https://www.thoughtco.com/electoral-college-pros-and-cons-4686409 (accessed May 1, 2023). It did not change the outcome. Sets found in the same folder. Security would be improved across the country. 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. The National Association of Plan Advisors is a non-profit professional society. If this happens many people in the red states will not feel that the change is legitimate even if its legal and technically constitutional. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. Pro: It's the only way to avoid defaulting. Before the 2016 election, the largest vote deficit in the popular vote was Al Gore securing over 500,000 votes more than George W. Bush. 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. Every state is allocated several votes according to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation. 9. That means some voters, like Republicans in California or Democrats in Mississippi, are voting without power and without attention from their preferred candidates each year. The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. Going to the popular vote would eliminate this issue altogether. Anyone can read what you share. Or the opposite could be true. Make a contribution to support Common Cause today. The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset The electoral college is a tradition of American politics that's fairly controversial. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the way the president is elected should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency, while 35% favor keeping the current Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 27-July 4, 2022. In fact, part of a presidential candidates campaign strategy is drawing a map of states the candidate can and must win to gather 270 electoral votes. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. In the case of a tie, there are contingencies in place to determine which person will serve in the elected office. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that state's electors. All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. That still faces an uphill climb, though. But the biggest problem with changing how we elect our president using the NPV Compact is that its too easy to change it back. Gives too few states too much electoral power. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact becomes law it would be an excellent first step to help get a future amendment to the Constitution to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect the president with a national popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. Start and finish your paper with ease. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. In Election 2000, the eight most populous states had 228. 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. Because every vote is equal inside Ohio or Florida, presidential candidates avidly seek out voters in small, medium, and large towns. Currently, candidates focus more on swing and battleground states to help them gain those electoral votes. Moving to the popular vote structure would eliminate this potential issue. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but only a plurality of the Electoral College. Longley, Robert. Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. Electoral votes are designated among the states based on Census. They have only won the popular vote once. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. Students share their findings. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. 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. Idea to keep electoral college but add 102bvotes. Although many supporters of the electoral college argue that a two-party political system is more stable, some critics counter that having more than two parties would give Americans more choice. NAPA Net Staff. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. Under the current structure of presidential elections in the U.S., the states become a battleground of red states vs. blue states. But in practice it could happen every 10 or 20 years when the Electoral College votes change because the congressional boundaries change with the new population census. This hybrid system means that more weight is given to a single vote in a small state than the vote of someone in a large state, leading to outcomes at times that have been at odds with the popular vote. What surprised them? Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. And in all states but Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in that state is awarded all of its electoral votes, whether the split is 51% to 49% or 99% to 1%. Electoral College Pros and Cons. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. All samples were added by students. Dont know what Ranked Choice Voting is? Thus, the National Popular Vote plan will take effect when enacted by states controlling an additional 74 electoral votes. How could this happen? A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. Imagine a scenario where a presidential candidate focuses on Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle. 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. The National Bonus Plan was proposed by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. The official general election results indicate that Trump received 304 Electoral College votes and 46.09% of the popular vote (62,984,825 votes), and Hillary Clinton received 227 Electoral College votes and 48.18% of the popular vote (65,853,516 votes). By its very nature, the Electoral College system is confusing. One of the main critiques of the Electoral College is that because 48 states choose to allocate electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis (the College is established by the Constitution, but the . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The National Popular Vote (NPV) refers to the concept of allocating a state's presidential electors to the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide regardless of the state results in a presidential election. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. 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. Would they like to see the system changed? The electoral requires that an election which does not receive a majority of electoral votes be taken into the U.S. House of Representatives. But . Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. 2023 by National Conference of State Legislatures, NCSL 50-State Searchable Bill Tracking Databases, Supreme Court to Reexamine Use of Civil Asset Forfeiture. 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. 2. There are currently 538 electors, and to be elected, a candidate must get the votes of at least 270 electors. That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. NCSL helps draft bills, organize workshops and convene legislative-executive teams. 5. After the 2000 election, a majority of Americans favored . What Happens if There Is a Tie in the Electoral College? 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. Each states electoral votes are tallied by Congress in the House chamber by House and Senate representatives on the 6th day of January following the Presidential election. As with other powers entrusted to the states, it is an application, not a circumvention, of the Constitution when the states utilize those powers as they see fit. Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. The electoral college is a group of electors, outlined and defined in the United States Constitution, established for the purpose of electing the president and vice-president. Learn more about how the National Popular Vote compact works and the ways it could make our elections better for everyone. This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. Although the 20th Amendment to the Constitution provides clarity to this situation, that process is based on the electoral college. Lastly, it may cause a third-party candidate to prevail and win, which would allow Americans to be given more choices besides the two primary parties (Richards). 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. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. The NPV Interstate Compact does not eliminate the very complicated Electoral College system that most voters dont really understand. 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. Resource allocation would be focused on paid advertising, which would negate the need for grassroots activities. 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. It would be a national mandate to put someone in office, even if that winning candidate received less than 50% of the vote. Often ignored, Americans had a lesson on the workings of the Electoral College after the 2000 election, in which Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush became president. But if we set politics aside and focus on what is really best for democracy in our country in the long run I believe that the advantages of using the NPV compact to elect our president outweigh the disadvantages and the best way to elect our president in the 21st century is by direct popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. NCSL Child Welfare Fellows program is designed to support legislators and legislative staff who are experienced or emerging leaders in child welfare policy. The Founding Fathers chose it as a compromise between allowing Congress to choose the president and having the president elected directly by the popular vote of the people. Proposed Reforms to the Electoral College. Rescue crews are fighting rugged terrain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as search efforts for a missing man remain ongoing. Texas has 38. In 2016, Florida had 29 electoral votes and 9.4 million voters, created a voter value of 0.72. In theory that could happen every four years. The itineraries of presidential candidates in battleground states (and their allocation of other campaign resources) demonstrate what every gubernatorial or senatorial candidate in every state already knows namely that when every vote matters, the campaign must be run in every part of the state. A switch to the popular vote would eliminate the concept of a battleground state because the issue would be more on issues than states. Today, opinions on the future of the Electoral College range from protecting it as the basis of American democracy to abolishing it completely as an ineffective and obsolete system that may not accurately reflect the will of the people. However, some critics argue that the advantages of a direct popular election including reflecting democratic principals, outweigh the disadvantages. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. BY . It could encourage voter turnout. "Electoral College Pros and Cons." You can use essay samples to find ideas and inspiration for your paper. Analyzes how william j.d. Although this may limit the amount of diversity that occurs in office, and may generate extra financial costs, the argument could be made that these risks outweigh the results of an election where a majority of states, not a majority of people, put someone into office. (The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.). A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. After all, the Electoral College makes it possible that a candidate who wins the majority of the votes could still lose the election. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. However, many people believe that a direct popular election is more democratic and fair than the Electoral College. This is a situation that has caused controversy in the election years of of 1800, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 when the elected president won the Electoral College and the presidency but did not win the popular vote. But for those people who feel that changing how we elect the president should only be done by constitutional amendment they will feel that using the NPV Compact will undermine the legitimacy of the process even though its perfectly legal and constitutional. For the popular vote, however, Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, while Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. As the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement steps up its effort to impose a direct election for president, attempting to enlist states with a sufficient number of electors to constitute a majority (268) and to bind them to the winner of the national popular vote, those states considering the proposal might first reflect on the nightmare . When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. Using the NPV system means that every vote counts the same. Longley, Robert. By adding this new interstate compact to the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect our president we are in fact making this system even more complicated and even harder for the voters to understand. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. Some states, such as California and Hawaii, both had their bills vetoed by their governors before it was overridden and enacted by state legislators. Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. As of now, 15 states and Washington, D.C. have joined the National Popular Vote compact: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Delaware and Oregon. This means that the U.S. would fundamentally be unable to pay back its existing loans, described by Bloomberg as a "major disaster" that could significantly impact the world economy. However, there are proposals to reform the Electoral College without abolishing it. Although it is sometimes conjectured that a national popular election would focus only on big cities, it is clear that this would not be the case. 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. The votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 5. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. Even if states impose fines on faithless electors for their actions, it is not a guarantee that the behavior will stop. The aim of the National Popular Vote is to ensure the popular vote dictates the Electoral College results, making "every vote in every state" count. National Archives:U.S. 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. Rural voters would almost always be in the minority. As of July 2020, a National Popular Vote bill has been signed into law in 16 states controlling a total of 196 electoral votes, including 4 small states, 8 medium-sized states, 3 big states (California, Illinois, and New York), and the District of Columbia. Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. 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. For example: States already have the power to award their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, although this would be disadvantageous to the state that did so unless it was joined simultaneously by other states that represent a majority of electoral votes. At the moment, 98 more electoral votes are needed to pass this bill in all 50 states (National Conference of State Legislators). Some states list electors names on the general election ballot. 2. 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. In the U.S., that means people who lean Democratic live in urban areas, while people who lean Republican live in rural areas. cons of the national popular vote planproperty management without a license in texas aot 4, 2022 12:34 . Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require electors to vote for their pledged candidate. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. The selection of presidential electors is specifically entrusted to the states by the Constitution. Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with bachelor's degrees in creative writing, English/American literature and international studies. 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. For instance, if you have a score of 659 and are borrowing 75% of the home's value, you'll pay a fee equal to 1.5% of the loan balance whereas you'd pay no fee if you had a 780+ credit score. 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. What would happen during a switch to the popular vote would be unknown. Four candidates in history have won the popular vote only to be denied the presidency by the Electoral College. . A proposal has been made to restore the one person one vote principle without having to change the Constitution which involves an interstate compact. (LogOut/ This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some . Why or why not? 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. It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. When a popular vote is held for a national office, the election becomes more about platform issues than local issues. Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, a lengthy and often unsuccessful process. Lastly, the biggest problem that the Electoral College produces is the reality that a persons vote really doesnt matter (Black). You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. In this issue of Capitol to Capitol NCSL Letter to Congress on Farm Bill Reauthorization and Town Hall, House Republicans Unveil Border Security Bill, and more. To avoid another election that differs from . 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. The NPV is a multi-state agreement that, when active, would ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationally also wins in the Electoral College. Also the NPV Compact allows states to withdraw from the compact as late as four months before an election. Despite the name, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, but refers to a collegium or group of colleagues. When you talk about the Electoral College shaping the election, it shapes the election all the time because it puts the focus on certain states and not others, said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard University. 6. 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. Over the long run the countrys popular vote in presidential elections has roughly been equally split between Republican and Democratic.*. Additionally, the Founders reasoned that the system would prevent states with larger populations from having an unequal influence on the election. To be elected president, the winner must get at least half plus one or 270 electoral votes. Yes. Certain penalties exist in other states. Because of the state Winner-Take-All rules, which arent even part of the Constitution, they can lead to presidential elections where the winner of the election doesnt have the most popular votes. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Education, Explore state by state cost analysis of US colleges in an interactive article, Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections: The Electoral College, University of the Pacific: Electoral College Reform, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School: The Electoral College. 3. The National Popular Vote effort is now halfway to its goal of electing future presidents via the popular vote, after Rhode Island . on Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Follow All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. National Popular Vote is a constitutional and practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President a goal traditionally supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans How does the system currently work? 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. Some critics argue that more people would vote in a direct popular election, according to the University of the Pacific. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. Reduces voter participation by creating a my vote doesnt matter feeling. 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. You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. I will explain that in another blog post. 48 Vitosha Boulevard, ground floor, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria, Samploon, Inc. 2023. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. Disadvantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. The National Popular Vote plan would eliminate what critics of the Electoral College system point to as the "winner-take-all" rule - the awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state. Bring about direct popular election of pres and do within change. On a close popular vote, often defined as a difference of 0.5% or less in the tabulated results, an automatic recount would likely be triggered. The state legislatures of the cooperating states would . Unexpected emergencies would be difficult to handle. Thats a bank of about 14 million potential voters that reliably vote as a majority for Democratic candidates. That would increase the amount of polarization being experienced in politics today because there would be less of a need to compromise. NCSL actively tracks more than 1,400 issue areas. 4 terms. 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. The first problem it creates is the opportunity for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote. 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. The electoral college leads to a heavy emphasis on swing states and also typically over-represents citizens in rural states. The Compact ensures that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election. Second, some believe itll intensify election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout (Richards). This brings us to 196 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the pact. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. 1. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. National bonus plan. These battleground or swing states receive 7% more federal grants, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions (National Popular Vote).
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