popular vote pros and cons

Is it fair? Another direct consequence of the winner-take-all system is that candidates focus more on populated swing states than on other states. 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. 2. Representatives, about those outcomes is that few people noticed and even fewer cared. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/electoral-college-pros-cons-procon-org/. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. enough electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular vote is drawing the district lines for their House seats. of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including (in this century) Wilson in both 1912 The electors of each district may vote for different parties. Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1983. If there are reasons to maintain State If the popular vote was the only factor towards presidential election, what would be the incentive for rural areas and states to vote knowing the issues and opinions nearest to them wont be heard? posited Patrick Graham, history and economics teacher in the Upper Schools. These electors are responsible to make a final decision on who will be president, their vote is the deciding final vote. the Electoral College point out that is was never intended to reflect the national popular 4. 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. Electoral College Pros and Cons Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between the 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. The Electoral College has been around since 1787 has a part of the Constitution. substantially to the time, cost, and effort already devoted to selecting a president and "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons." The surviving candidates would thus be drawn to the regionalist or extremist College. Elections. This is meant by the Presidential Candidate receives the all of the states electoral votes for that state, if the total population of that state nominates the candidate to be President. Opponents of the Electoral College system 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. plurality of votes in at least one State. Prevents disputed outcomes ensuring a peaceful transition of power Reduces the costs of national presidential campaigns. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 All rights reserved. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. Nor would a direct Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. Because the presidency represents the whole country? The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. Make a list and offer support for each reform. popular will. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. Is it fair? Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates only need to pay attention to a limited number of states that can swing one way or the other. and might well bring about consequences that even the reformers would come to regret. Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? Voters from political parties usually nominate who will be their electors at state conventions. parties catering to divergent and sometimes extremist views. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. Kiersten Schmidt and Wilson Andrews, "A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton, nytimes.com, Dec. 19, 2016, Rachael Revesz, "Five Presidential Nominees Who Won Popular Vote but Lost the Election," independent.co.uk, Nov. 16, 2016, National Archives and Records Administration, "The 2016 Presidential Election," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "About the Electors," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "Presidential Election Laws," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "What Is the Electoral College?," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), Alexander Hamilton, "The Federalist Papers: No. What relevance do they have today. 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. The important number is 270. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. Managing Editor The winner of the states popular vote gets two electoral votes, and one vote is awarded to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district. 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. 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. What can your students conclude? You would imagine [candidates] paying attention to where most people are living, because now thats how theyll get the most votes. mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates ever (Ed.) 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. Al Gore had received more popular vote thanGeorge W. Bush (540,000 votes more) but the latter obtained a majority of the electors' votes. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict And the collective opinion of the resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? Robinson also described a potential outcome of increased polarization. Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. 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. Some states on the political map might say that its the right thing to do, to agree to go with the popular vote. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. Should the Electoral College be modified? Berns, Walter (ed.) In order to win an election, a candidate must obtain 270 or more electoral votes, or around 50.2% of all votes. Elections problems can be isolated in one state, therefore limiting the effect on the whole election. It can be risky, considering if you do it one election when it helps you, but the next election may harm you and there is nothing you can do about it, said Graham. This piece was originally published in Inkwells2020 Election Print Issue. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. To do so would fundamentally alter the nature of our government Certain penalties exist in other states. The Associated Press explains in this five-part animation series. 3. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to The result is that are three ways in which that could happen. System. While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. to be a positive virtue. Please try again. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. Not everyone knows exactly how the president is elected. each State equally regardless of its population. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections. [29], As Wilfred Wilfred Codrington III, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School and a fellow at the Brennan Center, explained, Behind Madisons statement were the stark facts: The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. Why does the system continue? Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Students may work individually or in small groups. Texas has 38. Voter ID laws? Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. Although its not detailed in the Constitution, each state delegation would vote on which candidate to support as a group, with the plurality carrying the day, said Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of law and political science at Yale University. Discuss. vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). district system of representation in the Congress) is to virtually force third party Explore the Electoral College via the US National Archives. What do you think? It has its pros and cons though, many of which critics debate over. NOTE: Your account might be penalized should we not find any wrongdoing by this user. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1985. Following U.S. election results on a TV in a restaurant in Shanghai on Nov. 4. does not determine the winner of the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact. In the of Presidential Elections 1789-1968. Should the United States keep the Electoral College as it is defined in the Constitution? Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. vote count Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard With this rule, that means the candidate who also got some votes from that state, ends up getting none. Pro and Con: Electoral College WebThere can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps to maintain a two party system in the United States.