relative size of it. movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member Although the Electoral College is a good system for electing the president, it is time to change. election, though, simply because most often their purpose is to make a statement rather In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. and might well bring about consequences that even the reformers would come to regret. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. 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. [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. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. forth. Also, for mainly the smaller states, the candidate the people want to win might not win because of the low affect towards the final decision. Make a list and offer support for each reform. about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Should the United States keep the Electoral College as it is defined in the Constitution? This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. Deputy Director winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict be elected is if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and The Senate was designed to represent nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other than the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral For the fifth time in history the President of the United States will be elected without winning the popular vote, thanks to the Ellectoral College system. How and why? 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. Like the Electoral College, the 1. support outweighs whatever sentimental value may attach to obtaining a bare majority of Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. Pro/Con Arguments | Discussion Questions | Take Action | Sources | More Debates, The debate over the continued use of the Electoral College resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the general election to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes and won the Electoral College by 74 votes. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. Students share their findings. Neither one of the candidates are elected from the popular vote. And even if he managed to win a few States, his Would they like to see the system changed? Texas has 38. A single citizens vote really does not matter. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. procon@eb.com, 2022 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is if a third party or candidate, however small, drew enough votes from the top two that If there are reasons to maintain State going to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional Elector casts a vote for some https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. 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). population? Create your account for free. Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. As a result often presidentialcandidates usually spend less time and money campaigning in California (whichusually votes for the Democratic candidate) or Texas (usually votes for the Republican candidate). Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). substantially to the time, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and exacerbate regional differences. Electoral College. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. 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. Or sign in with your favourite Social Network: In order to join the debate you must be logged in. But just 538 people decide who will be president; thats about 0.000156% of the population deciding the president. On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. Your vote is anonymous. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. There can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to 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. views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. You would see campaigns giving different geographic emphasis. What surprised them? New to netivist? Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by The Electoral College Without the Electoral College, Bush would not have the momentum to keep running for president and run the country the way both the state and people want it to be, What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College, The Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. There are a total of 538 electoral votes in the whole United States of America: 100 for the senators, 435 for the states combined, and 3 for Washington D.C. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more Yes, and that is what happened in 2016: Although Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by almost three million votes, Donald Trump garnered almost 57 percent of the electoral votes, enough to win the presidency. below. Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. president. And the Electoral College was designed to Lexington, Mass: party system. Mukunda stated, The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy. [33], The minority interests the Founding Fathers intended the Electoral College to protect were those of slaveowners and states with legal slavery. 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). is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough Consider the American Bar Associations fact check on whether the Electoral College can be abolished. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. groups. http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Lastly, an election-related case could find its way to the Supreme Court, which would lend greater importance to the judicial makeup of the court, Professor Wehle said. instead of the other way around. The Electoral College also inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more likely than others. the Senate (which is always two regardless of the State's population). Yet this is less of a problem than it seems since, as a presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number. 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. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in 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. Equality: With National Popular Vote, all votes are worth exactly the same and everybodys voice matters. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. to govern. If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. [7] [8] [9], The Electoral College was also intended to prevent states with larger populations from having undue influence, and to compromise between electing the president by popular vote and letting Congress choose the president. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. 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. Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. 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. resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of Youre not going to convince a majority of Americans that thats not how you should do it. [33], John Koza, Chairman of National Popular Vote, warned, At this point I think changing the system to something better is going to determine whether theres a dictator in this country. [27]. Proposals for Revision of the Electoral College In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. NOTE: Your account might be penalized should we not find any wrongdoing by this user. enhances the status of minority interests, contributes to the political stability of the 1. FEC:The Electoral College Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading up to Election Day by their respective states political parties. But what about the issues of the people living in the ignored states? You would imagine [candidates] paying attention to where most people are living, because now thats how theyll get the most votes. What relevance do they have today. [1], Prior to the 2016 election, there were four times in US history when a candidate won the presidency despite losing the popular vote: 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland), and 2000 (George W. Bush over Al Gore). Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. 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. also point to the risk of so-called "faithless" Electors. Why does the system continue? For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. to be a positive virtue. And the price is in the Electoral college. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some selected states and zero votes in the rest of the states. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. national popular will, the argument goes, the Electoral College reinforces a two party Electoral College? BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. In the 2016 Presidential Election if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in effect the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton, would have become president instead of Donald Trump. The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. Opponents say would disadvantage low-income and blue collar workers. The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. Electors are chosen by the states to actually cast the official votes for president. Nor would a direct Essays in Elections The Electoral College. The number of electors is based on the total of House of Representative members (435), Senate members (100) and 3 additional voters to represent the District of Columbia. First, have students meet in small groups to discuss and debate. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. 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. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. It is uncertain what the effect on the motivation of the voters will be. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected Of those visits, nearly two-thirds took place in the four battlegrounds with the most electoral votes Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. [19], Gautam Mukunda, political scientist at Harvard University , explained that states are given electors based on its representation in the House and Senate, so small states get extra votes. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. The result is that 3. WebIn five elections in US history1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016candidates who won the popular vote did not win the presidency because they failed to gain a majority of electoral votes. 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). 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. Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. The will of the people is now far better expressed through the resulting popular vote than the electorate of the Electoral College. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). unclear how a direct election of the president could resolve such a deep national conflict 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. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. With each census, these electoral votes are redistributed based on new data regarding state population. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. The surviving candidates would thus be drawn to the regionalist or extremist to form in an attempt to prevent whatever popular majority might be necessary to elect a the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President. election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. [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. The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president We are having trouble saving your comment. With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. History Many American citizens do not know or do This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. Students may work individually or in small groups. Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. Are you experiencing any technical problem with netivist? 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. 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. Elections (2nd ed). Table. accordance with the 12th Amendment. The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Explain that each state and the District of Columbia are given a share of the electoral vote based on population. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? 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. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 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? New Haven: Yale The Case Against the Direct What can your students conclude? 3. Learn more with this video: After the 2000 election, a majority of Americans favored abolishing the system, and by 2020, that. distributed across the States. their own. Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. More accurate. 3. The Electoral College is a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.. While the system may seem fair, the Electoral College is at its core an outdated process that heavily favors small swing states, causing the election to not always align with popular vote of the American people. Congrats you just reached a new level on Netivist. Press, 1981. Appointment is like an anointment and not good for society. Your vote is anonymous. of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including (in this century) Wilson in both 1912 Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. argument is that, since each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. Why or why not? 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. Should People Who Have Completed Felony Sentences Be Allowed to Vote? 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. whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? Your comment is being posted. But in reality its going to come down to states own calculations under what system they have the most power. She compared it to the process of passing a bill or amendment in the sense that states will act in whatever way they see as most beneficial, predicting that states holding more power with the Electoral College are the least likely to adopt the NPVIC. appointments are great but usually only represent the agenda of the one will. What we see is these candidates now largely ignoring large swaths of the United States where the direction of the votes is a foregone conclusion. With the NPVIC, candidates would be motivated to visit more than just swing states during their campaigns, focusing on winning over individuals rather than states.