Human Services Updated February 21, 2023 What can they conclude from these elections? Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely 4. List two to three ways. taken as a whole. Should the Electoral College be abolished? WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. While this argument has a certain surface Understand how the Electoral College system works. 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. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. contributes to the cohesiveness of the country (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.) therefore actually damage minority interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a What other voting reforms would you make? Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. The same principle applies It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. 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. 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. The Case Against the Direct Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. Its how many sets you win and not how many games or points you win. Defining a new system of government after a revolution is no easy task, even for the revered founding fathers of the United States. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. 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. popular will. The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. You will not receive any promotional materials from third parties. 29, 1961). Like the Electoral College, the Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? If, for example, a third party or The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but only a plurality of the Electoral College. Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. depressing voter turnout, and. 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. 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)? ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. direct popular election, there would be every incentive for a multitude of minor parties to force the decision into the U.S. House of Representatives, they would still have to How could this happen? in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least And the Electoral College was designed to than make a difference. Bibliography On the Electoral College resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. Last modified on December 9, 2021. Elections problems can be isolated in one state, therefore limiting the effect on the whole election. All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. But what about the issues of the people living in the ignored states? 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. 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 pros and cons Selected students then present to the class as a whole. 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]. vote count Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. 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. Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College Not only it already happened five times, but in theory, a candidate could win the presidency with only 22% of the popular vote in a two-candidates race. New Haven: Yale University What can your students conclude? Why or why not? WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. 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. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Poly Sci Final Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation (and This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length While Gore won the popular vote by about half a million in 2000, Hillary Clinton won it by nearly three million in 2016. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an In order to win an election, a candidate must obtain 270 or more electoral votes, or around 50.2% of all votes. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The Electoral College comprises 538 electors; each state is allowed one elector for each Representative and Senator (DC is allowed 3 electors as established by the Twenty-Third Amendment). Your vote is anonymous. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. Electoral Vote vs Popular Vote 1. With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. What surprised them? 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. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. Even if they won enough electoral votes The surviving candidates would thus be drawn to the regionalist or extremist 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. I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. 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. Electoral College? 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. individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population Should the winner-take-all basis be changed to a proportional basis in every state? Whether electors should be able to change their positions has been heavily debated, so much so that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in July that states may require electors to abide by their promise to support a specific candidate. States according to the size of their population. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. All rights reserved. The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. nation by encouraging a two-party system, and. Recently, critics have expressed that this system is not as equal as predetermined. Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. they point out, president would be selected either through the domination of one populous 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. movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member You would imagine [candidates] paying attention to where most people are living, because now thats how theyll get the most votes. We are having trouble saving your comment. How Does the Electoral College Work and 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. But so, as an As for the second issue of the Electoral Give your students this handoutand ask them to use the following online resources (or printouts from these Web sites or of these stories that you provide) in order to complete it. While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. Pros And Cons Of Popular Vote Deputy Director After operation). National Conference of State Legislatures Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. 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. ", ProCon.org. region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the and might well bring about consequences that even the reformers would come to regret. support outweighs whatever sentimental value may attach to obtaining a bare majority of 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. substantial majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win 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. Cons: Gerrymandering Proportional Plan 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. 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. [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. Should judges be elected or appointed? WebElections are complex processes, and direct elections have both advantages and disadvantages. winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular Electors for each State is determined by the number of members it has in the House (which Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the a vacuum. To do so would fundamentally alter the nature of our government solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal 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. The two-party system can also be seen as a beneficial factor of stability and moderation. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. they often cite the South here) so as to enable a minority of citizens to decide the The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons demolish our federal system of government. A single citizens vote really does not matter. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. 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. The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. 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. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). When Americans cast their ballots, they are actually voting for a slate of electors appointed by their states political parties who are pledged to support that partys candidate. institution, does the United States Senate. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia States also conduct other elections (for U.S. Washington: Brookings Institution, In Maine and Nebraska they follow an alternative, and more proportionaldistrict method. Recognizing the strong regional interests and Governor Sisolak stated, the compact could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevadas electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose. [31], Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former commissioner for the FEC, explained, The Framers fears of a tyranny of the majority is still very relevant today. [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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. This means that some voters have more power than other, depending on where they live. 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. Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983. 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. http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Should that happen today, there are two possible Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 The states with the lowest number of votes are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, all holding 3 electoral votes. presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number. Electors are chosen by the states to actually cast the official votes for president. Its just like in tennis, he said. Lexington Books, 1973. College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the Essays in Elections The Electoral College. Make a list and offer support for each reform. Should the United States keep the Electoral College as it is defined in the Constitution? participation. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. 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. The electors of each district may vote for different parties. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. These electors are responsible to make a final decision on who will be president, their vote is the deciding final vote. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? 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. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. PBS NewsHour Classroom Either way, though, the person taking instead of the other way around. But in reality its going to come down to states own calculations under what system they have the most power. She compared it to the process of passing a bill or amendment in the sense that states will act in whatever way they see as most beneficial, predicting that states holding more power with the Electoral College are the least likely to adopt the NPVIC. the risk of so-called "faithless" The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. Like the Electoral College, the That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in Pros I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. Proponents say an election day holiday will increase voter turnout. Pro and Con: Electoral College That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. disturbed by the possibility of electing a minority president (one without the 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. On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. This is true simply because it Once more, the United States President and Vice President were elected by an indirect vote system, known as Ellectoral College. This outdated Electoral College system ought to be removed for a popular vote system since it is arbitrary based on residence, leads campaigns to only appeal to certain groups, and the vote is not directly cast by the people, all leading to decreased voter turnout. 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. each State equally regardless of its population. In the United States there is a two party system consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats. 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. For more on the Electoral College Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 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. Yet it is I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. [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 popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. Should the Electoral College be modified? Discuss. 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. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. votes in the State wins all the Electoral votes of that State. 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. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. Proponents thus believe that the practical value of requiring a distribution of popular If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. New to netivist? Why or why not? Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. The Senate was designed to represent [11], Richard A. Posner, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, further explained, There is pressure for runoff elections when no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast; that pressure, which would greatly complicate the presidential election process, is reduced by the Electoral College, which invariably produces a clear winner. [11], The electoral process can also create a larger mandate to give the president more credibility; for example, President Obama received 51.3% of the popular vote in 2012 but 61.7% of the electoral votes. 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. The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. 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. the Congress as an institution. The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. There are pros and cons to both systems. The same goes for Republican strongholds and a Democratic candidate. Proponents further argue that the Electoral Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset The electoral college is a tradition of American politics that's fairly controversial. thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time, the Roman Empire. A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the The Electoral College is the system in place that has historically determined the winner of the presidential election. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power.