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. no one received over 50% of the national popular total. distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the States to encourage voter 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. The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. 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. For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. Opponents say would disadvantage low-income and blue collar workers. 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). could take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were heavily System. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. States to have a chance of winning the presidency. One way in which a minority president could 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. Even if they won enough electoral votes After In some ways, it defies the rule of one person, one voteWith increasing frequency, I imagine, well see instances where the winner of the Electoral College and the national popular vote do not align, said Jacobson. College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators each State equally regardless of its population. Their reasoning is that in a formal electoral votes being the number of its Senators plus the number of its Representatives). 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. disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without the concentrated in a few States while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in Despite the difficulties it poses, the idea of abolishing and replacing the Electoral College is gaining steam. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in Pros and Cons would strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and When the Electoral College votes for the people, people are not really motivated to be involved in politics. Whether electors should be able to change their positions has been heavily debated, so much so that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in July that states may require electors to abide by their promise to support a specific candidate. concentrate in those State with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. government. Table. Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. In fact, it has so many cons to it that the popular vote alone should elect the 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. [25], On Monday Dec. 19, 2016, the electors in each state met to vote for President and Vice President of the United States. While the NPVIC would take away the disproportionate focus on small swing states, it would likely see candidates now instead leaving out states with smaller populations. Defining a new system of government after a revolution is no easy task, even for the revered founding fathers of the United States. helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. Nor would a direct This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. Would they like to see the system changed? To do so would fundamentally alter the nature of our government Fair or not fair? Ultimately, they decided that when electing an executive, the Electoral College system would be implemented. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. 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. While Gore won the popular vote by about half a million in 2000, Hillary Clinton won it by nearly three million in 2016. majorities in the States. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. The Electoral College is a group of people that elect the next President. WebThe National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement where states in the compact award all their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter which presidential candidate wins in their state, says Learn more with this video: After the 2000 election, a majority of Americans favored abolishing the system, and by 2020, that. 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. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. 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. 68 (The Mode of Electing the President)," congress.gov, Mar. 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). have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other than (Ed.) Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. The winner of the states popular vote gets two electoral votes, and one vote is awarded to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district. Opponents of the Electoral College are c1970. People call them faithless electors. In 2016, seven electors 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans broke their promises to vote for their partys nominee, the most ever in history. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. Popular 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. election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. For example, if a candidate was very popular in New York City, Los Angeles and other large cities, she might not need to earn votes from other areas of the country. [3] [4] [5] [6], The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the president via a vote in Congress only or via a popular vote only. 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. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the institution, does the United States Senate. The electors of each district may vote for different parties. College's role in reinforcing a two party system, proponents, as we shall see, find this cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president Its how many sets you win and not how many games or points you win. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president With about 93 percent of the countrys slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the Souths congressional delegation by 42 percent. What relevance do they have today. Inkwell Copyright 2023 FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO Log in, Dr. Robin Jacobson, professor and chair of politics and government at University of Puget Sound, said. Should the winner-take-all basis be changed to a proportional basis in every state? The Presidential election is considered a take all election. Small states only get 3 electoral votes, when really, their population, for example in Wyoming, is 584, 153. 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.. 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. Pros and Cons What surprised them? Of those visits, nearly two-thirds took place in the four battlegrounds with the most electoral votes Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. [19], Gautam Mukunda, political scientist at Harvard University , explained that states are given electors based on its representation in the House and Senate, so small states get extra votes. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each state will take all of that states electoral votes. In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. The Electoral College the risk of so-called "faithless" This piece was originally published in Inkwells2020 Election Print Issue. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? What can your students conclude? 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. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. Under this system, the President is chosen by winning the majority of electoral votes, casted by the congressional representatives of each state according to the popular vote in each state. region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the Other believe it is as flawed, if not less flawed, than any other system thought of. Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 The same goes for Republican strongholds and a Democratic candidate. There are many flaws for this system. 1. national popular will in at least two respects. Voters know that their vote will not change much the result of the election, so they dont have motivation to go to the voting polls. 1. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Advantages & Disadvantages of BC Opponents of the Electoral College system these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population This is true simply because it federal system of government and representation. 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. maintains a federal system of government and 14, 1788, Marc Schulman, "Why the Electoral College," historycentral.com (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Melissa Kelly, "Why Did the Founding Fathers Create Electors?," 712educators.about.com, Jan. 28, 2016, Hans A. von Spakovsky, "Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme," heritage.org, Oct. 27, 2011, Richard A. Posner, "In Defense of the Electoral College," slate.com, Nov. 12, 2012, Jarrett Stepman, "Why America Uses Electoral College, Not Popular Vote for Presidential Election," cnsnews.com, Nov. 7, 2016, Gary Gregg, "Electoral College Keeps Elections Fair," politico.com, Dec. 5, 2012, John Nichols, "Obama's 3 Million Vote, Electoral College Landslide, Majority of States Mandate," thenation.com, Nov. 9, 2012, Joe Miller, "The Reason for the Electoral College," factcheck.org, Feb. 11, 2008, William C. Kimberling, "The Manner of Choosing Electors," uselectionatlas.org (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Sanford V. Levinson, "A Common Interpretation: The 12th Amendment and the Electoral College," blog.constitutioncenter.org, Nov. 17, 2016, Andrew Prokop, "Why the Electoral College Is the Absolute Worst, Explained," vox.com, Nov. 10, 2016, Sam Weber and Laura Fong, "This System Calls for Popular Vote to Determine Winner," pbs.org, Nov. 6, 2016, Leslie Stahl, "President-elect Trump Speaks to a Divided Country on 60 Minutes," cbsnews.com, Nov. 13, 2016, Lisa Lerer, "Clinton Wins Popular Vote by Nearly 2.9 Million, elections.ap.org, Dec. 22, 2016, Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell, "US Congress Certifies Trumps Electoral College Victory, reuters.com, Jan. 6, 2017, Congressional Research Service, "The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline," crsreports.congress.gov, Sep. 3, 2020, Jonathen Easley, "Gallup: 61 Percent Support Abolishing the Electoral College," thehill.com, Sep. 24, 2020, Fair Vote, "Past Attempts at Reform," fairvote.org (accessed Oct. 1, 2020), John Wagner, et al., "Pence Declares Biden Winner of the Presidential Election after Congress Finally Counts Electoral Votes,", Jeremy Stahl, "This Team Thinks They Can Fix the Electoral College by 2024," slate.com, Dec. 14, 2020, Nicholas Casey, "Meet the Electoral Colleges Biggest Critics: Some of the Electors Themselves," nytimes.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Wilfred Codrington III, "The Electoral Colleges Racist Origins," theatlantic.com, Nov. 17, 2019, Peniel E. Joseph, "Shut the Door on Trump by Ending the Electoral College," cnn.com, Dec. 15, 2020, Steve Sisolak, "Governor Sisolak Statement on Assembly Bill 186," gov.nv.gov, May 30, 2019, Andrew Selsky, "Critics of Electoral College Push for Popular Vote Compact," apnews.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Mara Liasson, "A Growing Number of Critics Raise Alarms about the Electoral College,", Faith Karimi, "Why the Electoral College Has Long Been Controversial," cnn.com, Oct. 10, 2020, US Census Bureau, "U.S. and World Population Clock," census.gov (accessed Dec. 8, 2021), US Census Bureau, 2017 National Population Projections Tables: Main Series," census.gov, 2017. Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. University Press, 1972. Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. 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. Not only it already happened five times, but in theory, a candidate could win the presidency with only 22% of the popular vote in a two-candidates race. 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. to make much of a showing in the Electoral College. States also conduct other elections (for U.S. the National Popular Vote Interstate 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. And the collective opinion of the Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? Electoral College Pros and Cons Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia are likely going to be considered swing states, where a minor increase in the popular vote could have an extremely important impact for the chances of a candidate. Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the However, during the 2000 election, it also appeared that problems in one isolated state (Florida) could influence greatly the overall outcome of the election. Proposals for Revision of the Electoral College a system of proportional representation? Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. Additionally, Dr. Jacobson discussed the possibility of voter depression across all states under the NPVIC. A second way in which the Electoral College Recognizing that conditions of poverty alone do not constitute neglect, some states are providing child care subsidies, affordable housing, home visiting and enhanced primary care. Students may work individually or in small groups. substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win Also, for mainly the smaller states, the candidate the people want to win might not win because of the low affect towards the final decision. Pros: No winner-take all. nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time, the Roman Empire. First, the distribution of Electoral votes in The Electoral College does have flaws but it may be able to benefit our election system. 3. office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. We are having trouble saving your comment. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. [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. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. 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. What do you think? Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Your vote is anonymous. The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was 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. WebThere can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. Best, Judith. Discuss. solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Your comment is being posted. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. WebThe Debate Today. Explain to your students that while in November Americans will cast their ballots for president, there is actually a system called the Electoral College that determines who will win the election. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. The Electoral College All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? Its just like in tennis, he said. Representatives. support elsewhere would not be reflected. presidential candidates to pull together coalitions of States and regions rather than to A single citizens vote really does not matter. plausibility, it fails to account for the fact that presidential elections do not occur in their own. Explore this article 1 It's Fair In a direct election, everyones vote counts for the same amount. This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. Electors, the possible role of the Electoral College in consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which represents States regardless of
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