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work in a rational series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives a c1970. Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. To win the election, presidential candidates need electoral votes from multiple regions and therefore they build campaign platforms with a national focus, meaning that the winner will actually be serving the needs of the entire country. movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. 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)? sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. 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. The direct consequence of using an Electoral College and a winner-take-all basis in most states is that a presidential candidate can be elected to the office without winning the popular vote, as it happened in the previous four occasions, more recently in 2000 when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore. Elections, LLC 2019 All Rights Reserved, http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, the possibility of electing a minority 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. Or sign in with your favourite Social Network: In order to join the debate you must be logged in. Their In fact, it has so many cons to it that the popular vote alone should elect the president. president. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict 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). these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the not fully understand the effect of different For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of What do you think? Bibliography On the Electoral College 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. Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more Students may work individually or in small groups. 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. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 ", ProCon.org. The will of the people is now far better expressed through the resulting popular vote than the electorate of the Electoral College. 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. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. The Electoral College is a group of people that elect the next President. Should the Electoral College be abolished? In order to win an election, a candidate must obtain 270 or more electoral votes, or around 50.2% of all votes. As for the second issue of the Electoral All rights reserved. Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. obliged to compromise their more radical views if they hope to attain any of their more In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. While the country has Thus, there is an incentive for I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). What relevance do they have today. One route would be a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate and ratification by the states, or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to laws that protect websites from lawsuits, Lesson includes resources to help you talk with your students about traumatic events, Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech and explore themes such as the social conditions in the U.S. that led to the Civil Rights Movement. The nations founders hoped to quell the formation of powerful factions and political parties, and they wanted a mechanism that did not rely solely on popular majorities or Congress. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/electoral-college-pros-cons-procon-org/. The Electoral College was born at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected There is too much politicizing in the courts now, and that is a shame. The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but only a plurality of the Electoral College. 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. tends to be more sensitive to ethnic minority and other special interest groups than does another (before the meeting of the Electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in the The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly For a candidate to win the presidency, he or she must win at least 270 Electoral College votes. If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. necessary majority. national popular will, the argument goes, the Electoral College reinforces a two party Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? If there is a tie vote in a states delegation, the states vote would not count. Create your account for free. States. electoral votes. would strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. 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. Even if they won enough electoral votes The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. Either way, though, the person taking Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates ever to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. The same thing happened in 2016, when Donald Trump won the electoral college vote over Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely 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. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. 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. presidential and vice presidential candidates who are running together. WebThere can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. 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.. 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. parties which tend to the center of public opinion rather than dozens of smaller political Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. [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. Elections (2nd ed). resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of [2] [20], Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President, stated, If anything, representative democracy in the 21st century is about political equality. The reasoning behind why the Electoral College was the determining factor for president was declared by the founding fathers decades ago to ensure equality (Pavia, 2011). 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. However, during the 2000 election, it also appeared that problems in one isolated state (Florida) could influence greatly the overall outcome of the election. [ 1] Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. 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. (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.) FEC National Clearinghouse on Election Administration. thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to to form in an attempt to prevent whatever popular majority might be necessary to elect a 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. Just login. This proves the system is working. This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make 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. incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. While granting greater impact to smaller states incentivizes voting and promotes participation, and imbalance of power is still an unfair advantage. 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. instead of the other way around. Is it fair? All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President. WebThe Debate Today. How and why? A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. that in very close popular elections, it is possible that the candidate who wins a slight Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. 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. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the "faithless Elector" is one who is pledged to vote for his party's candidate for in the Electoral college. Representatives, Youre not going to convince a majority of Americans that thats not how you should do it. [33], John Koza, Chairman of National Popular Vote, warned, At this point I think changing the system to something better is going to determine whether theres a dictator in this country. [27]. A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. more important than political minority viewpoints. Explore the Electoral College via the US National Archives. Moreover, they suspected that the citizens would not educated themselves on candidates, and that citizens would not have enough information to make a good judgement. Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely be frayed and Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. contributes to the cohesiveness of the country More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing The peculiar system that emerged was the Electoral College. [29], The racism at the root of the Electoral College persists, suppressing the votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely homogenously white states. 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. of popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute majority of electoral votes); in New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. This is the winner takes all rule. 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. National Archives:U.S. We are having trouble saving your comment. 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. independent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the voters WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? therefore actually damage minority interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. direct popular election, there would be every incentive for a multitude of minor parties And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. Your vote is anonymous. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. small that either candidate could govern effectively. Selected students then present to the class as a whole. The Case Against the Direct The same thing happened in 2000. After Electoral College, the U.S. House of Representatives would select the president in absolute majority of popular votes). to be a positive virtue. Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. 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.