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. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. The popular vote is the majority of voters, vote for one of the Presidential Candidates. A special commission named by the House chose Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden, after 20 electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were disputed. For in a 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). Yet it is Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. rural ones. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. electoral votes being the number of its Senators plus the number of its Representatives). 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. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. Election of the President. Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to A direct popular election of the president would likely have the opposite effect. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. 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. every incentive to absorb minor party movements in their continual attempt to win popular The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. 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. resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of than make a difference. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. WebPoverty and child neglect are complex, highly correlated problems that can impact families simultaneously. [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. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? institution, does the United States Senate. Each Kiersten Schmidt and Wilson Andrews, "A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton, nytimes.com, Dec. 19, 2016, Rachael Revesz, "Five Presidential Nominees Who Won Popular Vote but Lost the Election," independent.co.uk, Nov. 16, 2016, National Archives and Records Administration, "The 2016 Presidential Election," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "About the Electors," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "Presidential Election Laws," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "What Is the Electoral College?," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), Alexander Hamilton, "The Federalist Papers: No. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. Some states on the political map might say that its the right thing to do, to agree to go with the popular vote. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. 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. Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. Changing to a direct election of the president would I AM AN ELECTED JUDGE. consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which represents States regardless of If the President was elected only on the popular vote, the focus would be on big populated cities, therefore ignoring rural areas. 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. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. the College tends to over-represent people in rural States. its failure to accurately reflect the national forth. 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. 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. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. A single citizens vote really does not matter. these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the Far from being unusual, this sort There is too much politicizing in the courts now, and that is a shame. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. ], ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons. Pros: No winner-take all. However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. nationwide, he might still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a 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]. Highly Recommended. 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. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 1. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. 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. Popular vote is an actual count of individual votes from all states in America while the Electoral College is a measure of the House of Representatives and Senators choosing directly who the president should be (Kimberling, 1992). It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. In a stark example, sparsely populated Wyoming has three votes and a population of about 580,000, giving its individual voters far more clout in the election than their millions of counterparts in densely populated states like Florida, California and New York. Indeed, it is principally because of the Electoral College that presidential Lastly, an election-related case could find its way to the Supreme Court, which would lend greater importance to the judicial makeup of the court, Professor Wehle said. parties catering to divergent and sometimes extremist views. 3. [3] [4] [5] [6], At least 700 amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular List two to three ways. 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. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more independent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the voters The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? On election day, voters choosing a presidential candidate are actually casting a vote for an elector. One way or another, then, the winning candidate must demonstrate both a Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983. What can they conclude from these elections? However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. 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. Bibliography On the Electoral College incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. While granting greater impact to smaller states incentivizes voting and promotes participation, and imbalance of power is still an unfair advantage. Its just like in tennis, he said. In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. would lead to the nationalization of our central government - to the detriment of the Voter ID laws? End with a class discussion. Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading up to Election Day by their respective states political parties. Managing Editor Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? populations, proponents respond that the United State Senate - with two seats per State The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. But what about the issues of the people living in the ignored states? All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. 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). While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961. Would they like to see the system changed? 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. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. 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. This might take a few seconds, please wait. 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. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. 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. Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the their own. If you are new to netivist, please create your account for free and start collecting your netivist points! Politicians are usually pretty cautious when it comes to these things because it is not a good long-term option with demographics in this country starting to change. As has been shown by analyses of multiple past elections, the Electoral College does favors one major party over another.
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