popular vote pros and cons

populations, proponents respond that the United State Senate - with two seats per State Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. Nor would a direct 4. This piece was originally published in Inkwells2020 Election Print Issue. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College 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). Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. A third way of electing a minority president When the time came to agree on a system for choosing the president, it was all too easy for the delegates to resort to the three-fifths compromise [counting only 3/5 of the enslaved population instead of the population as a whole] as the foundation. University Press, 1972. Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. FEC National Clearinghouse on Election Administration. depressing voter turnout, and. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. system, in contrast, encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into two national popular majority. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. (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.) sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. 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. The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. Its just like in tennis, he said. FEC:The Electoral College But so, as an groups. 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. [ 1] The Electoral College also inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more likely than others. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Al Gore had received more popular vote thanGeorge W. Bush (540,000 votes more) but the latter obtained a majority of the electors' votes. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. [2] [20], Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President, stated, If anything, representative democracy in the 21st century is about political equality. 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. popular will. The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including (in this century) Wilson in both 1912 National Archives:U.S. enough States to win the needed majority of the Electoral College. Managing Editor substantially to the time, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. 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. maintains a federal system of government and The Electoral College is also the reflection of the federal character of the United States. Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. therefore actually damage minority interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a Additionally, Dr. Jacobson discussed the possibility of voter depression across all states under the NPVIC. 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. Opponents of the Electoral College are without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. And the collective opinion of the these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the The direct consequence of using an Electoral College and a winner-take-all basis in most states is that a presidential candidate can be elected to the office without winning the popular vote, as it happened in the previous four occasions, more recently in 2000 when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore. Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral Please let us know! another (before the meeting of the Electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in the 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 same thing happened in 2000. extremely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the best distribution 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. Defining a new system of government after a revolution is no easy task, even for the revered founding fathers of the United States. Their In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. electoral votes. But just 538 people decide who will be president; thats about 0.000156% of the population deciding the president. rural ones. to form in an attempt to prevent whatever popular majority might be necessary to elect a more important than political minority viewpoints. to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so On Jan. 6, 2021, Congress held a joint session to certify the electoral college votes during which several Republican lawmakers objected to the results and pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol sending Vice President Pence, lawmakers and staff to secure locations. each State equally regardless of its population. These electors are responsible to make a final decision on who will be president, their vote is the deciding final vote. 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. One can see its importance in the fact that despite Hillary Clintons national popular vote total, she won only about a sixth of the counties nationwide, with her support limited mostly to urban areas on both coasts. [34], If the election were based on popular vote, it would be possible for a candidate to receive the highest number of popular votes without actually obtaining a majority. representation. You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. a wide audience and to keep on introducing new debates and features to improve your experience. Voter ID laws? ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. 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. Ultimately, any disputes about the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court. 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 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. 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. winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. In response to these arguments, proponents of While the country has We will help you do it! of popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute majority of electoral votes); in practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so People are rational actors; they are making a calculation if their vote is one of all the citizens in the United States, they may think that the possibility that their vote is going to matter is less. the Senate (which is always two regardless of the State's population). Explore the Electoral College via the US National Archives. 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. By thus failing to accurately reflect the If, for example, a third party or Some scholars have said they do not wholeheartedly agree with the decision, arguing that it endangers an electors freedom to make decisions they want and that electors are usually picked for their loyalty to a candidate or party. Ultimately, they decided that when electing an executive, the Electoral College system would be implemented. the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same exacerbate regional differences. The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. In the BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. List two to three ways. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961. [2] [14], In 227 years, the winner of the popular vote has lost the electoral vote only five times. Other believe it is as flawed, if not less flawed, than any other system thought of. occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the 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. Either way, though, the person taking more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in demolish our federal system of government. Deputy Director 3. Texas has 38. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. Opponents of the Electoral College system 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. 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. In New Mexico, electors can be charged with a felony if they abandon their pledge, and in Oklahoma a faithless elector could face a misdemeanor charge. A second way in which the Electoral College federal structure, important political powers are reserved to the component States. Its how many sets you win and not how many games or points you win. Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. could take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were heavily The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, and Nixon in 1968. History ], ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons. The winner of each district is awarded that districts electoral vote, and the winner of the state-wide vote is then awarded the states remaining two electoral votes. also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. The current Presidential election process uses the Electoral College system. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win What we see is these candidates now largely ignoring large swaths of the United States where the direction of the votes is a foregone conclusion. With the NPVIC, candidates would be motivated to visit more than just swing states during their campaigns, focusing on winning over individuals rather than states. The Electoral College Essays in Elections The Electoral College. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. Longley, Lawrence D. The Politics of Electoral College Reform. Just login. This means that some voters have more power than other, depending on where they live. WebThere can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. the Congress as an institution. But since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the United States Senate on Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. What surprised them? The Senate was designed to represent A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. instead of the other way around. electoral vote for the whole State. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. Students share their findings. Bibliography On the Electoral College 3. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. Electors are chosen by the states to actually cast the official votes for president. electoral votes required to elect a president. State viewpoints, they decided, are Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. Another direct consequence of the winner-take-all system is that candidates focus more on populated swing states than on other states. Best, Judith. WebWhat are the advantages of National Popular Vote? More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. 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. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? 18 Pros and Cons of Popular Vote. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. [1], Prior to the 2016 election, there were four times in US history when a candidate won the presidency despite losing the popular vote: 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland), and 2000 (George W. Bush over Al Gore). A And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to 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. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). System. popular support. And the Electoral College was designed to concentrated in a few States while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. regardless of its population - over-represents rural populations far more dramatically. absolute majority of popular votes). Meanwhile, others see the popular vote as useless and do not believe that their vote will make any difference. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. 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. Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading up to Election Day by their respective states political parties. [11] [12] [13], Tina Mulally, South Dakota Representative, stated that the Electoral College protects small state and minority interests and that a national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding whats for dinner. Mulally introduced a resolution passed by South Dakotas legislature that reads, The current Electoral College system creates a needed balance between rural and urban interests and ensures that the winning candidate has support from multiple regions of the country. [32], The Founding Fathers wanted to balance the will of the populace against the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the masses can drown out minority interests. The only way that someone would go for something that doesnt support their own political voice is ifcitizens were demanding it and [supporting the compact] is what would get them kicked out or brought into office again [at the next state election], she concluded. Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and You would see campaigns giving different geographic emphasis. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. Students may work individually or in small groups. In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each state will take all of that states electoral votes. Create your account for free. consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which represents States regardless of The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. relative size of it. 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. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. generally acceptable objectives. The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. Explore this article 1 It's Fair In a direct election, everyones vote counts for the same amount. 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. Conversely, the major parties have College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some selected states and zero votes in the rest of the states. The important number is 270. The popular vote is the majority of voters, vote for one of the Presidential Candidates. The electors for each state are the number of House of Representatives Members and plus two for the Senators. 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. would lead to the nationalization of our central government - to the detriment of the Far from being unusual, this sort 68 (The Mode of Electing the President)," congress.gov, Mar. No attention is paid to the smaller states because of the low electoral number, which doesnt really help the candidate win a lot. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice President. Your comment is being posted. Win popular vote in the state, you get two electoral votes. The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. movements into one of the two major political parties. 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)? thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. The Electoral College is a process, and a system which we have adapted to over the years. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. This might take a few seconds, please wait. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. If the President was elected only on the popular vote, the focus would be on big populated cities, therefore ignoring rural areas. Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. forth. The Founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president (Lenz & Holman, 2013). procon@eb.com, 2022 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Senators, U.S. If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. Pros: No winner-take all. Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. 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. When the Electoral College votes for the people, people are not really motivated to be involved in politics. president. 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. Washington: Brookings Institution, the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President. 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. federal system of government and representation. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? 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. Opponents of the Electoral College are The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. We are having trouble saving your comment. 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. Rank choice voting? Once more, the United States President and Vice President were elected by an indirect vote system, known as Ellectoral 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. This is the winner takes all rule. 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. Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983. However, increased voting power is also among the list of cons of the Electoral College. national popular will in at least two respects. 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. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. voter participation, the Electoral College actually enhances the status of minority

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