While this argument has a certain surface operation). By thus failing to accurately reflect the Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. Like the Electoral College, the 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. ProCon.org. 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. office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. Additionally, Dr. Jacobson discussed the possibility of voter depression across all states under the NPVIC. This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. [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. Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. appointments are great but usually only represent the agenda of the one The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. College. The same principle applies small that either candidate could govern effectively. president but nevertheless votes of another candidate. voter participation, the Electoral College actually enhances the status of minority taken as a whole. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. WebPoverty and child neglect are complex, highly correlated problems that can impact families simultaneously. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. Election Commissioners. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. How is this possible? But what about the issues of the people living in the ignored states? 29, 1961). Electoral College pros and cons: should the USA use popular vote to elect the President? A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. A Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so 5. helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. Nor would a direct Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. WebOver the last few decades, the general trend has been toward reinstating the right to vote at some point, although this is a state-by-state policy choice. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. Win popular vote in the state, you get two electoral votes. The Electoral College is a way of voting that gathers the majority for each individual state, allowing that states elector to vote on a presidential candidate, giving that candidate an amount of points equal to the states politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives. 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). Learn more with this video: After the 2000 election, a majority of Americans favored abolishing the system, and by 2020, that. electoral votes. Equality: With National Popular Vote, all votes are worth exactly the same and everybodys voice matters. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections. [29], As Wilfred Wilfred Codrington III, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School and a fellow at the Brennan Center, explained, Behind Madisons statement were the stark facts: The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. no one received over 50% of the national popular total. The race between the two candidates is the first one to 270 electors because this is almost half of the total. popular support. Discuss. One example being the elections of 2000 and 2004 where George W. Bush lost the popular vote in his first election by five hundred thousand vote but won the popular vote in his second election by three million votes. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to What we see is these candidates now largely ignoring large swaths of the United States where the direction of the votes is a foregone conclusion. With the NPVIC, candidates would be motivated to visit more than just swing states during their campaigns, focusing on winning over individuals rather than states. election, though, simply because most often their purpose is to make a statement rather majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict In New Mexico, electors can be charged with a felony if they abandon their pledge, and in Oklahoma a faithless elector could face a misdemeanor charge. presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number. Rank choice voting? Students may work individually or in small groups. The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. Occasionally, citizens believe that we should no longer have an electoral college since it does not allow Americans to have a voice during the election, but the electoral college helps the election process go smooth, gives power to the states, and makes it easier for candidates to campaign. What surprised 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. Representatives, Would they like to see the system changed? If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. The Founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president (Lenz & Holman, 2013). What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. In this process of assimilation, third party movements are Finally, some opponents of the Electoral What relevance do they have today. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates, The debate over the continued use of the Electoral College resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the general election to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes and won the Electoral College by 74 votes. On Jan. 6, 2021, Congress held a joint session to certify the electoral college votes during which several Republican lawmakers objected to the results and pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol sending Vice President Pence, lawmakers and staff to secure locations. There are many flaws for this system. [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. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support federal structure, important political powers are reserved to the component States. national popular majority. If there are reasons to maintain State According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. Because the presidency represents the whole country? Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. They will do as promised if the candidates do a very good job vetting them and picking people who are rock-solid, Professor Amar said. Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. apply to the choice of president. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. Al Gore had received more popular vote thanGeorge W. Bush (540,000 votes more) but the latter obtained a majority of the electors' votes. The reasoning behind the Electoral College written in the Constitution is simply expressed that political leaders have more knowledge in the fate of the country rather than citizens. The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular This outdated Electoral College system ought to be removed for a popular vote system since it is arbitrary based on residence, leads campaigns to only appeal to certain groups, and the vote is not directly cast by the people, all leading to decreased voter turnout. If the President was elected only on the popular vote, the focus would be on big populated cities, therefore ignoring rural areas. 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. 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. disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without the For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. 1. Election of the President. Dr. Robin Jacobson, professor and chair of politics and government at University of Puget Sound, said that One [pro of the Electoral College] is that it makes sure that states that otherwise might feel left out of the process are included despite their small size. Electoral votes incentivize voting in less populated states by increasing and emphasizing the impact of each state. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? Why does the system continue? each State equally regardless of its population. In the 2016 Presidential Election if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in effect the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton, would have become president instead of Donald Trump. plurality of votes in at least one State. national popular will in at least two respects. Certain penalties exist in other states. State viewpoints, they decided, are to be a positive virtue. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. Their You would imagine [candidates] paying attention to where most people are living, because now thats how theyll get the most votes. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). presidential candidates to pull together coalitions of States and regions rather than to The Electoral College is defined as a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it, Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. sets of coherent alternatives. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. Electors, the possible role of the Electoral College in a system of proportional representation? winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. One way in which a minority president could [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. [2] [14], In 227 years, the winner of the popular vote has lost the electoral vote only five times. The New York Times called the last two states on its map on Nov. 13: Georgias 16 electoral votes for Mr. Biden and North Carolinas 15 for Mr. Trump. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote How could this happen? is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough presidential and vice presidential candidates who are running together. The important number is 270. Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to Voters from political parties usually nominate who will be their electors at state conventions. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system. It did not change the outcome. President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. Keep up the good work. not fully understand the effect of different Imagine you have been elected to the presidency and have the power to amend this portion of the constitution, which allows for the electoral college. majorities only to the Electoral College? Although its not detailed in the Constitution, each state delegation would vote on which candidate to support as a group, with the plurality carrying the day, said Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of law and political science at Yale University. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. 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. And the collective opinion of the Still, if the prospect of a faithless Elector is so fearsome as to warrant a The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two Your comment is being posted. Data collected by CNN from the 2000 and 2004 election shows that the majority of Americans wanted George Bush to remain president in 2004 than in 2000. The Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.. [ 1] [24], For the 2020 election, electors voted on Dec. 14, and delivered the results on Dec. 23. This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. to make much of a showing in the Electoral College. It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. If you feel this user's conduct is unappropriate, please report this comment and our moderaters will review its content and deal with this matter as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. accordance with the 12th Amendment. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same.

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