National Archives:U.S. Gives too few states too much electoral power. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. According to the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, some proponents of the Electoral College argue that it isolates election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout. The Early Learning Fellows Program is a year long opportunity to legislators and legislative staff particularly interested in the topic of early care and education. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. When a popular vote is held for a national office, the election becomes more about platform issues than local issues. 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 Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. However, there are proposals to reform the Electoral College without abolishing it. This unique system of electing presidents is a big reason why Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. Evidence as to how a nationwide presidential campaign would be run can be found by examining the way presidential candidates currently campaign inside battleground states. Or the opposite could be true. The state legislatures of the cooperating states would . https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. There was a lot of confusion over how Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. The Associated Press explains in this five-part animation series. 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. 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. Graphic shows scenario in which a presidential candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election. NCSLs experts are here to answer your questions and give you unbiased, comprehensive information as soon as you need it on issues facing state legislatures. What can your students conclude? Pro: It's the only way to avoid defaulting. Pros and Cons of The U.S. Electoral College - National Popular Vote 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. The states that join the NPV Compact will not be able to certify their Electoral College Votes until all 50 states and DC certify their state popular votes and any mandated/requested recounts since the Compact state ECVs are dependent on the winner of the national popular vote and not just their own state popular votes. Explain to your students that while in November Americans will cast their ballots for president, there is actually a system called the Electoral College that determines who will win the election. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. In theory that could happen every four years. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. 27 Major Pros & Cons Of The Electoral College " The Electoral College needs to go, because it's made our society less and less democratic." Pete Buttigieg, Politician Advantages & Disadvantages of the Electoral College The Electoral College is an organ that elects the president of the United States. 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. Gives too few states too much electoral power. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. 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. Image the country thinks it is going to elect the president by National Popular Vote and then changing back to using the old Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system just four months before an election. Each states electoral votes are tallied by Congress in the House chamber by House and Senate representatives on the 6th day of January following the Presidential election. What Is the National Bonus Plan? - reference.com Home| Government| Elections| Electoral College| Electoral College Pros And Cons. The first problem it creates is the opportunity for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote. Consequently, they decided that using the proxy votes of the well-informed electors would lessen the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the minority are drowned out by those of the masses. Certain penalties exist in other states. It was a great idea in 1787 but the country has changed since 1787 and the people today want to elect the president by a simple, direct popular vote where whoever gets the most votes wins like we do in every other election in the country. What relevance do they have today. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). Discuss. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. Electoral College vs. popular vote in the United States All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. 7. When you vote for a presidential candidate, you are actually voting for a group of electors from your state who have all pledged to vote for your candidate. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each state will take all of that state's electoral votes. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. The nations founders hoped to quell the formation of powerful factions and political parties, and they wanted a mechanism that did not rely solely on popular majorities or Congress. If this happens many people in the red states will not feel that the change is legitimate even if its legal and technically constitutional. (2021, February 17). They have only won the popular vote once. Analyzing the Pros and Cons of Electoral College Reform: Should We popular vote pros and cons - sky-cover.co.uk Its just like in tennis, he said. 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. 1. NCSL conducts policy research in areas ranging from agriculture and budget and tax issues to education and health care to immigration and transportation. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. All other votes cast for that candidate are therefore superfluous. "Electoral College Pros and Cons." Some states, such as California and Hawaii, both had their bills vetoed by their governors before it was overridden and enacted by state legislators. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. Inkwell | Everything You Need to Know About the National Popular Vote Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the way the president is elected should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency, while 35% favor keeping the current Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 27-July 4, 2022. Anyone can read what you share. Reduces the costs of national presidential campaigns. It isnt impossible to pass a Constitutional amendment, though history shows that it is not an easy process to complete. We have seen this outcome in the 2016 Presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and in the 2000 election between George H.W. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. The use of the Electoral College has been the only approach the U.S. has used to gain a President, but this way has generated numerous issues. Fifteen states and DC have already enacted it into law, for a total of 196 electoral votes. Some areas may bend the rules of an election by extending voting hours illegally. A special commission named by the House chose Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden, after 20 electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were disputed.
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