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Why? Presidential electors are not more qualified than other citizens to determine who should head the government. As Americans look at their election processes, a complete review of the pros and cons of abolishing the Electoral College is useful when taking this unique structure into account. If that occurs, the court might provide states additional guidance on just how much leeway they have to impact the Electoral College vote that decides the presidency of the United States. During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had 90% of their campaign stops in only 11 states. Or is it working the way it is supposed to? The electors can vote their conscience as well, refusing to follow what their state elections guide them to do. Throughout our nations history there have been many unwise attempts to abolish the Electoral College, but these proposed constitutional amendments saw little success and unsurprisingly failed to gain traction. ABA Legal Fact Check: Can the Electoral College be abolished? Which states do matter? Still, the advantages are uncertain and relatively minor. This perception is reinforced by the red- and blue-state imagery that controls our view of the electoral process. We already see gridlock and partisanship in Congress that limits the opportunities for collaboration. The winner of an election should be the person who gets the most votes. It would create problems when multiple candidates run. Of the 700 attempts to fix or abolish the electoral college, this one nearly succeeded In 1969, Congress almost approved a constitutional amendment to get rid of the electoral college,. But explaining exactly how it does this remains a mystery. Whether youre Republican or Democrat, your vote probably doesnt count the way it should. It causes some votes to have greater weight than others. 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. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren calls for abolishing the Electoral College and moving to a national popular vote: Every vote matters #WarrenTownHall https://t.co/pPFMVywETf pic.twitter.com/yy0J0HgAjc. Rural Americans would be serfs if we abolished the Electoral College So what would happen if we got rid of the Electoral College? 3. Electoral vote totals will equal 538. In addition to the NPVIC discussed above, there are two variations on this theme that could reduce the odds that someone could win the presidency without winning the national popular vote. Democracy is, at its core, about fair, equal representation one person, one vote. Social change can seem sudden, as if millions awoke one day to the same realization. However, it is possible to win the presidency without winning the popular vote. 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. It is not simply Republican elected officials who want to maintain the Electoral College system; Republican voters support it as well. Lauren Wesley Wilson Is Making WHCD Weekend More Inclusive, Dylan Mulvaney Wanted To Be An Actor, Not An Activist, Olivia Munn & John Mulaney's Meet Cute 8 Years Ago At A Wedding Is Relatable, 10 Times Tom From 'Succession' Was Actually Mr. Darcy, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. As a result, Republicans and Republican state governments are incentivized to maintain the current system. Could Washington administer a national recount in the event of a close result? It probably reduces the cost of presidential campaigns by confining television advertising to the battleground states (and spares the rest of us the tedium of endless repetitive ads). First, there's the Constitutional problem. As we can see from questions posed in two respectable polls, Pew and Gallup, in spite of the fact that majorities support change it is Democrats who support it and Republicans who oppose it. The party structureswhich, for all their faults, have a vested interest in candidates from the moderate middle who are able to work with Congress and other officials to governhave been sidelined. It said that the Colorado secretary of state erred in removing an elector who cast his vote for then-Ohio Gov. 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. And the most recent major occasion took place in 1969, 1970, when there was a strong bipartisan effort to abolish the electoral college and have us utilize a national popular vote. And so each Electoral College vote in a small state like Delaware or Wyoming is worth more than an Electoral College vote in a big state like California. Popular vote is a direct vote. This isnt rocket science. Why? There will always be a concern about the tyranny of the majority in the United States. 14 Pros and Cons of Abolishing the Electoral College I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better for the U.S.A. Gregg says that change would radicalize politics. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, even by a single vote, they get all of that states electoral votes. The Constitution is silent on whether states or the electors themselves ultimately can decide which candidate gets the electors vote, and the U.S. Supreme Court has not addressed that issue in the handful of cases it has considered related to the Electoral College. There have been a total of five candidates who have won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College, with the most recent cases occurring in the 2016 and 2000 . While people were moving to the coasts, especially California, the Electoral College stayed the same. Americas auto industry auto industry auto industry At least in part because its located mostly in swing states, like Michigan and Ohio, states whose electoral votes he needed to win. Without the Electoral College in place, presidential candidates would build platforms that would speak to their base. The Electoral College thus presents democratic risks without serving any of its original purposes. First, there's the Constitutional problem. Take the Electoral College, Americas system for picking the president. Why, or why not? The Electoral College has elected a president who did not win the popular vote twice in the past 20 years, in 2000 and 2016. 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. This issue exists in the Electoral College when the rural states face off with the urban ones. Under the current system, voters in each state cast their ballots for electors, of which 270 are necessary to win. 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. Places like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan. Stanford, CA 94305-6105 How to get rid of the Electoral College - Brookings Started in the mid-2000s, the NPVIC is a fairly straightforward system that capitalizes on the constitutional guarantee that states are free to determine the manner in which they award their electoral votes. