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 This is meant by the Presidential Candidate receives the all of the states electoral votes for that state, if the total population of that state nominates the candidate to be President. Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. First, the people would vote for electors, who then would cast an official ballot. WebThe Debate Today. Still, if the prospect of a faithless Elector is so fearsome as to warrant a appointments are great but usually only represent the agenda of the one national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. For example, the state of Wyoming has a population of 580,000 but holds 3 electoral votes. government. No attention is paid to the smaller states because of the low electoral number, which doesnt really help the candidate win a lot. Kiersten Schmidt and Wilson Andrews, "A Historic Number of Electors Defected, and Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton, nytimes.com, Dec. 19, 2016, Rachael Revesz, "Five Presidential Nominees Who Won Popular Vote but Lost the Election," independent.co.uk, Nov. 16, 2016, National Archives and Records Administration, "The 2016 Presidential Election," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "About the Electors," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "Presidential Election Laws," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), National Archives and Records Administration, "What Is the Electoral College?," archives.gov (accessed Nov. 16, 2016), Alexander Hamilton, "The Federalist Papers: No. It did not change the outcome. The same thing happened in 2016, when Donald Trump won the electoral college vote over Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. Create your account for free. which might well deepen the political divisions while trying to resolve them. If there are reasons to maintain State And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. With each census, these electoral votes are redistributed based on new data regarding state population. 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. personal favorite knowing full well that it will not make a difference in the result. The Presidential election is considered a take all election. This piece was originally published in Inkwells2020 Election Print Issue. apply to the choice of president. the risk of so-called "faithless" Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. Lets have a look at the many issues on this topic. Under this system, the President is chosen by winning the majority of electoral votes, casted by the congressional representatives of each state according to the popular vote in each state. 5. The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. [14] [35] [36], Robert Nemanich, math teacher and former elector from Colorado Springs, stated, Do we really want 538 Bob Nemanichs electing our president? 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. In recent years, there have been two notable elections in which the ultimate victor did not win the popular vote: 2016 and 2000. 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. Each state is authorized a specific amount of electoral votes, based solely on the number of members that state has in Congress. I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. The New York Times called the last two states on its map on Nov. 13: Georgias 16 electoral votes for Mr. Biden and North Carolinas 15 for Mr. Trump. 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. There are currently 538 electors, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. With this rule, that means the candidate who also got some votes from that state, ends up getting none. [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. further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout. The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. Changing to a direct election of the president would Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. While granting greater impact to smaller states incentivizes voting and promotes participation, and imbalance of power is still an unfair advantage. Already have an account on netivist? A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. History The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. End with a class discussion. (They dont always do so.). Should the Electoral College be modified? the Congress as an institution. 1. Pros: No winner-take all. Voters from political parties usually nominate who will be their electors at state conventions. This is because the number of Most states use the winner-take-all method, in which all electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the popular vote in that state. 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. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. A single citizens vote really does not matter. regardless of its population - over-represents rural populations far more dramatically. incentives and disincentives are likely to operate, if at all, with an even greater force. and might well bring about consequences that even the reformers would come to regret. Graham discusses one potential benefit of the NPVIC: In states like California, where in almost every case all of the Electoral votes will go to the Democratic Party, what reason does a Republican candidate have to visit there (regardless of the large number of Republicans that reside there)? 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. http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. One effect of this Even if they won enough electoral votes Dr. Robin Jacobson, professor and chair of politics and government at University of Puget Sound, said that One [pro of the Electoral College] is that it makes sure that states that otherwise might feel left out of the process are included despite their small size. Electoral votes incentivize voting in less populated states by increasing and emphasizing the impact of each state. They will do as promised if the candidates do a very good job vetting them and picking people who are rock-solid, Professor Amar said. Without the electoral college, groups such as Iowa farmers and Ohio factory workers would be ignored in favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with higher population densities, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized. Only use this feature if you are certain this user has infringed netivist's Terms of Service. 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. Recognizing that conditions of poverty alone do not constitute neglect, some states are providing child care subsidies, affordable housing, home visiting and enhanced primary care. Our moderators will now review this comment and act accordingly. As for the first issue, that the Electoral College over-represents rural For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. 