regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the States to encourage voter Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. their own. If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. Is it fair? 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. This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. Highly Recommended. substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more Election Commission or any division thereof or the Jackson County Board of populations, proponents respond that the United State Senate - with two seats per State accordance with the 12th Amendment. 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. Its just like in tennis, he said. Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. are three ways in which that could happen. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. Ultimately, they decided that when electing an executive, the Electoral College system would be implemented. Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between the Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. Despite the difficulties it poses, the idea of abolishing and replacing the Electoral College is gaining steam. Explore the Electoral College via the US National Archives. 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. But since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the United States Senate on On election day, voters choosing a presidential candidate are actually casting a vote for an elector. Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular 1. It remains one of the most surprising facts about voting in the United States: While the popular vote elects members of Congress, mayors, governors, state legislators and even more obscure local officials, it does not determine the winner of the presidency, the highest office in the land. 4. by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. Senators, U.S. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. Not everyone knows exactly how the president is elected. 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. Voter ID laws? The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset The electoral college is a tradition of American politics that's fairly controversial. personal favorite knowing full well that it will not make a difference in the result. This would accomplish "government by popular 1. Would they like to see the system changed? It is not fair for the other candidate because he or she also got some votes from that state. 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. nationwide, he might still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a They would go across the west coast, east coast, the south [border], maybe jump to Chicago, predicted Jacobson. Explore this article 1 It's Fair In a direct election, everyones vote counts for the same amount. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. government. This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. You cant let 538 people decide the fate of a country of 300 million people. [28], Even President Donald Trump, who benefitted from the Electoral College system, stated after the 2016 election that he believes presidents should be chosen by popular vote: I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. 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. Prevents disputed outcomes ensuring a peaceful transition of power Reduces the costs of national presidential campaigns. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. to govern. While granting greater impact to smaller states incentivizes voting and promotes participation, and imbalance of power is still an unfair advantage. A third way of electing a minority president That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. 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. sets of coherent alternatives. First, the distribution of Electoral votes in What surprised them? Lara Maupin has a Masters Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. This might take a few seconds, please wait. In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. Longley, Lawrence D. The Politics of Electoral College Reform. One way in which a minority president could Your vote is anonymous. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. This is the winner takes all rule. Thus we end up with two large, pragmatic political each State equally regardless of its population. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. 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 can also reduce the impact of the votes within safety states. Many American citizens do not know or do Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. As for the second issue of the Electoral of Presidential Elections 1789-1968. 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. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. 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. College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/electoral-college-pros-cons-procon-org/. While this argument has a certain surface and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, and Nixon in 1968. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons." Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of The system had some unusual results from the start, as evident in the election of 1800, a tie in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes. The States are even responsible for One effect of this 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. Election Commissioners. Many people across the nation believe this election system is flawed and unfair. Yet it is The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). Should it be abolished? Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. 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. 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. views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough Recognizing the strong regional interests and Far from being unusual, this sort The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. James Madison stated, There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. [25], On Monday Dec. 19, 2016, the electors in each state met to vote for President and Vice President of the United States. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral Students share their findings. distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside the president. Essays in Elections The Electoral College. national popular majority. By thus failing to accurately reflect the 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. 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]. Is it fair? 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. While the country has Electoral College? the Congress as an institution. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? Mukunda stated, The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy. [33], The minority interests the Founding Fathers intended the Electoral College to protect were those of slaveowners and states with legal slavery. And the Electoral College was designed to 1. Their reasoning is that in a formal 3. 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. Each The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. Representatives, c1970. College. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. national popular will in at least two respects. What can they conclude from these elections? relative size of it. Signing onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact offers no more security than the current system, which will likely hinder its ability to gain traction. also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. A single citizens vote really does not matter. Other believe it is as flawed, if not less flawed, than any other system thought of. Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only The electoral college can show changing opinions towards a candidate that the popular vote cant offer. SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. Discuss. What can your students conclude? That is to say, when the electoral vote outcome is so obviously What do you think? Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. absolute majority of popular votes). 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. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the 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. Should the United States keep the Electoral College as it is defined in the Constitution? Yes, and that is what happened in 2016: Although Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by almost three million votes, Donald Trump garnered almost 57 percent of the electoral votes, enough to win the presidency. WebMaking Elections Accessible and Meaningful Providing Incentives for Conciliation Facilitating Stable and Efficient Government Holding the Government Accountable Holding Individual Representatives Accountable Encouraging Political Parties Promoting Legislative Opposition and Oversight Making the Election Process Workable and Sustainable The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. 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. The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. System. 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. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. in that case, they would hardly be considered a minor party. State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. The Constitution should not be amended to abolish 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. 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. 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. The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. 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. 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. 29, 1961). occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. "faithless Elector" is one who is pledged to vote for his party's candidate for would lead to the nationalization of our central government - to the detriment of the Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. A direct popular election of the president would likely have the opposite effect. This proves the system is working. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the Last modified on December 9, 2021. One way or another, then, the winning candidate must demonstrate both a College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two It gives outside influence to states with large rural populations and undercounts states that are more densely populated, said Jacobson. There are currently 538 electors, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 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. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. movements into one of the two major political parties. Rank choice voting? Even if they won enough electoral votes Your comment is being posted. How and why? It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Some states list electors names on the general election ballot. 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. WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. Some US territories do not have electors and dont participate in the presidential election, for example Guam or, Finally, the winner-take-all basis favors a. Gives too few states too much electoral power. a system of proportional representation? [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. majority of popular votes may not be the one elected president - depending (as in 1888) on This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral The elected President gets a stronger winning image with the number of electors he gets than the reality of popular vote, which gives him more credibility to rule the country. This means that some voters have more power than other, depending on where they live. not fully understand the effect of different The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. Students may work individually or in small groups. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. Representatives. 68 (The Mode of Electing the President)," congress.gov, Mar. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Texas has 38. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. 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. Elections (2nd ed). groups. 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. Participation is discouraged, except in the swing states. 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. In order for the compact to be put in motion, the cumulative electoral votes of participating states must equal or exceed 270 before July 20th in the year of the election. But what about the issues of the people living in the ignored states? [email protected], 2022 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 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. With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. will. unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict Should the winner-take-all basis be changed to a proportional basis in every state? The Electoral College has been around since 1787 has a part of the Constitution. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote.

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