2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. "It really does over-represent some sparsely populated states, and it provides some skew and bias to our system that I just don't think is healthy anymore," said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. George W. Bush won the Electoral College in 2000 even though he received 0.5% less of the popular vote against Al Gore. Technically, it is . It also prevents candidates from going into states where the electorate typically votes for the other party. Popular vote is a direct vote. That is not to say the Electoral College is without its advantages. Do you think any of these arguments, or others, are convincing reasons for preserving the Electoral College as it stands now? As American leadership falters, scholars say, autocrats are on the rise. But dont forget, Bush won the popular vote four years later by three million votes. FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecast have predicted. Interestingly, the congressional caucus system is very close to the system the British used to replace Prime Minister David Cameron. Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992 with only 43% of the vote, and then in 1996 with 49.2%. What are the positive arguments in favor of replacing the existing electoral system with a national popular vote? 260, February 19, 2020, p. 9, https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/destroying-the-electoral-college-the-anti-federalist-national-popular-0. Did you know that when Americans vote in the 2020 presidential election, theyre not actually voting for the next president? But explaining exactly how it does this remains a mystery. If the Electoral College system begins to prevent, on a regular basis, the popular vote winner from becoming president, it will create systemic challenges. Having the states play an autonomous role in presidential elections, it is said, reinforces the division of governing authority between the nation and the states. This shift would likely benefit that party for more than a generation. https://saveourstates.com/threats/the-status-of-npv, https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/destroying-the-electoral-college-the-anti-federalist-national-popular-0. In other words, the Electoral College isnt sacred, and theres no reason we cant change how it works today. 61% of Americans Support Abolishing Electoral College - Gallup.com Two hundred years after James Madisons letter, the state winner-take-all rule is still crippling our politics and artificially dividing us. What do you think of Mr. Wegmans arguments? The Current Threat | The Heritage Foundation These states currently total 196 electoral votes, although after the 2020 census is completed, projections suggest a net loss of two seats, lowering that number to 194. [1] Only when they sign the certificate of ascertainment and the votes are tallied in the United States Congress is the presidential race officially over. Because Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote, yet was the clear victor in the ultimately definitive electoral college, the strange, disproportionate nature of electoral. Could Washington administer a national recount in the event of a close result? The following table shows how this would have changed the outcome in two contested elections of the 21st century, and how a third would have remained the same. Out of those visits, almost 70% of them happened in only four states: North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Should We Abolish the Electoral College? | STANFORD magazine The general threshold that an election result must reach to trigger an automatic recount is a difference of 0.5% of the vote or less. In each state, electors meet after the presidential election on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December and cast their votes for president and vice president in separate ballots. Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul, and Faith Spotted Eagle received one each. This has happened five times in American history. Despite what you may have learned in school, it was not the product of careful design by brilliant men. As far as the 2016 election is concerned, Hillary Clinton would still be the likely winner if the Electoral College didn't exist. Why did President Obama spend so much money bailing out the auto industry? Both times in 2000 and 2016 it was the Republican candidate who got fewer votes but ended up in the White House. Enslaved people couldnt vote, but they were still counted toward the slave states representation in Congress. "Precisely what it does is proportionately advantages where the people are," Levy said. Gronke notes, however, that there would be major administrative challenges if the U.S. ever got to the point of switching to a national popular vote. Jacob Levy, of McGill University, disagreed with that argument. It would only come into effect when it could guarantee that outcome. Moreover, the electoral college method preserved the two compromises over representationthe three-fifths clause and the big state-small state compromiseand guarded against a fracturing of votes for many candidates, which they thought might occur once George Washington was no longer available as a nationally respected consensus candidate. When the Founding Fathers built the idea of the Electoral College into the structure of the American government, their idea of information management was very different than what we have today. That might invite legal challenges from candidates or voters' groups if it took place. That means the information receives an update every 10 years. Hans von Spakovsky, Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme, Heritage Legal Memorandum No. The effect is to erase all the voters in that state who didnt vote for the