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). thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers. This would accomplish "government by popular views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. In some ways, it defies the rule of one person, one voteWith increasing frequency, I imagine, well see instances where the winner of the Electoral College and the national popular vote do not align, said Jacobson. Is it fair? 3. 1. Certain penalties exist in other states. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? 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. Zeidenstein, Harvey G. Direct Election of the President. 2. Once more, the United States President and Vice President were elected by an indirect vote system, known as Ellectoral College. 68 (The Mode of Electing the President)," congress.gov, Mar. United States, for example, the House of Representatives was designed to represent the Its just like in tennis, he said. support elsewhere would not be reflected. by William C. Kimberling, For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 drawing the district lines for their House seats. Cons: Gerrymandering Proportional Plan Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. And since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to Texas has 38. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. 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. Are you experiencing any technical problem with netivist? Electoral College pros and cons: should the USA use popular vote to elect the President? The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1975. In Nebraska and Maine, the candidate that wins the states overall popular vote receives two electors, and one elector from each congressional district is apportioned to the popular vote winner in that district. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. 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 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. Proponents further argue that the Electoral of popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute majority of electoral votes); in Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. [21] [22], A Sep. 2020 Gallup poll found 61% of Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College, up 12 points from 2016. Understand how the Electoral College system works. The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. I do not think this system is fair, I think it contradicts the fact that as Americans we are given the freedom to vote, but it seems as though the peoples vote actually doesnt decide much. The Constitution should not be amended to abolish the Electoral College. 2. Explore the Electoral College via the US National Archives. relative size of it. Having the statistics to understand the ever changing cultures of our country views one candidate to both the state and people could help in the selection of the President and Vice President of the United States. 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. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia, which together control 196 electoral votes, have signed on to an interstate compact in which they pledge to grant their votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Each Many American citizens do not know or do Many citizens feel that the Electoral College goes against our nations principle of representative democracy, while others, Every great nation started with a great leader. A direct popular election of the president would likely have the opposite effect. This is true simply because it Opponents of the Electoral College system For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. (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.) 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. 1. If the popular vote was the only factor towards presidential election, what would be the incentive for rural areas and states to vote knowing the issues and opinions nearest to them wont be heard? posited Patrick Graham, history and economics teacher in the Upper Schools. While Gore won the popular vote by about half a million in 2000, Hillary Clinton won it by nearly three million in 2016. The Electoral College, Americans have their own opinions on how it is running and how it contributes to the presidential election. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and Deputy Director 2. The Senate was designed to represent If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily-populated areas or specific regions. Conversely, the major parties have [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. Less populous states are favored, because the number of electors is not proportional to the voters count. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. When the time came to agree on a system for choosing the president, it was all too easy for the delegates to resort to the three-fifths compromise [counting only 3/5 of the enslaved population instead of the population as a whole] as the foundation. This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. What relevance do they have today. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. As of 2020, it has garnered 196 (73% of the requirement) electoral votes and has been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia. Washington: Brookings Institution, 29, 1961). in American History and the Direct-Vote Alternative. States can design their own mechanism -- without federal involvement -- for choosing their electors. Your vote is anonymous. New to netivist? All rights reserved. Fairness: This compact would rightfully ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes wins, just as in any other election in the country and unlike in 2000 and 2016. Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. Recognizing the strong regional interests and presidential and vice presidential candidates who are running together. There are many flaws for this system. Berns, Walter (ed.) This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully A second way in which the Electoral College Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. occasionally come close to this sort of outcome, the question here is whether the With many citizens not understanding whether or not their vote is actually being counted during the election, more debates have risen on if popular vote should be the deciding factor of presidential determinations instead. [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). The delegates agreed that the President and Vice President should be chosen informally and not based on the direct popular vote, thus gave birth to the Electoral College. This might take a few seconds, please wait. WebMaking Elections Accessible and Meaningful Providing Incentives for Conciliation Facilitating Stable and Efficient Government Holding the Government Accountable Holding Individual Representatives Accountable Encouraging Political Parties Promoting Legislative Opposition and Oversight Making the Election Process Workable and Sustainable