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. Common Cause The one-vote approach does not align with the way the electoral votes operates. To pass an amendment to change the Constitution the Founding Fathers wisely required approval by 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures instead of a simple majority. In 2016, Gary Johnson received 4.48 million votes and 0 electoral votes, but the potential is always there for this to happen. One such movement, the National Popular Vote plan would ensure that the winner of the popular vote would also win at least enough Electoral College votes to be elected president. Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to. Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr 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. And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. 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. (2021, Jun 14). Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. 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. I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. Additionally, the Founders reasoned that the system would prevent states with larger populations from having an unequal influence on the election. But she lost the presidency due to Trumps winning margin in the Electoral College, which came after he pulled out narrow victories in less populated Midwestern states like Michigan and Wisconsin. 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. States boyd, william j.d., "electoral college system challenged." national civic review 55.9 (1966): 519-23. 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. When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. 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. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. 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. On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. Definition and Examples. You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. 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. (They dont always do so.). Security would be improved across the country. If the National Popular Vote bill was secured within the American government, it would protect every vote and would allow those votes to equally matter in the presidential election. And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. In a closely contested direct popular election, every precinct across the country might require close examination, rather than a handful of states or precincts. Lastly, the biggest problem that the Electoral College produces is the reality that a persons vote really doesnt matter (Black). Most Popular. It would eliminate superfluous votes. That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. The National Popular Vote; States in the National Popular Vote Compact; Voter Trends in 2016; Public Opinion on the Electoral College; What Congress Is Doing on the Electoral College; Pros & Cons of Ending Surprise Medical Billing; Pros & Cons of Mail-In Voting; Pros & Cons of Ending Surprise Medical Billing; PROs. 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. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. (LogOut/ To determine the National Popular Vote winner, state election officials simply would tally the nationwide vote for president based on each states official results. A proposal has been made to restore the one person one vote principle without having to change the Constitution which involves an interstate compact. Maryland and New Jersey passed this bill in 2007, Hawaii and Illinois in 2008, Washington in 2009, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in 2010, California and Vermont in 2011, Rhode Island in 2013, New York in 2014 and Connecticut in 2018. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. The Youth Homelessness Fellows Program is a year long opportunity to legislators and legislative staff particularly interested in the topic of youth and young adult homelessness. Due to some states being heavily populated in comparison to others, that may help a candidate quickly obtain a win. Dont know what Ranked Choice Voting is? An individuals vote doesnt make a difference when it is counted against the votes of the delegates in the House of Representatives and Senate. That principle should be expanded to presidential elections. Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee the Right to Vote for All U.S. Citizens. Note: Today we are in a phase where the popular vote in presidential elections leans Democratic. BY . Some areas may bend the rules of an election by extending voting hours illegally. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. (LogOut/ Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/electoral-college-pros-and-cons-4686409. NCSLs experts are here to answer your questions and give you unbiased, comprehensive information as soon as you need it on issues facing state legislatures. NCSL Child Welfare Fellows program is designed to support legislators and legislative staff who are experienced or emerging leaders in child welfare policy. . Make a contribution to support Common Cause today. Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, a lengthy and often unsuccessful process. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. The votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. 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. The election is held every four years on the first Tuesday in November and prior to election day, the two candidates endure state-level primaries, caucuses, debates, and conventions. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral 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 . A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. 3. This new series from the AP is dedicated to answering commonly asked questions from our audience about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Another movement is attempting to convince states to split their electoral vote based on the percentage of the states popular vote for each candidate. In the U.S., that means people who lean Democratic live in urban areas, while people who lean Republican live in rural areas. They have only won the popular vote once. Texas has 38. The National Bonus Plan was proposed by historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. More people live in urban regions, which means they would have a constant sway over the election. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. Learn more about how the National Popular Vote compact works and the ways it could make our elections better for everyone. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. In addition, while the Founders considered the electors as being free from any sinister bias in 1788, electors today are selected by the political parties and are usually pledged to vote for the partys candidate regardless of their own beliefs. This advance is referred to as the winner-take-all approach. Reduces voter participation by creating a "my vote doesn't matter" feeling. Thats how politics works in America. Regional candidates could secure enough votes to win a national election. Thats the way it has been in this country for a long time. The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Proposed Reforms to the Electoral College. At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. Certain penalties exist in other states. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. That effectively means that votes in the the 75% of the country that are in swing states effectively dont count at all. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. The allotment of the extra votes would almost always ensure that the person who wins the popular vote would also win the Electoral College. 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. 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. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with bachelor's degrees in creative writing, English/American literature and international studies. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. It would require an Amendment in the U.S. for presidential elections. Home| Government| Elections| Electoral College| Electoral College Pros And Cons. Ultimately, any disputes about the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. Some hope to reduce the Electoral Colleges importance without an amendment. Eliminating the winner-take-all requirement of the Electoral College at the state level would lessen the tendency for the swing states to dominate the electoral process. The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. Despite the name, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, but refers to a collegium or group of colleagues. The electoral college leads to a heavy emphasis on swing states and also typically over-represents citizens in rural states. How could this happen? 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. Longley, Robert. Under the electoral college, the majority votes of states assign electoral votes to a candidate, which then creates a majority total required for a victory. 13 Early College High School Pros and Cons, 18 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of the Payback Period, 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing a Car, 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing, 24 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of a C Corporation, 16 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Mediation, 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Gated Community, 17 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups, 17 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Bonds, 19 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Annuities, 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election.
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