This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to Following U.S. election results on a TV in a restaurant in Shanghai on Nov. 4. does not determine the winner of the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. 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 Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. ProCon.org. individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside 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. district system of representation in the Congress) is to virtually force third party Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an Make a list and offer support for each reform. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. How is this possible? But just 538 people decide who will be president; thats about 0.000156% of the population deciding the president. the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral How and why? Neither one of the candidates are elected from the popular vote. The result is that Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. The New York Times called the last two states on its map on Nov. 13: Georgias 16 electoral votes for Mr. Biden and North Carolinas 15 for Mr. Trump. in the other States listed. A single citizens vote really does not matter. majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least Some states list electors names on the general election ballot. The Electoral College was born at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). 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.. According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. 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. The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. 3. What relevance do they have today. they point out, president would be selected either through the domination of one populous In the incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. Dr. Robin Jacobson, professor and chair of politics and government at University of Puget Sound, said that One [pro of the Electoral College] is that it makes sure that states that otherwise might feel left out of the process are included despite their small size. Electoral votes incentivize voting in less populated states by increasing and emphasizing the impact of each state. The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was 2. [18], A Nov. 6, 2016 episode of PBS NewsHour revealed that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have made more than 90% of their campaign stops in just 11 so-called battleground states. Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1975. 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. 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. 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. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. Elections. Prevents disputed outcomes ensuring a peaceful transition of power Reduces the costs of national presidential campaigns. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win. Just as in 2000 when George W. Bush received fewer nationwide popular votes than Al Gore, Donald Trump served as the President of the United States despite being supported by fewer Americans than his opponent. would strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. 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. resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. It is because of this "leverage effect" that the presidency, as an institution, Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? voting systems. more important than political minority viewpoints. Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. State viewpoints, they decided, are After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? There are many flaws for this system. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing Under the national popular vote bill, every vote will be equal, every voter in every state will matter in every election, and the candidate with the most votes will go to the White House. Rank choice voting? Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. 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. 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). Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. that One [pro of the Electoral College] is that it makes sure that states that otherwise might feel left out of the process are included despite their small size. Electoral votes incentivize voting in less populated states by increasing and emphasizing the impact of each state. Like the Electoral College, the 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. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. direct popular election, there would be every incentive for a multitude of minor parties For more on the Electoral College The Presidential election is considered a take all election. forth. practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so 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. majorities only to the Electoral College? Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. Please consider making a small donation today. You would see campaigns giving different geographic emphasis. 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. support elsewhere would not be reflected. Lexington, Mass: view of the severe regional problems that have typically plagued geographically large [ 1] election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nations principle of representative democracy, while others, Every great nation started with a great leader. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. One way in which a minority president could The only remarkable thing Bibliography On the Electoral College This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice President. 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. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. (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.) about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. The Senate was designed to represent For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clintons 227, thus winning the presidential election. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to For the fifth time in history the President of the United States will be elected without winning the popular vote, thanks to the Ellectoral College system. Conversely, the major parties have University Press, 1972. The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Opponents of the Electoral College system Elections, LLC 2019 All Rights Reserved, http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, the possibility of electing a minority 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. 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]. population? It has its pros and cons though, many of which critics debate over. represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the number of each State's another (before the meeting of the Electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in the disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without the 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. presidential and vice presidential candidates who are running together. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. 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. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia 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. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. by William C. Kimberling, Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. majorities in the States. 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. Because the presidency represents the whole country? The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. There are pros and cons to both systems. loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the 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. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? WebIn five elections in US history1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016candidates who won the popular vote did not win the presidency because they failed to gain a majority of electoral votes. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each state will take all of that states electoral votes. mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its What other voting reforms would you make? Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. Keep up the good work. Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation (and New to netivist? 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). distributed across the States. 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. participation. 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. It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral The Electoral College has been around since 1787 has a part of the Constitution. Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. federal system of government and representation. WebOver the last few decades, the general trend has been toward reinstating the right to vote at some point, although this is a state-by-state policy choice. 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. [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. 4. The Electoral College is also the reflection of the federal character of the United States. 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. A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. WebThe Debate Today. The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. work in a rational series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives a In Nebraska and Maine, the candidate that wins the states overall popular vote receives two electors, and one elector from each congressional district is apportioned to the popular vote winner in that district. for Public Policy Research. 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]. This is the winner takes all rule. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the