top candidate. Plenty. There will always be a concern about the tyranny of the majority in the United States. Supporters of a national popular vote argue something must be done; the Electoral College disproportionately inflates the influence of rural areas while undervaluing the votes of cities. Amending the Electoral College: The 12th Amendment Reagan would almost make a clean sweep in 1984 as well, taking 525 of 538 electoral votes and only losing Minnesota and DC. Having this structure go away would encourage more third-party development. Click the links below for answers to these frequently asked questions. Editors Note: In 2016, we asked two professors to debate whether the Electoral College should cease to be the mechanism used for selecting the U.S. president. States have the power to award their electors however they like. Do you support this movement? We will focus on elections in the 20th and 21st centuries. The pact raises questions of its own for democracy: It creates a situation in which voters in, for example, Colorado, may cast most of their votes for the Democrat in a presidential race but the state might wind up giving its electors to the Republican depending on the national outcome. /content/aba-cms-dotorg/en/news/abanews/publications/youraba/2019/october-2019/q--the-electoral-college--is-it-open-for-interpretation-by-the-c, Trade, Sports & Professional Associations, Affordable Housing & Community Development Law. It gives each state in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct electors equal to its representation in Congress. Warren says she wants to get rid of the Electoral College, and vote for president using a national popular vote. "And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.". Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. Right now, those circumstances tend to benefit Republicans in the Electoral College, while disadvantaging Democrats who have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections. Although there are some advantages to this system, the disadvantages have been highlighted in recent elections. We have an Electoral College because thats what the founders added to the Constitution at the last minute. That means if you live in a rural area, your vote may count more toward who gets to be the eventual president. Note: A previous version of this post stated that awarding 2 electoral votes per state (plus D.C.) to the national popular vote winner would form a baseline of 138 votes. I think it would make more sense to split the electoral votes based on the state-wide vote so if a state has 10 electoral votes and the election goes 60% to 40%, the candidates gets 6 votes and 4 votes respectively. By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. As the U.S. Government Archives likes to say, the Electoral College is a process, not a place. This structure was placed in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers of the United States as a compromise between having a vote in Congress to elect the President and the election of a candidate by qualified citizens. The size of a state does not affect our real political preferences, even though the Electoral College system imagines that it does. This isnt rocket science. This action would allow the popular vote winner to take the White House. A presidential candidate who doesnt receive a majority of the votes can still win the Electoral College to get into the White House. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. While people were moving to the coasts, especially California, the Electoral College stayed the same. And sure, the last two times the Electoral College has awarded the White House to the popular-vote loser, its been to the Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in 2000. Why? For almost the first half century of the republic, presidential candidates were chosen by the caucuses of the two parties in the House and the Senate. Still, Levy said if he had to bet on whether the U.S. will still be using the Electoral College in 20 years he thinks it will. Take the Electoral College, Americas system for picking the president. Britannicas ProCon.org lists three reasons: 1) The founding fathers thought the Electoral College was the best method for electing the president.2) The Electoral College ensures that different parts of the country, such as Iowa and Ohio, are involved in selecting the president, rather than just the most populated areas.3) The Electoral College guarantees certainty, whereas a popular vote system might lead to no candidate getting a majority. Even though some Americans dont like the gridlock that a two-party system creates, the electoral college keeps this design healthy with each 4-year cycle. Theyre swing states. Three happened in the 19th century; none in the 20th century and two in the 21st century. Debate renewed in 2016 after theelectionof the fifth U.S. president who won the presidency despite losing the popular vote. In 1892, the court upheld inMcPherson v. Blackerthat Congress can set the date nationally for the Electoral College to meet, but it also said that the states could determine how electors were apportioned and chosen. The point is, even accounting for demographic changes, neither party has a built-in advantage under a popular-vote system. During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had 90% of their campaign stops in only 11 states. "There's no realistic chance of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College," said Jacob Levy, a professor of political theory at McGill University. **Here, we treat the District of Columbia as a single congressional district (as the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution does for the purposes of the Electoral College).

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