Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/electoral-college-pros-and-cons-4686409. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. The Early Learning Fellows Program is a year long opportunity to legislators and legislative staff particularly interested in the topic of early care and education. 1. Under the National Popular Vote plan,the compact would take effect only when enabling legislation has been enacted by states collectively possessing a majority of the electoral votes:270 of 538 total. 6. When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. The Electoral College is very undemocratic and riddled with issues. The NPV Interstate Compact does not eliminate the very complicated Electoral College system that most voters dont really understand. Would they like to see the system changed? 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. Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. Weve already seen this issue take place with the GOP primaries in 2016. Presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or campaign in states that they cannot possibly win or lose; in 2016, 68% of presidential campaign visits took place in just six states. Donald Trump won the presidential election by securing 304 electoral votes, compared to Hillary Clintons 227 electoral votes. Electors are chosen by the states to actually cast the official votes for president. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. If the election is based off a popular vote, each of these areas would need to be closely examined in real-time, which would enhance the security of each vote that is cast. 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 divide creates natural divisions between groups of people who both support their country, but in different ways. 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. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. 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. 4 terms. Join the thousands across the country who instantly rally when there is a threat to our democracy. Winner Takes All: The Popular Vote Versus Electoral College Pros And Cons Of Campaign Finance Reform - 640 Words | 123 Help Me Critics, however, argue that Founders reasoning is no longer relevant as todays voters are better-educated and have virtually unlimited access to information and to the candidates stances on the issues. It could help to reduce partisanship. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress (Senators and Representatives) is the total number of electoral votes it is allowed. For example, if a state used NPV and voted for candidate A, but candidate B received the most votes nationwide, the state would allocate its presidential electors to candidate B. 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. In U.S. history, the electoral college winner has failed to secure the popular vote 5 times. A shift of a relative handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in six of the last 12 presidential elections. 27 Major Pros & Cons Of The Electoral College - E&C 1. Majority supports changing Electoral College system for U.S 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. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. I am confident that when we enter the next phase where the popular vote leans Republican that Republicans will change and be adamant that we should elect the president by direct popular vote and Democrats will be arguing why we should keep the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system. Electing a president who did not have broad regional support could lead to a fractured and less cohesive country, according to the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Some critics argue that more people would vote in a direct popular election, according to the University of the Pacific. 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 California. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. Then, election officials in all participating states would choose the electors sworn to support thepresidential candidate who received the largest number of popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It was a great idea in 1787 but the country has changed since 1787 and the people today want to elect the president by a simple, direct popular vote where whoever gets the most votes wins like we do in every other election in the country. All samples were added by students. The pros and cons of raising the debt ceiling - Yahoo News Thats how the framers of the Constitution set it up. Consequently, they decided that using the proxy votes of the well-informed electors would lessen the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the minority are drowned out by those of the masses. And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. In 2004, for example, candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry campaigned heavily in states such as Nevada while ignoring political issues in New York, a state that Kerry was sure to win, according to the University of the Pacific. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had more than 10 million of these votes, while Donald Trump had more than 8.3 million, even though Trump won 30 states and Clinton won 20 and the District of Columbia. A faithless elector in the United States is someone who casts an electoral ballot for someone other than the individuals to whom they are pledged. It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. . The National Popular Vote compact would have the same effect as a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College but has the benefit of retaining the power to control presidential elections in states hands. Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. popular vote pros and cons-shootings in south dallasshootings in south dallas Anyone can read what you share. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. Why or why not? For the popular vote, however, Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, while Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. You can use essay samples to find ideas and inspiration for your paper. [ 1] 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. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. If you need 321 electoral votes to win, and you can get 102 by winning the national 354 popular plurality, you need only 219 of the state electoral votes. By its very nature, the Electoral College system is confusing. Lastly, the biggest problem that the Electoral College produces is the reality that a persons vote really doesnt matter (Black). If some of the 50 states and DC cannot certify their popular votes by the December deadline that could create a constitutional crisis where we would not have all of the state Electoral College votes certified by the time the Electoral College is required to vote according to the Constitution. In the 2016 election, "swing states" that might vote Republican or Democrat like Wisconsin were targets of candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. Inside Ohio or Florida, to pick two examples, the big cities do not receive all the attention, and they certainly do not control the outcome. NCSL conducts policy research in areas ranging from agriculture and budget and tax issues to education and health care to immigration and transportation. The National Bonus Plan was proposed by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. They will do as promised if the candidates do a very good job vetting them and picking people who are rock-solid, Professor Amar said. At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. President Trump had earned 232 electoral . Idea to keep electoral college but add 102bvotes. Its how many sets you win and not how many games or points you win. Under the electoral college system (and other voting systems not based on popular voting), it only takes one extra vote more than the other candidate to create the needed results for the election. The conference's consulting services on policy issues go beyond testifying. But theres a separate movement that calls for a compact of states to allocate all their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, regardless of how those individual states opted in an election. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. It has been enacted by twelve states, which include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California. Pros: Gives the smaller states an equal voice. Even if states impose fines on faithless electors for their actions, it is not a guarantee that the behavior will stop. 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. Donald Trump won the presidential election by securing 304 electoral votes, compared to Hillary Clinton's 227 electoral votes. The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. Cons of Electoral College. The Electoral College has 538 members, with the number allocated to each state based on how many representatives it has in the House plus its two senators. A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 Based on Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution granting the states the exclusive power to control how their electoral votes are awarded, the National Popular Vote plan requires the legislature of each participating state to enact a bill agreeing that the state will award all of its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, regardless of the outcome of the popular vote in that specific state. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. Analyzes how william j.d. National Popular Vote Movement - Common Cause | Get Involved Regional candidates could secure enough votes to win a national election. It would require an Amendment in the U.S. for presidential elections. Other presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency include John Quincy Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes in the elections of 1824 and 1876. boyd's article "electoral college system challenged" proves that the system is outdated and misrepresents the national popular will. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. (2021, February 17). But . Despite the name, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, but refers to a collegium or group of colleagues. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? The National Popular Vote stems from the winner-take-all approach that validates the presidential candidate interactions with only 4 out of 50 dates during their campaign. Should the Electoral College stay or go? - PBS NewsHour Classroom Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. States boyd, william j.d., "electoral college system challenged." national civic review 55.9 (1966): 519-23. 2. The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. Four candidates in history have won the popular vote only to be denied the presidency by the Electoral College. By continuing well assume youre on board with our, https://samploon.com/electoral-college-and-national-popular-vote-pros-and-cons/, Select a writer from a large pool of experts. The state legislatures of the cooperating states would . The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). Students may work individually or in small groups. Many people may feel that any major change in how we elect the president should be in the Constitution and not in a legal loop hole even if its legal and technically constitutional. The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. The Pros and Cons of Pooled Employer Plans: Debate. The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). This move would ensure that the Presidency would be given to the candidate that received the most popular votes all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The National Popular Vote Plan is an alternative system that would still use electors to cast their votes but instead it would give each state's votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote.
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