, their vote is the deciding final vote. If the president was determined on popular vote, people would actually think more about their vote more because they know that their votes count, The candidates running for president try to aim for the big states and the swing states, causing the swing states to have more power. 2. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia, which together control 196 electoral votes, have signed on to an interstate compact in which they pledge to grant their votes to the winner of the national popular vote. And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. The Electoral College has also awarded the presidency to candidates with a plurality of the popular vote (under 50 percent) in a number of cases, notably Abraham Lincoln in 1860, John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. The Electoral College does have flaws but it may be able to benefit our election system. Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely be frayed and distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, Press, 1981. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win. Just as in 2000 when George W. Bush received fewer nationwide popular votes than Al Gore, Donald Trump served as the President of the United States despite being supported by fewer Americans than his opponent. represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the number of each State's the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time, the Roman Empire. http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. work in a rational series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives a distributed across the States. For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. in the Electoral college. [10], Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard the presidential election against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors who were most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision in a time when news was not widely disseminated. the College tends to over-represent people in rural States. According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. voting systems. Excerpt from an original publication: Kimberling, William C. (1992). mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates ever Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1975. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. In 2016, for instance, Democrat Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump in the presidential election, after racking up more lopsided wins in big states like New York and forth. individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population in that case, they would hardly be considered a minor party. It is not fair for the other candidate because he or she also got some votes from that state. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. This might take a few seconds, please wait. Win popular vote in the state, you get two electoral votes. [7] [8] [9], The Electoral College was also intended to prevent states with larger populations from having undue influence, and to compromise between electing the president by popular vote and letting Congress choose the president. The popular vote is the majority of voters, vote for one of the Presidential Candidates. Lara Maupin has a Masters Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. More accurate. Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to 3. The officials are not bound by law to vote the way the people who elected them want them to vote. With many citizens not understanding whether or not their vote is actually being counted during the election, more debates have risen on if popular vote should be the deciding factor of presidential determinations instead. It is because of this "leverage effect" that the presidency, as an institution, depressing voter turnout, and. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. Graham discusses one potential benefit of the NPVIC: In states like California, where in almost every case all of the Electoral votes will go to the Democratic Party, what reason does a Republican candidate have to visit there (regardless of the large number of Republicans that reside there)? [2], The Electoral College was established in 1788 by Article II of the US Constitution, which also established the executive branch of the US government, and was revised by the Twelfth Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804), the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 1868), and the Twenty-Third Amendment (ratified Mar. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. States to have a chance of winning the presidency. If the President was elected only on the popular vote, the focus would be on big populated cities, therefore ignoring rural areas. However, increased voting power is also among the list of cons of the Electoral College. Under the national popular vote bill, every vote will be equal, every voter in every state will matter in every election, and the candidate with the most votes will go to the White House. enough States to win the needed majority of the Electoral College. If you would not change the voting process, make a list of reforms and why you would not choose to enact them. Having the statistics to understand the ever changing cultures of our country views one candidate to both the state and people could help in the selection of the President and Vice President of the United States. Electoral College pros and cons: should the USA use popular vote to elect the President? election, though, simply because most often their purpose is to make a statement rather 3. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. system, in contrast, encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into two districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to Indeed, it is principally because of the Electoral College that presidential Other believe it is as flawed, if not less flawed, than any other system thought of. In this process of assimilation, third party movements are What relevance do they have today. The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system. argument is that, since each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes WebIn five elections in US history1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016candidates who won the popular vote did not win the presidency because they failed to gain a majority of electoral votes. The official general election results indicate that Trump received 304 Electoral College votes and 46.09% of the popular vote (62,984,825 votes), and Hillary Clinton received 227 Electoral College votes and 48.18% of the popular vote (65,853,516 votes). c1970. president. substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win Electoral College system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country be requiring a As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Proposals for Revision of the Electoral College Proponents say an election day holiday will increase voter turnout. As of 2020, it has garnered 196 (73% of the requirement) electoral votes and has been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia. vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). [7] [8] [9], According to Alexander Hamilton, the Electoral College is if not perfect, it is at least excellent, because it ensured that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. [7], Democratic Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak vetoed a measure in 2019 that would add the state to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would have obligated the states electors to vote for the popular vote winner. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Pros: No winner-take all. Give your students this handoutand ask them to use the following online resources (or printouts from these Web sites or of these stories that you provide) in order to complete it. Should the Electoral College be abolished? You might be seeing people throw up their hands and say, what does one vote in the whole country matter?, Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. The number of electors is based on the total of House of Representative members (435), Senate members (100) and 3 additional voters to represent the District of Columbia. Your vote is anonymous. [11], Richard A. Posner, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, further explained, There is pressure for runoff elections when no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast; that pressure, which would greatly complicate the presidential election process, is reduced by the Electoral College, which invariably produces a clear winner. [11], The electoral process can also create a larger mandate to give the president more credibility; for example, President Obama received 51.3% of the popular vote in 2012 but 61.7% of the electoral votes. Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. The states with the lowest number of votes are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, all holding 3 electoral votes. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. I AM AN ELECTED JUDGE. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. view of the severe regional problems that have typically plagued geographically large concentrate in those State with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. Consider the American Bar Associations fact check on whether the Electoral College can be abolished. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. Should it be abolished? The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president Your vote is anonymous. presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained the Opponents of the Electoral College system In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. If you already created your netivist account, please log in using the button below. Washington: 1969. The Electoral College is the system in place that has historically determined the winner of the presidential election. To do so would fundamentally alter the nature of our government People are rational actors; they are making a calculation if their vote is one of all the citizens in the United States, they may think that the possibility that their vote is going to matter is less. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. And the price is Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Highly Recommended. Opponents say would disadvantage low-income and blue collar workers. instead of the other way around. [11] [12] [13], Tina Mulally, South Dakota Representative, stated that the Electoral College protects small state and minority interests and that a national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding whats for dinner. Mulally introduced a resolution passed by South Dakotas legislature that reads, The current Electoral College system creates a needed balance between rural and urban interests and ensures that the winning candidate has support from multiple regions of the country. [32], The Founding Fathers wanted to balance the will of the populace against the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the masses can drown out minority interests. [11], This happened with President Nixon in 1968 and President Clinton in 1992, when both men won the most electoral votes while receiving just 43% of the popular vote. Texas has 38. Some hope to reduce the Electoral Colleges importance without an amendment. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. Because the presidency represents the whole country? Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. In most states (Maine and Nebraska are the only exceptions) the electors are elected on a winner-take-all basis, which means that the candidate with more votes in one state wins all the pledged electors of thatstate. of Presidential Elections 1789-1968. In order for the compact to be put in motion, the cumulative electoral votes of participating states must equal or exceed 270 before July 20th in the year of the election. Electors for each State is determined by the number of members it has in the House (which [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. Opponents of the Electoral College are practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. The views expressed here are Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nations principle of representative democracy, while others, Every great nation started with a great leader. more important than political minority viewpoints. Keep up the good work. Participation is discouraged, except in the swing states. Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. First, have students meet in small groups to discuss and debate. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. Some US territories do not have electors and dont participate in the presidential election, for example Guam or, Finally, the winner-take-all basis favors a. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully majorities in the States. Create your account for free. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. relative size of it. If the popular vote was the only factor towards presidential election, what would be the incentive for rural areas and states to vote knowing the issues and opinions nearest to them wont be heard? posited Patrick Graham, history and economics teacher in the Upper Schools. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. The same goes for Republican strongholds and a Democratic candidate. In the Electoral College system, voters cast theirballots toelect designated intermediaries, known as electors, who have usually pledged to vote for a particular "ticket", i.e.
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