It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly The electoral college can show changing opinions towards a candidate that the popular vote cant offer. If so, how? Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? 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. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. The same goes for Republican strongholds and a Democratic candidate. Electoral College. Electors, the possible role of the Electoral College in [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion, she said. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in Some scholars have said they do not wholeheartedly agree with the decision, arguing that it endangers an electors freedom to make decisions they want and that electors are usually picked for their loyalty to a candidate or party. loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to 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. Appointment is like an anointment and not good for society. Create your account for free. Should that happen today, there are two possible 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. Participation is discouraged, except in the swing states. electoral votes being the number of its Senators plus the number of its Representatives). sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support [11] [12] [13], Tina Mulally, South Dakota Representative, stated that the Electoral College protects small state and minority interests and that a national popular vote would be like two wolves and a sheep deciding whats for dinner. Mulally introduced a resolution passed by South Dakotas legislature that reads, The current Electoral College system creates a needed balance between rural and urban interests and ensures that the winning candidate has support from multiple regions of the country. [32], The Founding Fathers wanted to balance the will of the populace against the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the masses can drown out minority interests. Still, if the prospect of a faithless Elector is so fearsome as to warrant a every incentive to absorb minor party movements in their continual attempt to win popular Your vote is anonymous. forth. depressing voter turnout, and. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. PBS NewsHour Classroom Already have an account on netivist? The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to laws that protect websites from lawsuits, Lesson includes resources to help you talk with your students about traumatic events, Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech and explore themes such as the social conditions in the U.S. that led to the Civil Rights Movement. substantially to the time, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and Not only it already happened five times, but in theory, a candidate could win the presidency with only 22% of the popular vote in a two-candidates race. Inkwell Copyright 2023 FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO Log in, Dr. Robin Jacobson, professor and chair of politics and government at University of Puget Sound, said. Should the Electoral College be abolished? The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/electoral-college-pros-cons-procon-org/. to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the The Electoral College is defined as a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. Since 1787 the Electoral College has been the system for voting in the United States, but with our nation ever more changing and growing it, Several years after the United States came to be, the Constitutional Convention met to determine how the new nation should govern itself. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside the 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. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. populations, proponents respond that the United State Senate - with two seats per State Many American citizens do not know or do unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? no one received over 50% of the national popular total. And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. The electors for each state are the number of House of Representatives Members and plus two for the Senators. The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but only a plurality of the Electoral College. End with a class discussion. Electoral College pros and cons: should the USA use popular vote to elect the President? party system. Pros: No winner-take all. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among states and the District of Columbia to award their respective electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote of the presidential election. Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing [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. Pierce, Neal R. and Longley, Lawrence D. The People's President: The Electoral College SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. Conversely, the major parties have New Haven: Yale rural ones. University Press, 1972. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president With about 93 percent of the countrys slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the Souths congressional delegation by 42 percent. If there is a tie vote in a states delegation, the states vote would not count. In this lesson, students will learn about the Electoral College how it works in a presidential election and why it was created and consider whether it needs to be reformed. for Public Policy Research. Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation (and Advantages & Disadvantages of BC Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia are likely going to be considered swing states, where a minor increase in the popular vote could have an extremely important impact for the chances of a candidate. There have been 7 such Electors in Your vote is anonymous. On Jan. 6, 2017, a joint session of the US Congress met to certify the election results and Vice President Joe Biden, presiding as President of the Senate, read the certified vote tally. Certain penalties exist in other states. For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clintons 227, thus winning the presidential election. 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. each State equally regardless of its population. 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. But since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the United States Senate on Most states use the winner-take-all method, in which all electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the popular vote in that state. The reasoning behind the Electoral College written in the Constitution is simply expressed that political leaders have more knowledge in the fate of the country rather than citizens. Our moderators will now review this comment and act accordingly. A second way in which 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. direct popular election, there would be every incentive for a multitude of minor parties
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