I am a fan of rural Americans and remain devoted to the success of our farmers and heartland. What It Would (Really) Take to Abolish the Electoral College Ryan Bort March 19, 2019, 5:04 PM In 2016, Americans cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton by a margin of close to three million. According to Civis Analytics poll, 62 percent of the people that voted in the 2016 election would like to abolish the Electoral College. [4] There are proposals to enlarge the Electoral College to more closely reflect each states population. FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY. (04.02 MC) Which of the following is a key belief of a supply-side approach to economic and fiscal policy? By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. With the Electoral College, the value of a vote depends on what state a person lives in. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful consequences. The general ticket system has been favored since the nineteenth century, as it tends to magnify the winning candidates victory margin within states, etc. 1956: Hubert Humphrey's (D-MN) S. J. You can view ourterms of use here. The College is also a brilliant alternative to runoff elections. The term "college" signifies the original intent that it was to be made up of "political wise men." The Electoral College was also the result of a couple of compromises. A failure to elect a President, or worse, the choice of a chief executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could precipitate a constitutional crisis that would require prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by Congress. Thomas H. Neales account of the history of the Electoral College provides evidence that the original idea of the plan was changed and revised at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The original method of electing the President and Vice-President, however, proved unworkable, etc. (Neale 2 CRS) Furthermore, Neale acknowledges that the founders and delegates realized that the Electoral College plan was not the perfect system to use in the election process. Out of these concerns came the decision that the president would be elected indirectly. By: Emilee Delap Doc. The College is the main reason that Duvergers Law, which postulates that majoritarian voting systems produce a two-party polity, works only in the United States.[12]. Quote Reply Topic: Let's abolish the Electoral College Posted: 11 February 2008 at 7:20pm: Let's abolish the Electoral College. Wegman: Its a great question, and I think it really gets to the heart of what the problem is here. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The immense moral authority of the White House must be used to. Subscribe to ValueWalk Newsletter. Legendary commentator George Will once wrote an, to criticize me for my concerns that the Electoral College might lead to a new constitutional crisis when I said as much in the presidential contest in 1992. Yet this controversial system remains. Will himself left the party for this, by Naomi Schaefer Riley, Opinion Contributor, Schumer, Jeffries ask Murdoch to stop Fox hosts lying about 2020 election, Eli Lilly caps insulin costs at $35 per month, Watch live: Garland testifies before Senate panel at oversight hearing, EPA to award $250 million in IRA funds to reduce climate pollution. Compare and contrast Sample's and McConnell's views about the Electoral College. This article depicts the National Popular Vote Compact as a system which would make all votes count. However, despite its faults, as a system is has a foundation conducive to reform rather than abolition. Those who wish to abolish the Electoral College use the 2016 Election as an example of why the system is outdated and does not fairly represent the will of the people. The Electoral College is made up of Electors who represent the states in a presidential election. Moreover, Thomas Neale article depicts the procedure of awarding each states electoral votes. Illing: But the dynamics have changed, right? Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The funds (full-name Excess Cash Flow Value Funds), which invest in an event-driven equity and credit strategy, have produced a 12.6% annualised return over the past 26 years. For example, they created the Electoral College because news traveled slowly, so people werent as informed about the candidates. Past proposals for change by constitutional amendment have included various reform options and direct popular election, which would eliminate the Electoral College system, but no substantive action on this issue, has been taken in Congress for more than 20 years. . But Madison used an already accepted formula of state representation. The Electoral College was established by the framers of the Constitution as a last-minute deal, a gift to Southern states trying to protect slaveholders power and leverage the three-fifths compromise. Save it to your . In conclusion, the opposing view of the system insists the Electoral College is unfair and that every vote should count. * This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date. 0 . Let's abolish the Electoral College Created to protect the slave states, it is championed now by conservatives who fear the power of America's true majority. The crisis of 1824 then, represented really the collapse of the old system, and an effort to re-institute it in other terms. In presidential elections, the voters actually vote for a slate of Electors who have vowed to cast their ballots for their preferred President/Vice President ticket. I am not alone in holding. These Politics essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. Each state holds an election for the popular vote. It arose from a convoluted compromise hammered out late in the Constitutional Convention, and the rise of political parties in the late 18th century and the spread of democratic ideals in the early 19th quickly undermined its rationales. We won't send you spam. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Everyone gets one vote. Even back then they knew that the popular . States, battleground or not, would disappear from the electoral calculus. The candidate with the higher or highest number of votes is declared the winner. Available from: [Accessed 01-03-23]. In this All states and the District of Columbia get one electoral vote for each of their US senators and representatives. The one constant in the history of voting rights in America, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Alex Keyssar says, is that no law has ever been passed to restrict the voting rights of upper-middle-class white men. Each registered voter gets just one vote. They view the Popular vote as a way to lessen the power of the people in rural areas, and make the focus of elections and political campaigns centered around the urban and city regions of each state. We must abolish the electoral college and replace it with the national popular vote. Party elders, led by Barack Obama, realized the key to the general election would be moderate suburban voters, including Trump-weary Republicansmany of whom were terrified of Bernie Sanderss socialism and Elizabeth Warrens economic populism. President Donald Trump won the election in 2016 through the. The Electoral. LET'S ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE Are the people smart enough to choose their own leader? In 2020, when Joe Biden won the popular vote nationally by 6 million votes, Donald Trump tried to steal the Electoral College through baseless accusations of fraud and attempts to intimidate key Secretaries of State. Texas Governor George W. Bush, the Republican, was ahead of Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, by a few hundred votes, So clearly, a full count and a subsequent recount would be needed. Large majorities of Americans are in favor of establishing term limits for members of the U.S. House and Senate, and doing away with the Electoral College. We all know the answer. But we need bipartisan support in Congress, a constitutional amendment, and a majority of the states to agree. Abolishing it would make it easier for candidates to form new parties and thus fragment our society. The College was devised to quell fears of parochialism in the selection of the President. All our essays are uploaded by volunteers. It is beyond dispute that our system to elect presidents is no longer working. Seventy percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 said that the president should be chosen through a popular vote model, while just 56 percent of those over the age of 65 agreed. . Since the beginning of the millennium we have had five presidential elections. a. The Constitutional crisis was finally over. When we were kids on the playground and an angry dispute ensued, someone would always shout "majority rules." And we'd vote. Clearly, whoever won Floridas 25 electoral votes would win the election. What Would Gandhi Think of Our Constitution? After tracing the Electoral College's tangled origins at the Constitutional Convention, he explores the efforts from 1800 to 2020 to abolish or significantly reform it, showing why each has failed. Ask an Expert. Will himself left the party for this actual reason in 2016. I am not alone in holding this perspective. The Electoral College system benefits smaller states and . 36, an amendment that would abolish the Electoral College and require a majority popular vote, but that bill also had no actions and attracted no cosponsors. jo.type = 'text/javascript'; With the exceptions of Nebraska and Maine, where electors are, awarded according to congressional district, each state's electoral votes are awarded in a winner-take-all, Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Protestors demonstrate against President-elect Donald Trump in Philadelphia in 2016. Since the 18th century, the United States has used the Electoral College, made up of 538 individual electors, to elect its presidents instead of going by the popular vote. 152 was a new, unique proposal of reform introduced in the 84th Congress. Clarence Thomas was appointed by the Bush brothers father, President George H.W. Should The Electoral College Be Abolished? 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