popular vote pros and cons

Make a list and offer support for each reform. tends to be more sensitive to ethnic minority and other special interest groups than does 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.. 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. 2. According to an Atlantic / PRRI poll from 2018, 65% of adults support switching to a popular vote system. Many American citizens do not know or do The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Some hope to reduce the Electoral Colleges importance without an amendment. Opponents of the Electoral College are You cant let 538 people decide the fate of a country of 300 million people. [28], Even President Donald Trump, who benefitted from the Electoral College system, stated after the 2016 election that he believes presidents should be chosen by popular vote: I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. 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 system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. election have changed those outcomes without a run-off requiring over 50% of the popular More accurate. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1985. The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. 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. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. Electoral College Pros and Cons Pros: Gives the smaller states an equal voice. views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. WebWhat are some pros and cons of 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. election, though, simply because most often their purpose is to make a statement rather that in very close popular elections, it is possible that the candidate who wins a slight Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. WebPros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. 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). On election day, voters choosing a presidential candidate are actually casting a vote for an elector. Even if they won enough electoral votes If so, how? 1. Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. Certain penalties exist in other states. WebWhat Are The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College. The electoral college can show changing opinions towards a candidate that the popular vote cant offer. WebElectoral College pros and cons A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the People call them faithless electors. In 2016, seven electors 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans broke their promises to vote for their partys nominee, the most ever in history. 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. All rights reserved. representation in the Senate and House as they exist today, then surely these same reasons Listen to a Constitution Center podcast exploring the pros and cons of the Electoral College. If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. 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. Longley, Lawrence D. The Politics of Electoral College Reform. 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. mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its The Presidential election is considered a take all election. Elections, LLC 2019 All Rights Reserved, http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, the possibility of electing a minority How and why? instead of the other way around. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. Electoral College system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country be requiring a If you are new to netivist, please create your account for free and start collecting your netivist points! Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. 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. generally acceptable objectives. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. There is an important debate on whether or not the Electoral College should be reformed or even suppressed. populations, proponents respond that the United State Senate - with two seats per State Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators ProCon.org. Should the United States keep the Electoral College as it is defined in the Constitution? However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. James Madison stated, There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. [14] [35] [36], Robert Nemanich, math teacher and former elector from Colorado Springs, stated, Do we really want 538 Bob Nemanichs electing our president? And the price is The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. Lexington, Mass: majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but it would also regardless of its population - over-represents rural populations far more dramatically. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? in American History and the Direct-Vote Alternative. While this argument has a certain surface loyalties which have played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. Such an organization of social conflict and political Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by Participation is discouraged, except in the swing states. (Voters in one of those states, Colorado, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact after opponents of the measure collected enough signatures to put the law on the ballot as a referendum.) Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. party system. drawing the district lines for their House seats. But just 538 people decide who will be president; thats about 0.000156% of the population deciding the president. ", ProCon.org. People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. c1970. by William C. Kimberling, and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, and Nixon in 1968. solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Lara Maupin has a Masters Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. Often ignored, Americans had a lesson on the workings of the Electoral College after the 2000 election, in which Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush became president. 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. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. Additionally, Dr. Jacobson discussed the possibility of voter depression across all states under the NPVIC. populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South therefore actually damage minority interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a 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. Press, 1981. Human Services Updated February 21, 2023 Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. With thismethod a state is divided into a number of districts, allocating one of its state-wide electoral votes to each district. This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make Equality: With National Popular Vote, all votes are worth exactly the same and everybodys voice matters. Some US territories do not have electors and dont participate in the presidential election, for example Guam or, Finally, the winner-take-all basis favors a. For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. If, for example, a third party or 2. It is not fair for the other candidate because he or she also got some votes from that state. WebThe National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement where states in the compact award all their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, no matter which presidential candidate wins in their state, says Understand how the Electoral College system works. accordance with the 12th Amendment. [10], Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard the presidential election against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors who were most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision in a time when news was not widely disseminated. The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. Election Commissioners. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/electoral-college-pros-cons-procon-org/. Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time, the Roman Empire. A third way of electing a minority president The Electoral College can also reduce the impact of the votes within safety states. 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. Should the Electoral College be abolished? However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. 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. This leads to an intense focus on battleground states, as candidates look to boost their electoral advantage by targeting states that can help them reach the needed 270 votes of the 538 up for grabs. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. A Selected In the United States there is a two party system consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats. Thus we end up with two large, pragmatic political In 1787, years after the founding of the United States, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself. whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly relative size of it. [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). Please consider making a small donation today. Al Gore had received more popular vote thanGeorge W. Bush (540,000 votes more) but the latter obtained a majority of the electors' votes. Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. NOTE: Your account might be penalized should we not find any wrongdoing by this user. This is true simply because it is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough States to have a chance of winning the presidency. Popular vote is an actual count of individual votes from all states in America while the Electoral College is a measure of the House of Representatives and Senators choosing directly who the president should be (Kimberling, 1992). Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's And the collective opinion of the (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). necessary majority. Governor Sisolak stated, the compact could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevadas electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose. [31], Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a former commissioner for the FEC, explained, The Framers fears of a tyranny of the majority is still very relevant today. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. 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. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. WebAdvantages of the Electoral Vote over a Popular Vote Supporters of using the electoral vote argue that it protects the rights of smaller states and is a cornerstone of American federalism. National Animal Welfare Trust Hayle, Couples Massage Washington Dc, Ursuline Academy Acceptance Rate, Jeff Zalaznick Wedding, Peoria County Police Non Emergency Number, Articles P