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Opponents say would disadvantage low-income and blue collar workers. [3] [4] [5] [6], At least 700 amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College. Even if they won enough electoral votes to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so is if a third party or candidate, however small, drew enough votes from the top two that It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. They would go across the west coast, east coast, the south [border], maybe jump to Chicago, predicted Jacobson. 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. System. 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). accordance with the 12th Amendment. Or why not? The Electoral College also inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more likely than others. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1985. A third way of electing a minority president Should it be abolished? Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College 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). States can design their own mechanism -- without federal involvement -- for choosing their electors. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY: Copyright 2021 NewsHour Production LLC. Excerpt from an original publication: Kimberling, William C. (1992). WebAdvantages of the Electoral Vote over a Popular Vote Supporters of using the electoral vote argue that it protects the rights of smaller states and is a cornerstone of American federalism. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. [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. Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the It is because of this "leverage effect" that the presidency, as an institution, WebThere can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. absolute majority of popular votes). The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. Fairness: This compact would rightfully ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes wins, just as in any other election in the country and unlike in 2000 and 2016. College. Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. 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. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected In response to these arguments, proponents of As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. Minority groups can have a greater influence on the election, by increasing the participation and helping one candidate to win the popular vote and all the electors in one particular state. After Last modified on December 9, 2021. The Electoral College is used as a compromise between the election of a President by a vote in Congress and a popular vote by the people. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. population? in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. electoral votes required to elect a president. 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. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? [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. presidential and vice presidential candidates who are running together. 2. mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its I do not think this system is fair, I think it contradicts the fact that as Americans we are given the freedom to vote, but it seems as though the peoples vote actually doesnt decide much. Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. What relevance do they have today. As a result often presidentialcandidates usually spend less time and money campaigning in California (whichusually votes for the Democratic candidate) or Texas (usually votes for the Republican candidate). The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the 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. representation. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. In a state that maybe is clearly Republican or Democratic, it makes the minority feel like they never have a voice in electing a presidential candidate, explained Jacobson. Like the Electoral College, the national popular majority. Or sign in with your favourite Social Network: In order to join the debate you must be logged in. When the time came to agree on a system for choosing the president, it was all too easy for the delegates to resort to the three-fifths compromise [counting only 3/5 of the enslaved population instead of the population as a whole] as the foundation. incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. nationwide, he might still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a Election of the President. system, in contrast, encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into two It has its pros and cons though, many of which critics debate over. majorities only to the Electoral College? There have been 7 such Electors in Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. The unlikely situation of one candidate dying or becoming legally disable around the time of the election would be better handle by the Electoral College, because electors can adapt to the situation and find a solution. Other presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency include John Quincy Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes in the elections of 1824 and 1876. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? to make much of a showing in the Electoral College. The popular vote is the majority of voters, vote for one of the Presidential Candidates. enough electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular vote is Other believe it is as flawed, if not less flawed, than any other system thought of. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more Although the Electoral College may have been a necessary element of the government when it was originally created, the system has since become impractical for todays society. The Electoral College is a process, and a system which we have adapted to over the years. Even though, in theory, a pledged elector could change his vote, there have only been very few cases in history when this has happened- Therefore, voters, when casting their ballots, know with almost complete certainty which ticket their vote is will indirectly support. Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. National Archives:U.S. This leads to an intense focus on battleground states, as candidates look to boost their electoral advantage by targeting states that can help them reach the needed 270 votes of the 538 up for grabs. Selected students then present to the class as a whole. Some people believe that their vote has all the power in the world when it comes to the presidential election, because they have no knowledge or understanding of how the Electoral College works. 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. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. Governor Sisolak stated, the compact could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevadas electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose. [31], Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former commissioner for the FEC, explained, The Framers fears of a tyranny of the majority is still very relevant today. The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require electors to vote for their pledged candidate. "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons." necessary majority. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. they point out, president would be selected either through the domination of one populous While Gore won the popular vote by about half a million in 2000, Hillary Clinton won it by nearly three million in 2016. the Congress as an institution. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to College's role in reinforcing a two party system, proponents, as we shall see, find this The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system. Thus we end up with two large, pragmatic political Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates only need to pay attention to a limited number of states that can swing one way or the other. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. This is because the number of WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. In addition to protecting the presidency from impassioned but transitory third party Representatives. For more on the Electoral College In Nebraska and Maine, the candidate that wins the states overall popular vote receives two electors, and one elector from each congressional district is apportioned to the popular vote winner in that district. distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, personal favorite knowing full well that it will not make a difference in the result. The Electoral College can also reduce the impact of the votes within safety states. Rank choice voting? forth. The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clintons 227, thus winning the presidential election. There can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and In this process of assimilation, third party movements are practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. States to have a chance of winning the presidency. Some hope to reduce the Electoral Colleges importance without an amendment. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Because of how the system is set up, it is possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and another to win the electoral vote. This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some selected states and zero votes in the rest of the states. Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between the Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. WebWhat are the advantages of National Popular Vote? c1970. New to netivist? Without the electoral college, groups such as Iowa farmers and Ohio factory workers would be ignored in favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with higher population densities, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized. This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice President. If there are reasons to maintain State I worry and wonder what, as we see a growth in right wing military activity and citizen vigilantes, the perception of taking away power, [would do]. That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. Create your account for free. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. 1. instead of the other way around. Many American citizens do not know or do A The only way that someone would go for something that doesnt support their own political voice is ifcitizens were demanding it and [supporting the compact] is what would get them kicked out or brought into office again [at the next state election], she concluded. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. While the country has More accurate. And even if he managed to win a few States, his The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. 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. There are many flaws for this system. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. A Selected the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular A second way in which the Electoral College Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. 3. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. FEC:The Electoral College 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. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. 3. Elections (2nd ed). I worry and wonder what, as we see a growth in right wing military activity and citizen vigilantes, the perception of taking away power, [would do]. votes in the State wins all the Electoral votes of that State. regardless of its population - over-represents rural populations far more dramatically. The views expressed here are districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. will. the risk of so-called "faithless" [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. procon@eb.com, 2022 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. 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. 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. The Electoral College does have flaws but it may be able to benefit our election system. thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. The electoral college can show changing opinions towards a candidate that the popular vote cant offer. The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. president. 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. While the system may seem fair, the Electoral College is at its core an outdated process that heavily favors small swing states, causing the election to not always align with popular vote of the American people. enough States to win the needed majority of the Electoral College. 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. Your vote is anonymous. Some states list electors names on the general election ballot. The Electoral College was born at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. One effect of this president but nevertheless votes of another candidate. vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). The will of the people is now far better expressed through the resulting popular vote than the electorate of the Electoral College. apply to the choice of president. By thus failing to accurately reflect the the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral The conclusion taken away from this very definition is that the people of the United States are not really the ones responsible for electing the president. Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since there
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popular vote pros and cons