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. And this was an effort that was supported by the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, and progressive and liberal groups outside. This has happened five times in American history. The way it gets implemented is the result of dozens of state laws, which evolved over time as the country settled into a two-party system. Thats almost 1.5 billion votes. That means the information receives an update every 10 years. But in the end, Republicans and Democrats are virtually tied. Parties must obtain no less than 7% of votes - either on their own or in alliance with other parties - in order to enter . This Student Opinion prompt and a related Lesson of the Day will prepare students to participate in our live panel discussion about the Electoral College, on Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. Eastern. The Electoral College is not going to be changed, and there are far more urgent and promising topics for reform of our presidential selection system. It doesnt have to be this way. How the Electoral College helps preserve our constitutional system. Were already letting women, former slaves, and 18-year-olds vote, changing the structure of the election since the countrys founding. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. That meant more power for those states under an Electoral College system, and slave states didnt want to give up that power. Do you agree with Mr. Wegman that we should change how the Electoral College works to ensure that the popular vote chooses the president? List of the Pros of Abolishing the Electoral College 1. And even when that doesn't happen, Wegman sees another problem with the . Plenty. There are millions of Republicans in deep-blue states, like Massachusetts and California. The issue that could make Joe Biden unelectable is not in his control and is a far greater threat to his re-election than any single policy question. Stanford University. There are over 300 million people currently residing in the United States, but only 538 people actually get to choose who gets to be the president. Hillary Clinton won. Five times in our history, presidential candidates who have won more votes than their opponent have still lost the election. Bible Commentary Bible Verses Devotionals Faith Prayers Coloring Pages Pros and Cons, 7 Uplifting Prayers for Desperate Situations, 50 Biblically Accurate Facts About Angels in the Bible, 50 Most Profitable Youth Group Fundraising Ideas for Your Church, 250 Ice Breaker Questions for Teen Youth Groups, 25 Important Examples of Pride in the Bible, Why Jesus Wept and 11 Lessons from His Tears, 25 Different Ways to Worship God and Praise the Lord. Republicans especially worry about tipping the balance away from their party. So far, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have joined in for a total of 196 electoral votes, just 74 more. Three happened in the 19th century; none in the 20th century and two in the 21st century. But get this, the way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. In recent years, a new scheme has emerged that claims it can bypass the seemingly insurmountable impediment of a constitutional amendment process but have the same result of nullifying the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Compact (NPV). The winner-take-all method is nowhere in the Constitution. Every vote matters, commented Senator Elizabet Warren (D-Mass) in an early campaign stop in Mississippi in 2019, and the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.. Its complicated, outdated, unrepresentative in a word, undemocratic. This action would allow the popular vote winner to take the White House. But the Constitution and the courts have allowed the states some leeway to make changes to how their Electoral College representatives are chosen. A second argument holds less populous states deserve the further electoral weight they gain through the senatorial bump giving each state two electors, because their minority status entitles them to additional political protection. All parts of the country would not be involved in the selection of the president. Hamilton believed that it would prevent the Office of the President from falling into the lot of a person who was not endowed with the requisite qualifications to serve the American people. So, the state at the median had 19% of the population of the largest state. This shift would likely benefit that party for more than a generation. Myth No. The founders fought like cats and dogs over how the president should be chosen. There is a trigger for NPV to go into effect, and we are creeping ever closer toward it.10 When enough states have entered the compact to reach a majority of the electoral votes270 out of 538the compact will then kick in. Turkey general election 2023 guide: what you need to know | CNN Maine and Nebraska, however, have enacted the congressional district method, which allocates one electoral vote to the winner of the popular vote in each state-drawn district. Enslaved people couldnt vote, but they were still counted toward the slave states representation in Congress. Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center #Marianne2024 . In a truly national election, parties and candidates would have the incentive to turn out their votes wherever they were, fostering a deeper sense of engagement across the whole population. Democratic presidential candidates are weighing in too. In fact, lets tally up all the votes cast for president between 1932 and 2008. These arent small states. That might invite legal challenges from candidates or voters' groups if it took place. However, a constitutional amendment is not the only means by which an alternative to the current Electoral College can be implemented. Some laws simply state that electors must vote for the candidate of the party they represent; others require electors to sign an oath or a pledge. This is one reason why they created checks and balances, including the Electoral College. When enough states join in this interstate compact, itll mean that the popular-vote winner will always become president. Stanford, California 94305. John Kasich, a Republican, even though Colorado law required electors to cast their votes for state-winner Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. What would happen if the Electoral College was eliminated? And this year, who knows? In most cases this should prevent the popular vote loser from becoming president. That means the major party that can maintain its base could win elections without a clear majority. Having a state-based system for electing both houses of Congress should be adequate to that task. Although there are some advantages to this system, the disadvantages have been highlighted in recent elections. But explaining exactly how it does this remains a mystery. Gary Gregg, who leads the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, says that if today's system over-privileges rural states, a national popular vote would be just as unfair in the opposite direction. The elected officials of both parties have incentives to choose candidates with an eye toward popular electability and governing skill. Each of those states has Democratic control of the state legislature. Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul, and Faith Spotted Eagle received one each. Abolishing the Electoral College would get rid of this confusing process. That position, shared by many Republicans, makes it highly unlikely that there would be sufficient support for changing the system. Activists, with the aid of misguided state legislators, have begun to gain ground in the states, with NPV arising as a serious threat to the stability of our presidential election process. Blue states give all their electors to the Democrat, no matter how many Republicans voted for their candidate; vice versa in the red states.