6. The primary benefit of the electoral college is that it works to protect the best interests of the minority in every election. Such an effort would likely receive little or no Republican support. Which states do matter? The places where there are more people become the top priority, especially if there is a chance to swing some votes. Were already letting women, former slaves, and 18-year-olds vote, changing the structure of the election since the countrys founding. It also stops the distribution process where California gets 55 votes, but a state like Delaware only gets 3. Support for direct popular election. If you live in a state where youre in the political minority, your vote is effectively erased. Given that a change would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures, it is not going to happen. Hillary Clinton won. Here, again, there are three main points to make. In part, that is because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. If the U.S. were to abolish the electoral college, then the restrictions that territories experience against voting in this election would disappear. There will always be a concern about the tyranny of the majority in the United States. It is a process that allows the people to choose who serves in the White House instead of throwing it into Congress. But in the end, Republicans and Democrats are virtually tied. The winner of the Electoral College vote is usually the candidate who has won the popular vote. {{currentYear}} American Bar Association, all rights reserved. Not this year. An example of a state closely split by congressional district is Florida in 2016, where Trump won in 14 of them and Clinton won in 13. Thats not true either. Kitty on Twitter: "RT @Valkary: THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE In other words, the Electoral College isnt sacred, and theres no reason we cant change how it works today. And the reasons people think we need to keep the Electoral College the way it is, theyre all wrong. That means there must be a majority of states that agree with a specific candidate instead of allowing the people to decide who they want to have as president. Remember what we said back in Myth No. But the court has not tackled to what extent states can enforce such a pledge. As a result, most are considered safe, that is, comfortably in hand for one party or the other. The Constitution originally stipulated that the top vote-getter chosen by these electors would become president and the individual with the second-most votes would be vice president. Democracy is, at its core, about fair, equal representation one person, one vote. In the 20th century there were 25 presidential elections and none of them resulted in an Electoral College winner who lost the popular vote. The truth is . While there are two different means to amend the founding document, this country has always used the same route: a 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress, followed by the ratification of 3/4ths of the states. Polls conducted by Gallup over the past seven decades, with the most recent being from 2013, clearly show the American public's desire to get rid of the whole system. That same view will doubtless color the 2016 election as well. There have been three: John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. [1] Only when they sign the certificate of ascertainment and the votes are tallied in the United States Congress is the presidential race officially over. Getting Rid Of The Electoral College Isn't Easy - Bustle The current structure limits Americans from pushing in this direction even though candidates tend to visit swing states more often. But the real interests of small-state voters are never determined by the relative size of the population of their states. However, it is possible to win the presidency without winning the popular vote. Under the current structure of the United States, there are 50 unique presidential contests instead of one nationwide affair to elect a President. Thanks to the Internet, telephones, email, social media, and every other form of communication that we have today, people can choose for themselves whether a new story has an underlying sinister bias. In late September, when the Republican nominee's numbers in the polls saw a significant rise and nearly eliminated Clinton's huge post-convention lead, forecasts still had her snatching the election with 17 more electoral votes than her opponent. The U.S. Census creates the allocations of electoral votes that each state receives. George W. Bush won the Electoral College in 2000 even though he received 0.5% less of the popular vote against Al Gore. The way it gets implemented is the result of dozens of state laws, which evolved over time as the country settled into a two-party system. In 2000 Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote against Governor George W. Bush by 543,895. This reflects how uncommon it is to reach the Oval Office without winning the popular vote; it has only happened four times in United States history. And sure, the last two times the Electoral College has awarded the White House to the popular-vote loser, its been to the Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in 2000. Why We Should Abolish the Electoral College - New York Times This Student Opinion prompt and a related Lesson of the Day will prepare students to participate in our live panel discussion about the Electoral College, on Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The three-fifths clause became irrelevant with the end of slavery (thankfully! The Electoral College has given one candidate a majority win in this political structure since 1992, but there have been four times when the winner of the election didnt receive a clear majority of the votes across the entire country. As Madison wrote in an 1823 letter, states using the winner-take-all rule are a string of beads and fail to reflect the true political diversity of their citizens. No more Electoral College? Here's how campaigning might change No amount of campaigning will change that. But the fact is that we are now one country, whereas in 1789 we were 13 colonies desperately trying to hold onto some semblance of their independencehence a political deal was struck that now threatens the very democracy for which they were trying to create a lasting framework. Most states have a winner-take-all system that awards all the votes of a states electors to the presidential candidate who obtains the most votes in that state. Thats almost 1.5 billion votes. You may have heard this one in high school. It creates 50 individual contests. 