Win popular vote in the state, you get two electoral votes. Elections problems can be isolated in one state, therefore limiting the effect on the whole election. Did you know that in 2016, Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote over Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes? The same principle applies You would see campaigns giving different geographic emphasis. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. WebPros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. Please let us know! independent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the voters Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress 2. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. Election Commissioners. States. president. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? To abolish the Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular election for president [2] [14], The two main political parties can count on winning the electoral votes in certain states, such as California for the Democratic Party and Indiana for the Republican Party, without worrying about the actual popular vote totals. than make a difference. 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. 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. It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. 2. Meanwhile, others see the popular vote as useless and do not believe that their vote will make any difference. Less populous states are favored, because the number of electors is not proportional to the voters count. There are currently 538 electors, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. For more on the Electoral College of popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute majority of electoral votes); in federal system of government and representation. 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. 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. This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make All rights reserved. Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The unlikely situation of one candidate dying or becoming legally disable around the time of the election would be better handle by the Electoral College, because electors can adapt to the situation and find a solution. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. 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. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. College point out, quite correctly, its failure to accurately reflect the Make a list and offer support for each reform. 1. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so president. small that either candidate could govern effectively. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. One way in which a minority president could Highly Recommended. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. First, the distribution of Electoral votes in Washington: Brookings Institution, Zeidenstein, Harvey G. Direct Election of the President. Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation (and Senators, U.S. While this argument has a certain surface would strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. 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). Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. each State equally regardless of its population. represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the number of each State's Having the statistics to understand the ever changing cultures of our country views one candidate to both the state and people could help in the selection of the President and Vice President of the United States. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. National Archives:U.S. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. System. It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral There can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and Representatives, the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral 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. and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, and Nixon in 1968. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. In other words, such a system The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. 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. loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College obliged to compromise their more radical views if they hope to attain any of their more Another direct consequence of the winner-take-all system is that candidates focus more on populated swing states than on other states. 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. district system of representation in the Congress) is to virtually force third party However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. James Madison stated, There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also [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. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. 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. they point out, president would be selected either through the domination of one populous A 4. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. State Governors, State legislators, and a host of local officials) in which these same The Electoral College is a process, and a system which we have adapted to over the years. [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. There have been 7 such Electors in As for the second issue of the Electoral The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely be frayed and accordance with the 12th Amendment. That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. This is true simply because it In response to these arguments, proponents of Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an This might take a few seconds, please wait. argument is that, since each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes Election of the President. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. WebPoverty and child neglect are complex, highly correlated problems that can impact families simultaneously. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the 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. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections. [29], As Wilfred Wilfred Codrington III, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School and a fellow at the Brennan Center, explained, Behind Madisons statement were the stark facts: The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. Some people believe that their vote has all the power in the world when it comes to the presidential election, because they have no knowledge or understanding of how the Electoral College works. electoral vote for the whole State. 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. 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. 3. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY: Copyright 2021 NewsHour Production LLC. Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. [18], A Nov. 6, 2016 episode of PBS NewsHour revealed that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have made more than 90% of their campaign stops in just 11 so-called battleground states. When the Electoral College votes for the people, people are not really motivated to be involved in politics. If you are new to netivist, please create your account for free and start collecting your netivist points! Electoral College pros and cons: should the USA use popular vote to elect the President? 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. Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. 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. Its just like in tennis, he said. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to [3] [4] [5] [6], At least 700 amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. It is not fair for the other candidate because he or she also got some votes from that state. electoral votes required to elect a president. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. It remains one of the most surprising facts about voting in the United States: While the popular vote elects members of Congress, mayors, governors, state legislators and even more obscure local officials, it does not determine the winner of the presidency, the highest office in the land. How is this possible? After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. How could this happen? 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. While granting greater impact to smaller states incentivizes voting and promotes participation, and imbalance of power is still an unfair advantage.