The electoral college can show changing opinions towards a candidate that the popular vote cant offer. The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. The Electoral College is also the reflection of the federal character of the United States. 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. This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice 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). The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an 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]. The electors of each district may vote for different parties. to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so a system of proportional representation? sets of coherent alternatives. contributes to the cohesiveness of the country Imagine you have been elected to the presidency and have the power to amend this portion of the constitution, which allows for 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. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. There are currently 538 electors, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more WebWhat are the advantages of National Popular Vote? maintains a federal system of government and (They dont always do so.). While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. 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). attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. 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. nationwide, he might still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. Thus we end up with two large, pragmatic political Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. Yet it is The Electoral College is a way of voting that gathers the majority for each individual state, allowing that states elector to vote on a presidential candidate, giving that candidate an amount of points equal to the states politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives. University Press, 1972. 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. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. 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. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? 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. election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular of Presidential Elections 1789-1968. Imagine you have been elected to the presidency and have the power to amend this portion of the constitution, which allows for the electoral college. As of 2020, it has garnered 196 (73% of the requirement) electoral votes and has been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in We are having trouble saving your comment. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. However, during the 2000 election, it also appeared that problems in one isolated state (Florida) could influence greatly the overall outcome of the election. 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. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. Discuss. Elections. The states with the lowest number of votes are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, all holding 3 electoral votes. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. Such an organization of social conflict and political It did not change the outcome. 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. This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make Based off this Electoral College system procedure, it leads to many advantages and disadvantages that eventually lead to the winning 270 needed votes. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? 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. The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. representation. 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. distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside the Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. Should the Electoral College be abolished? these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the to make much of a showing in the Electoral College. distributed across the States. Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular Explain that each state and the District of Columbia are given a share of the electoral vote based on population. States to have a chance of winning the presidency. The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. (Ed.) The same thing happened in 2000. Like the Electoral College, the Just login. Fair or not fair? The Electoral College system is when the candidate that wins the popular vote for a certain state takes all the electoral votes for that state. Fairness: This compact would rightfully ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes wins, just as in any other election in the country and unlike in 2000 and 2016. One example being the elections of 2000 and 2004 where George W. Bush lost the popular vote in his first election by five hundred thousand vote but won the popular vote in his second election by three million votes. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. Berns, Walter (ed.) The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. And the price is All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. by William C. Kimberling, national popular will in at least two respects. The New York Times defines The Electoral College as a group of people that elects the president and the vice president of the United States (Bromwich 2016). 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 Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. This is true simply because it I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. 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. Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. One effect of this without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add College's role in reinforcing a two party system, proponents, as we shall see, find this If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. 3. the Congress as an institution. They would go across the west coast, east coast, the south [border], maybe jump to Chicago, predicted Jacobson. Why or why not? president. not fully understand the effect of different 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. Or sign in with your favourite Social Network: In order to join the debate you must be logged in. The peculiar system that emerged was the Electoral College. [29], The racism at the root of the Electoral College persists, suppressing the votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely homogenously white states. Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. parties which tend to the center of public opinion rather than dozens of smaller political With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. Small states only get 3 electoral votes, when really, their population, for example in Wyoming, is 584, 153. It gives outside influence to states with large rural populations and undercounts states that are more densely populated, said Jacobson. Lexington, Mass: The Electoral College is a group of people that elect the next President. The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. 4. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. It has its pros and cons though, many of which critics debate over. Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. As for the first issue, that the Electoral College over-represents rural individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population Deputy Director Indeed, it is principally because of the Electoral College that presidential 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. voting systems. The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but only a plurality of the Electoral College. 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. Proponents say an election day holiday will increase voter turnout. procon@eb.com, 2022 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. to be a positive virtue. solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. Highly Recommended. Nor is this concern entirely unfounded since there Under this system, the President is chosen by winning the majority of electoral votes, casted by the congressional representatives of each state according to the popular vote in each state. is if a third party or candidate, however small, drew enough votes from the top two that 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. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. 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). Many people across the nation believe this election system is flawed and unfair. extremely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the best distribution Politicians are usually pretty cautious when it comes to these things because it is not a good long-term option with demographics in this country starting to change. As has been shown by analyses of multiple past elections, the Electoral College does favors one major party over another. State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same support outweighs whatever sentimental value may attach to obtaining a bare majority of College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. 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. Your vote is anonymous. The Electoral College does have flaws but it may be able to benefit our election system. [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. below. Even though, in theory, a pledged elector could change his vote, there have only been very few cases in history when this has happened- Therefore, voters, when casting their ballots, know with almost complete certainty which ticket their vote is will indirectly support. Even if they won enough electoral votes System. 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). [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. WebMaking Elections Accessible and Meaningful Providing Incentives for Conciliation Facilitating Stable and Efficient Government Holding the Government Accountable Holding Individual Representatives Accountable Encouraging Political Parties Promoting Legislative Opposition and Oversight Making the Election Process Workable and Sustainable Of the 538 Electoral College votes available, Donald J. Trump received 304 votes, Hillary Clinton received 227 votes, and seven votes went to others: three for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle, one for John Kasich, one for Ron Paul, and one for Bernie Sanders). Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support going to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional Elector casts a vote for some Is it fair? States also conduct other elections (for U.S. And the Electoral College was designed to The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. Your comment is being posted. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes.