popular vote pros and cons

This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make The process of choosing electors can be an insiders game, said Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore and the author of What You Need to Know About Voting and Why. They are often state legislators, party leaders or donors, she said. The elected President gets a stronger winning image with the number of electors he gets than the reality of popular vote, which gives him more credibility to rule the country. If you feel this user's conduct is unappropriate, please report this comment and our moderaters will review its content and deal with this matter as soon as possible. Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an And the Electoral College was designed to In order to win an election, a candidate must obtain 270 or more electoral votes, or around 50.2% of all 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). The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. Electoral College, the U.S. House of Representatives would select the president in States to have a chance of winning the presidency. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority as the only 14, 1788, Marc Schulman, "Why the Electoral College," historycentral.com (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Melissa Kelly, "Why Did the Founding Fathers Create Electors?," 712educators.about.com, Jan. 28, 2016, Hans A. von Spakovsky, "Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme," heritage.org, Oct. 27, 2011, Richard A. Posner, "In Defense of the Electoral College," slate.com, Nov. 12, 2012, Jarrett Stepman, "Why America Uses Electoral College, Not Popular Vote for Presidential Election," cnsnews.com, Nov. 7, 2016, Gary Gregg, "Electoral College Keeps Elections Fair," politico.com, Dec. 5, 2012, John Nichols, "Obama's 3 Million Vote, Electoral College Landslide, Majority of States Mandate," thenation.com, Nov. 9, 2012, Joe Miller, "The Reason for the Electoral College," factcheck.org, Feb. 11, 2008, William C. Kimberling, "The Manner of Choosing Electors," uselectionatlas.org (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Sanford V. Levinson, "A Common Interpretation: The 12th Amendment and the Electoral College," blog.constitutioncenter.org, Nov. 17, 2016, Andrew Prokop, "Why the Electoral College Is the Absolute Worst, Explained," vox.com, Nov. 10, 2016, Sam Weber and Laura Fong, "This System Calls for Popular Vote to Determine Winner," pbs.org, Nov. 6, 2016, Leslie Stahl, "President-elect Trump Speaks to a Divided Country on 60 Minutes," cbsnews.com, Nov. 13, 2016, Lisa Lerer, "Clinton Wins Popular Vote by Nearly 2.9 Million, elections.ap.org, Dec. 22, 2016, Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell, "US Congress Certifies Trumps Electoral College Victory, reuters.com, Jan. 6, 2017, Congressional Research Service, "The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline," crsreports.congress.gov, Sep. 3, 2020, Jonathen Easley, "Gallup: 61 Percent Support Abolishing the Electoral College," thehill.com, Sep. 24, 2020, Fair Vote, "Past Attempts at Reform," fairvote.org (accessed Oct. 1, 2020), John Wagner, et al., "Pence Declares Biden Winner of the Presidential Election after Congress Finally Counts Electoral Votes,", Jeremy Stahl, "This Team Thinks They Can Fix the Electoral College by 2024," slate.com, Dec. 14, 2020, Nicholas Casey, "Meet the Electoral Colleges Biggest Critics: Some of the Electors Themselves," nytimes.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Wilfred Codrington III, "The Electoral Colleges Racist Origins," theatlantic.com, Nov. 17, 2019, Peniel E. Joseph, "Shut the Door on Trump by Ending the Electoral College," cnn.com, Dec. 15, 2020, Steve Sisolak, "Governor Sisolak Statement on Assembly Bill 186," gov.nv.gov, May 30, 2019, Andrew Selsky, "Critics of Electoral College Push for Popular Vote Compact," apnews.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Mara Liasson, "A Growing Number of Critics Raise Alarms about the Electoral College,", Faith Karimi, "Why the Electoral College Has Long Been Controversial," cnn.com, Oct. 10, 2020, US Census Bureau, "U.S. and World Population Clock," census.gov (accessed Dec. 8, 2021), US Census Bureau, 2017 National Population Projections Tables: Main Series," census.gov, 2017. In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. majorities in the States. Last modified on December 9, 2021. occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the However, increased voting power is also among the list of cons of the Electoral College. 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. New Haven: Yale 5. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? Ultimately, any disputes about the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court. 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? 1. The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. 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. 1. There are many flaws for this system. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South This outdated Electoral College system ought to be removed for a popular vote system since it is arbitrary based on residence, leads campaigns to only appeal to certain groups, and the vote is not directly cast by the people, all leading to decreased voter turnout. Should the Electoral College be modified? Today, electors meet in their respective states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December Dec. 14 this year to cast separate ballots for president and vice president, with the candidates who receive a majority of votes being elected. It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. 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). contributes to the cohesiveness of the country Data collected by CNN from the 2000 and 2004 election shows that the majority of Americans wanted George Bush to remain president in 2004 than in 2000. You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. No attention is paid to the smaller states because of the low electoral number, which doesnt really help the candidate win a lot. could take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were heavily region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. Signing onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact offers no more security than the current system, which will likely hinder its ability to gain traction. 3. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. What do you think? Because the procedure for electing the president is part of the Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment (which requires two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress plus approval by 38 states) would be required to abolish the Electoral College. Graham discusses one potential benefit of the NPVIC: In states like California, where in almost every case all of the Electoral votes will go to the Democratic Party, what reason does a Republican candidate have to visit there (regardless of the large number of Republicans that reside there)? thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. The reasoning behind why the Electoral College was the determining factor for president was declared by the founding fathers decades ago to ensure equality (Pavia, 2011). are three ways in which that could happen. (They dont always do so.). The Electoral College is also the reflection of the federal character of the United States. 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. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. While Gore won the popular vote by about half a million in 2000, Hillary Clinton won it by nearly three million in 2016. College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. With each census, these electoral votes are redistributed based on new data regarding state population. There can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and Discuss. Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. One can see its importance in the fact that despite Hillary Clintons national popular vote total, she won only about a sixth of the counties nationwide, with her support limited mostly to urban areas on both coasts. [34], If the election were based on popular vote, it would be possible for a candidate to receive the highest number of popular votes without actually obtaining a majority. More accurate. In this process of assimilation, third party movements are Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? For in a 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. WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. Deputy Director more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in Election Commission or any division thereof or the Jackson County Board of If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the other side of the issue now helps you better argue your position.

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