326 Galvez Street Is the Electoral College a Problem? Does It Need to Be Fixed? According to Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper Number 68, the body was a compromise at the. Without the Electoral College in place, presidential candidates would build platforms that would speak to their base. Critics of the system would argue that the elections of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump are evidence that this impact is no longer present in U.S. politics. Spend some time moving states into the Biden and Trump circles and make notes about what you notice and wonder. No other mode of presidential elections would be fully consistent with our underlying commitment to the equality of all citizens. Its how we run every election in the country, except the most important one of all. Only Rutherford Hayes, with a 3% difference, won the electoral college despite being in the minority. Our votes would count the same wherever they were cast. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. A New Mexico doctor describes the pain and horror of caring for COVID-19 patients. That means the major party that can maintain its base could win elections without a clear majority. The most popular alternative is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). That means centrist ideas tend to be the ones that receive the most traction instead of the individual priorities of platforms on the extreme left or right. 10. In most cases this should prevent the popular vote loser from becoming president. After reading the article and watching the video, what questions do you have for Mr. Wegman? The following table shows how this would have changed the outcome in two contested elections of the 21st century, and how a third would have remained the same. Places like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan. Recurring debt ceiling fights will only be solved by budget reform, Amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most votes wins. [2] Both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature are currently controlled by Democrats; however, the 2020 elections shifted both chambers to Republican control. Myth No. The party structureswhich, for all their faults, have a vested interest in candidates from the moderate middle who are able to work with Congress and other officials to governhave been sidelined. The way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. This is one reason why they created checks and balances, including the Electoral College. Despite California having millions of more people living in the state compared to Wyoming, the weight of a vote is 30% less. The supporters of the NPV are not hiding their goal: They are trying to circumvent the AK constitutional amendment process and manipulate the Electoral College out of existence.11. NPV would reshape our political landscape by concentrating power in our largest states and cities. Even if all 25 of the states that Mr. Biden won in 2020 were to ratify such an amendment, nine additional states that President Trump won would need to ratify it as well. The Electoral College consists of an elector selection, a group of people who will meet and vote for President and Vice President based on the results of their states election. Whether youre Republican or Democrat, your vote probably doesnt count the way it should. Editors Note: In 2016, we asked two professors to debate whether the Electoral College should cease to be the mechanism used for selecting the U.S. president. ** Adjusted Maine to act as one state rather than separate EV districts. But it's possible the candidate with the most votes from the public won't be the winner. Every vote would count equally instead. The Electoral College has been the subject of debate since it was first implemented centuries ago, but when George W. Bush won the presidential election in 2000 despite Al Gore winning the popular vote, controversy surrounding the institution rose to a much more intense degree. Or is it working the way it is supposed to? Because the Electoral College is based on the structure of state populations and representation in the House, some people have a vote that carries more weight per delegate than others. It said that the Colorado secretary of state erred in removing an elector who cast his vote for then-Ohio Gov. For almost the first half century of the republic, presidential candidates were chosen by the caucuses of the two parties in the House and the Senate. Abolishing The Electoral College Would Be More Complicated Than - NPR If such an amendment were to pass Congress, defeat in the states is likely. "And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.". Interestingly, the congressional caucus system is very close to the system the British used to replace Prime Minister David Cameron. As the Washington Post has shown, the four most populous states, California, Texas, Florida and New York are all dramatically underrepresented in todays Electoral College. Here's What Critics Say Is Wrong With The Electoral College : NPR In 2016, Donald Trump won the White House by earning a majority of electoral votes, even though almost three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. Should We Abolish the Electoral College? | STANFORD magazine Electoral vote totals will equal 538. A supporter of President-elect Joe Biden holds up his cellphone to display the electoral college map, outside the Philadelphia Convention Center on Nov. 7. That line garnered one of her largest roars of applause for the evening. I wrote a whole book on the subject. Younger voters also tended to support abolishing the Electoral College. Because the Electoral College is based on the structure of state populations and representation in the House, some people have a vote that carries more weight per delegate than others. Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, The Electoral College is a ticking time bomb, Its time to abolish the Electoral College, Two cheers for the Electoral College: Reasons not to abolish it, according to the Congressional Research Service, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/10/21/can-the-electoral-college-be-subverted-by-faithless-electors/, Policy lessonsand surprisesfrom the Reimagine Rural podcast, Justice Thomas, gift reporting rules, and what a Supreme Court code of conduct would and wouldnt accomplish, Why is federal spending so hard to cut? Some of the most important framers, including James Madison and James Wilson, wanted to write a direct popular vote into the Constitution. Electoral vote totals will equal 538. Does It Need to Be Fixed? Abolishing the Electoral College would get rid of this confusing process. This year is the poster child for the need for reform. And even when that doesn't happen, Wegman sees another problem with the . It can be fixed. However, in the five presidential elections of the 21st century, two ended up with the winner of the popular vote losing the Electoral College. Anyone can read what you share. There would need to be a Constitutional amendment if the compact idea doesnt work. Donald Trump was open about ignoring the pleas of the safe blue states like New York when they were suffering the most from the coronavirus pandemic. The Electoral College is outlined in Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution. RT @Valkary: THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHOULD BE ABSOLVED AND ABOLISHED. It provides for separate votes for president and vice president and specified that those individuals must be