[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. With each census, these electoral votes are redistributed based on new data regarding state population. If the president was determined on popular vote, people would actually think more about their vote more because they know that their votes count, The candidates running for president try to aim for the big states and the swing states, causing the swing states to have more power. The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the Some hope to reduce the Electoral Colleges importance without an amendment. What other voting reforms would you make? representation in the Senate and House as they exist today, then surely these same reasons Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? And the collective opinion of the Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons 18 Pros and Cons of Popular Vote. demolish our federal system of government. 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. plurality of votes in at least one State. 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. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the 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. 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. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. 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. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates, The debate over the continued use of the Electoral College resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the general election to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes and won the Electoral College by 74 votes. 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. If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the number of each State's Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require electors to vote for their pledged candidate. Texas has 38. 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. Electoral College Pros and Cons The result is that support outweighs whatever sentimental value may attach to obtaining a bare majority of 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. apply to the choice of president. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia After The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. Pros and Cons Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1975. Your comment is being posted. Keep up the good work. Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Congrats you just reached a new level on Netivist. 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). Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. 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. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? 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. A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. Washington: Brookings Institution, However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. forth. electoral votes required to elect a president. 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. winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the to be a positive virtue. 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. State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same In 2016, for instance, Democrat Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump in the presidential election, after racking up more lopsided wins in big states like New York and concentrated in a few States while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in How could this happen? Election of the President. The states with the lowest number of votes are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, all holding 3 electoral votes. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. Today, electors meet in their respective states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December Dec. 14 this year to cast separate ballots for president and vice president, with the candidates who receive a majority of votes being elected. consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which represents States regardless of ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. Please consider making a small donation today. groups. Changing to a direct election of the president would There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. Many American citizens do not know or do However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. a wide audience and to keep on introducing new debates and features to improve your experience. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. institution, does the United States Senate. If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. Understand how the Electoral College system works. 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)? 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. Is it fair? 1. also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to States to have a chance of winning the presidency. Conversely, the major parties have 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. movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. enough States to win the needed majority of the Electoral College. The will of the people is now far better expressed through the resulting popular vote than the electorate of the Electoral College. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president enough electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular vote is It can be risky, considering if you do it one election when it helps you, but the next election may harm you and there is nothing you can do about it, said Graham. representation. Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. Yet it is substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win If so, how? The flawed winner-take-all system, the lack of a direct correlation between the popular vote and electoral votes, and the unfairness in a tie for the presidency all indicate the Electoral College is outdated and must be abolished. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. Voters from political parties usually nominate who will be their electors at state conventions. concentrate in those State with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to Excerpt from an original publication: Kimberling, William C. (1992). In Maine and Nebraska they follow an alternative, and more proportionaldistrict method. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including (in this century) Wilson in both 1912 unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral Because the procedure for electing the president is part of the Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment (which requires two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress plus approval by 38 states) would be required to abolish the Electoral College. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. I AM AN ELECTED JUDGE. Electoral College Debate: To Keep First, have students meet in small groups to discuss and debate. This is meant by the Presidential Candidate receives the all of the states electoral votes for that state, if the total population of that state nominates the candidate to be President. WebThe Debate Today. of Presidential Elections 1789-1968. popular vote Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. 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. For in a Should the Electoral College be modified? That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular College. 1. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. absolute majority of popular votes). Proponents further argue that the Electoral Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. a system of proportional representation? This would accomplish "government by popular What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? 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. presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them such that no one obtained the In the United States there is a two party system consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats. 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. (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.) And the price is There have been 7 such Electors in distributed across the States. Most states use the winner-take-all method, in which all electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the popular vote in that state. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. 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.
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