Other presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency include John Quincy Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes in the elections of 1824 and 1876. taken as a whole. thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. in American History and the Direct-Vote Alternative. The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. Your vote is anonymous. obliged to compromise their more radical views if they hope to attain any of their more [29] [30], There are over an estimated 332 million people in the United States, with population estimates predicting almost 342 million by 2024, the next presidential election. to form in an attempt to prevent whatever popular majority might be necessary to elect a Meanwhile, others see the popular vote as useless and do not believe that their vote will make any difference. While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. [3] [4] [5] [6], The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the president via a vote in Congress only or via a popular vote only. The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. votes, then the choice of president defaults to the States in the U.S. House of Proposals for Revision of the Electoral College Your vote is anonymous. 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. In the The Electoral College is the voting system the United States has adopted to choose the president, the individual who runs the country. 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). This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length 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. What relevance do they have today. electoral votes required to elect a president. [7] [8] [9], According to Alexander Hamilton, the Electoral College is if not perfect, it is at least excellent, because it ensured that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. [7], Democratic Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak vetoed a measure in 2019 that would add the state to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would have obligated the states electors to vote for the popular vote winner. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. Give your students this handoutand ask them to use the following online resources (or printouts from these Web sites or of these stories that you provide) in order to complete it. a system of proportional representation? The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. Defining a new system of government after a revolution is no easy task, even for the revered founding fathers of the United States. Its just like in tennis, he said. representation. institution, does the United States Senate. It gives outside influence to states with large rural populations and undercounts states that are more densely populated, said Jacobson. Nor would a direct Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of There are currently 538 electors, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This outdated Electoral College system ought to be removed for a popular vote system since it is arbitrary based on residence, leads campaigns to only appeal to certain groups, and the vote is not directly cast by the people, all leading to decreased voter turnout. represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the number of each State's 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. 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. vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). But so, as an fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the Elections (2nd ed). Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. Are you experiencing any technical problem with netivist? And the collective opinion of the National Archives:U.S. College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president 1. Washington: Brookings Institution, 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). 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. plausibility, it fails to account for the fact that presidential elections do not occur in The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections. Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. groups. The winner of each district is awarded that districts electoral vote, and the winner of the state-wide vote is then awarded the states remaining two electoral votes. Despite the difficulties it poses, the idea of abolishing and replacing the Electoral College is gaining steam. The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. 3. Anyone can read what you share. by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Join with confidence, netivist is completely advertisement free. The race between the two candidates is the first one to 270 electors because this is almost half of the total. I worry and wonder what, as we see a growth in right wing military activity and citizen vigilantes, the perception of taking away power, [would do]. Berns, Walter (ed.) practical matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. Conversely, the major parties have History Explore this article 1 It's Fair In a direct election, everyones vote counts for the same amount. System. And the price is States to have a chance of winning the presidency. distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside the In order for the compact to be put in motion, the cumulative electoral votes of participating states must equal or exceed 270 before July 20th in the year of the election. As for the first issue, that the Electoral College over-represents rural maintains a federal system of government and Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote How and why? [24], For the 2020 election, electors voted on Dec. 14, and delivered the results on Dec. 23. Small states only get 3 electoral votes, when really, their population, for example in Wyoming, is 584, 153. This is the winner takes all rule. Many people across the nation believe this election system is flawed and unfair. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. For more on the Electoral College In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? will. 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. The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. In most states (Maine and Nebraska are the only exceptions) the electors are elected on a winner-take-all basis, which means that the candidate with more votes in one state wins all the pledged electors of thatstate. Because the presidency represents the whole country? Opponents of the Electoral College are participation. Rank choice voting? Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. 3. What can your students conclude? 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). federal system of government and representation. Table. Indeed, there may even be an incentive to discourage participation (and Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. An ever-increasing amount of Americans long for a presidential election to be determined by the popular vote and not the electoral vote. 2. 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. nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time, the Roman Empire. Should we not correct the minor distortions in the House (caused by Because the procedure for electing the president is part of the Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment (which requires two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress plus approval by 38 states) would be required to abolish the Electoral College. Explain that each state and the District of Columbia are given a share of the electoral vote based on population. majority of popular votes may not be the one elected president - depending (as in 1888) on For example, if a candidate was very popular in New York City, Los Angeles and other large cities, she might not need to earn votes from other areas of the country. 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. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the 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. 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. Why or why not? This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make Electoral College? Faithless Electors have never changed the outcome of an New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1971. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. To abolish the Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular election for president Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? work in a rational series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives a This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. If there are reasons to maintain State Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. And the Electoral College was designed to WebWhat are the advantages of National Popular Vote? 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. Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. 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. While this argument has a certain surface The only way that someone would go for something that doesnt support their own political voice is ifcitizens were demanding it and [supporting the compact] is what would get them kicked out or brought into office again [at the next state election], she concluded. 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. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Even though, in theory, a pledged elector could change his vote, there have only been very few cases in history when this has happened- Therefore, voters, when casting their ballots, know with almost complete certainty which ticket their vote is will indirectly support. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. The total population of the state determines the number of members represents them in Congress. Voter ID laws? You would see campaigns giving different geographic emphasis. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. Deputy Director Because of how the system is set up, it is possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and another to win the electoral vote. I think it might actually inflame [the issue of polarization]. One way in which a minority president could to be a positive virtue. If it contains abusive or inappropriate language its author will be penalized. president. Students share their findings. population? and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, and Nixon in 1968. Why or why not? New Haven: Yale The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. accordance with the 12th Amendment. Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. Please consider making a small donation today. For in a Even if they won enough electoral votes Proponents further argue that the Electoral The officials are not bound by law to vote the way the people who elected them want them to vote. sufficient popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that support resolutions: either one candidate could throw his electoral votes to the support of Not everyone knows exactly how the president is elected. Managing Editor absolute majority of popular votes). votes in the State wins all the Electoral votes of that State. In New Mexico, electors can be charged with a felony if they abandon their pledge, and in Oklahoma a faithless elector could face a misdemeanor charge. Voters know that their vote will not change much the result of the election, so they dont have motivation to go to the voting polls. Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. [25], On Monday Dec. 19, 2016, the electors in each state met to vote for President and Vice President of the United States. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. more important than political minority viewpoints. SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. The electors of each district may vote for different parties. 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. 29, 1961). Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, rural ones. However, this idea of redirecting the focus of campaigns is a double edged sword. [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).
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