from different states. Third, defenders of the Electoral College also claim that it supports the underlying value of federalism. Instead of having a regional focus that incorporates specific campaigning elements, there would be a national campaign instead. The crisis of 1824 then, represented really the collapse of the old system, and an effort to re-institute it in other terms. The Electoral College Will Destroy America, The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, free daily writing prompts for remote learning. This has happened five times in American history. The Electoral College is not going to be changed, and there are far more urgent and promising topics for reform of our presidential selection system. But the reality is, right now neither the small states nor the big ones have the voice they should. In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. It's another way the system ensures it's perpetuity. Sixty years later inRay v. Blair, the court ruled the Constitution, including the 12th Amendment, does not bar a political party from requiring electors to sign a pledge to support the nominees of the national convention. .just the large States - the Cities would end up running the Country. Suddenly, every voter will count, no matter where they live. Maine and Nebraska, however, have enacted the congressional district method, which allocates one electoral vote to the winner of the popular vote in each state-drawn district. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. Changing or eliminating the Electoral College can be accomplished only by an amendment to the Constitution, which requires the consent of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecast have predicted. We need to think hard, and quickly, about how to reform three aspects of the presidential nomination process: the debates, the primary elections and the conventions. This agreement includes several states and DC, giving the electoral vote count assigned to them to the candidate who receives the most votes in the national election. Alternative 1: Two electoral votes to national popular vote winner; state winner-take-all for the remainder, *Each of these races included faithless electors, such that the total of electoral votes, as shown, does not equal 538. Out of those visits, almost 70% of them happened in only four states: North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. It is true that the Electoral College no longer serves its original purposes, and that it creates a grave risk that a candidate not favored by a majority of the people will, from time to time, be elected president. The Electoral College website now has an easy-to-remember address. And, as our colleague Bill Galston has written, the Electoral College continues to be a ticking time bomb. In the 2020 presidential election a shift of just 45,000 votes in three states, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona could have shattered Americans belief in the legitimacy of their political system by creating a tie in the Electoral College and sending the election to the House of Representatives. Do you agree with Mr. Wegman that we should change how the Electoral College works to ensure that the popular vote chooses the president? But explaining exactly how it does this remains a mystery. Source: Daily Kos Elections. Map. On this date, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a constitutional amendment to eliminate the Electoral College and provide for the direct election of the President using the results of the national popular vote. There can be distinctive advantages to one party in a decade where three election cycles are possible. "Precisely what it does is proportionately advantages where the people are," Levy said. In part, that is because theElectoral Collegeis constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. And even though it is widely acknowledged that the Electoral College is a ticking time bomb that could seriously erode American democracy, none of these attempts has been successful. The group of 16 (as of August 2019) currently control 196 electoral votes together. The threat is the effort to create a so-called . It's time to abolish the Electoral College - Brookings The reason we even have swing states is because almost all states award their electoral votes using a winner-take-all system. How the Electoral College Was Nearly Abolished in 1970 - History The only point in this election where the possibility of either of the candidates losing the popular vote but still claiming an electoral victory was on July 30, when a FiveThirtyEight model showed Clinton clinching the popular vote by less than 1 percent, but still losing to Trump by two electoral votes. If that occurs, the court might provide states additional guidance on just how much leeway they have to impact the Electoral College vote that decides the presidency of the United States. John Locher/AP This toolkit provides guidance and resources to those associated with community colleges who are interested in either creating a pathway program to law school or enhancing an existing program. The corrosiveness of this system isnt only a modern concern. In fact, there is already a movement brewing among states to agree to award their electors to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote. That fall, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon defeated . 5. It would only come into effect when it could guarantee that outcome. Opinion | Abolish the electoral college - The Washington Post In August, a panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appealsruleddifferently in a case raising similar issues. On September 18, 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 338 to 70 to send a constitutional amendment to the Senate that would have dismantled the Electoral College,. A second argument holds less populous states deserve the further electoral weight they gain through the senatorial bump giving each state two electors, because their minority status entitles them to additional political protection. The US presidential election takes place 3 November. And while Electoral College winning/popular vote losing presidents are formally and technically legitimate holders of the office, the perception that a broken system is anti-democratic and anti-majoritarian can have wide-reaching, penetrating, long-term consequences for the health of a democracy. But experts say reforming this practice isn't likely anytime soon for a number of reasons. Warren says she wants to get rid of the Electoral College, and vote for president using a national popular vote. For instance, in 1900 New York was the biggest state in the union with 7,268,894 people and the state with the median population, Louisiana, had 1,381,625 people. When the Founding Fathers built the idea of the Electoral College into the structure of the American government, their idea of information management was very different than what we have today. Opinion | Will the Economy Make or Break Biden in 2024?
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