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. In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. Only one election was so close that it had to go to the House of Representatives, which is how John Quincy Adams won over Andrew Jackson. These Americans, chosen for loyalty to their political party, will vote for the presidential candidate who won their states popular vote. As far as the 2016 election is concerned, Hillary Clinton would still be the likely winner if the Electoral College didn't exist. Even if all 25 of the states that Mr. Biden won in 2020 were to ratify such an amendment, nine additional states that President Trump won would need to ratify it as well. It creates 50 individual contests. They are simply party loyalists who do not deliberate about anything more than where to eat lunch. 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. If you submit a question as a comment on this article, we might use it during the live event. In winner-take-all states, all electoral votes cast for the state are assigned to the candidate who gets the most electoral votes. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. By Michael W. McConnell, the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law, director of the Constitutional Law Center and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Under this option, Florida would give 15 Electoral College votes to Clinton and 14 to Trump. Abolishing the Electoral College stops swing states from having sway in the election. If the U.S. were to abolish the electoral college, then the restrictions that territories experience against voting in this election would disappear. This polling reflects why a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College will not pass the U.S. Congress any time soon, nor would it have anywhere near the necessary support in state legislatures. In the ensuing 215 years, the Electoral College system itself has changed little, although the popular vote has been rightfully guaranteed to millions more previously denied on the basis of race, gender and age. There can be distinctive advantages to one party in a decade where three election cycles are possible. 2? 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If, say, environmental sustainability or abortion or the Second Amendment is your dominant concern, it does not matter whether you live in Wyoming or California, Pennsylvania or Delaware. The Constitution originally stipulated that the top vote-getter chosen by these electors would become president and the individual with the second-most votes would be vice president. Stanford, CA 94305-6105 2. And finally, Myth 3: The Electoral College protects small states. It is not simply Republican elected officials who want to maintain the Electoral College system; Republican voters support it as well. Next week five hundred and thirty-eight American citizens will travel to their state capitals and elect the president of the United States. US election 2020. It's called the national popular vote movement, and it's already been passed into law in many states, totaling 196 electoral votesthe states include big ones like California and New York and small ones like Vermont and Hawaii. There would need to be a Constitutional amendment if the compact idea doesnt work. 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. It's another way the system ensures it's perpetuity. John Locher/AP As a result, Republicans and Republican state governments are incentivized to maintain the current system. Maintaining the Electoral College may seem like the most politically expedient position for the Republican Party in the short term, but it may cause significant damage in the long term. We already see gridlock and partisanship in Congress that limits the opportunities for collaboration. {{currentYear}} American Bar Association, all rights reserved. In the interactive diagram The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, you are able to build your own coalition of states to see how either candidate, President Trump or former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., can win the election. But as people moved and the economy changed so did that ratio. In the first instance, states could decide to award 2 Electoral College votes (EVs) to the winner of the national popular vote (NPV) and the remainder to the winner of the state. The Electoral College thus presents democratic risks without serving any of its original purposes. Well, American democracy operates on a whole collection of cherished ideas and practices, but our system also includes some dusty old artifacts from its founding two centuries ago. There were two additional votes for Sanders that were invalidated in Minnesota and one for Kasich in Colorado. Do you think any of these arguments, or others, are convincing reasons for preserving the Electoral College as it stands now? On September 18, 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 338 to 70 to send a constitutional amendment to the Senate that would have dismantled the Electoral College,. When a state passes legislation to join the National Popular Vote Compact, it compels the state to award its electoral votes to whomever wins the national popular vote, regardless of which candidate won in that state. Getting rid of the Electoral College would radicalize politics. But the Constitution and the courts have allowed the states some leeway to make changes to how their Electoral College representatives are chosen. An amendment hasn't been adopted since the 27th, in 1992, and one hasn't been adopted relatively quickly since the 26th, which took 100 days from proposal to adoption in 1971. Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. 6. Article V sets up the manner by which an amendment is passed. Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke said there is a "lot of wisdom" in the idea and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., also said she's open to it. Over 2.8 million more people voted for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump, but it was Trump who won the White House because of the results of the electoral map. But in the end, Republicans and Democrats are virtually tied. To understand why, lets start from the point we make above: the Electoral College system currently benefits Republicans, as two Republican presidents in the last 20 years have been elected despite losing the popular vote and that nearly happened a third time this year. The presidential election in 2016 saw a modern-era record for faithless electors, but five of them came from the Clinton camp. They simply happen to be states that become competitive because of their demography, and which are readily identifiable as such because of the increasing sophistication of political polling. The only states that matter to either party are the battleground states especially bigger ones like Florida and Pennsylvania, where a swing of a few thousand or even a few hundred votes can shift the entire pot of electors from one candidate to the other. hide caption. Suddenly, every voter will count, no matter where they live. The threat is the effort to create a so-called . Reagan would almost make a clean sweep in 1984 as well, taking 525 of 538 electoral votes and only losing Minnesota and DC. First, and most obviously, such a system would conform to the dominant democratic value that has prevailed in American politics ever since the one-person, one-vote reapportionment rulings of the early 1960s. Does It Need to Be Fixed? FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecast have predicted. For one thing, slavery. The effect is to erase all the voters in that state who didnt vote for the top candidate. Abolish the electoral college. Support of that magnitude has become rare for anything in a sharply divided United 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. But dont forget, Bush won the popular vote four years later by three million votes. Jesse Wegman, a member of the New York Times editorial board and author of the book Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College, explains: American democracy isnt just quirky its also unfair. They disagreed so strongly that the final system wasnt adopted until the last minute, thrown together by a few delegates in a side room. That could have happened even though Biden won the popular vote by 7,060,087 (and counting)a margin even larger than the margins won by George W Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012. Now, Trump feels the Electoral College is "far better for the U.S.A." as he wrote Tuesday on Twitter. Source: Daily Kos Elections. And while the founding fathers implemented this voting process as a way to "preserve the sense of the people" in other words, to go against the popular vote's wishes if the elite few chosen to be electors felt that the winner was unqualified or unfit most states now abide by a "winner-takes-all" method of distributing votes that renders the original purpose moot. List of the Pros of Abolishing the Electoral College 1. Sometimes one party does better for a few election cycles. The Electoral College Will Destroy America, The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, free daily writing prompts for remote learning. Each of those states has Democratic control of the state legislature. 4. The distinction matters. But explaining exactly how it does this remains a mystery. Based on your understanding, do you believe the Electoral College is democratic? 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. Researchby the National Association of Secretaries of State shows that 29 states and the District of Columbia require presidential electors, chosen through political party processes in each state, to cast their vote for the candidate they were selected by popular vote in that state to represent. The most popular alternative is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). But it's possible the candidate with the most votes from the public won't be the winner. No other mode of presidential elections would be fully consistent with our underlying commitment to the equality of all citizens. The way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. But the Constitution and the courts have allowed the states some leeway to make changes to how their Electoral College representatives are chosen. George W. Bush won the Electoral College in 2000 even though he received 0.5% less of the popular vote against Al Gore. The political game in the United States would change dramatically without the Electoral College present. The crisis of 1824 then, represented really the collapse of the old system, and an effort to re-institute it in other terms. Do you support this movement? The chances of a recount would increase dramatically with election. 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. Hillary Clinton won. First, there's the Constitutional problem. Abolishing the Electoral College: Since the year 2000, there have been five presidential elections. 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. Students, watch the video and read Mr. Wegmans Op-Ed, and then tell us: What does democracy mean to you? Interestingly, the congressional caucus system is very close to the system the British used to replace Prime Minister David Cameron. This cant go on. In each case, the number of faithless electors who exercised that behavior would not have had a meaningful impact on the outcome. Third, defenders of the Electoral College also claim that it supports the underlying value of federalism. While people were moving to the coasts, especially California, the Electoral College stayed the same. That means the information receives an update every 10 years. It said that the Colorado secretary of state erred in removing an elector who cast his vote for then-Ohio Gov. Here are the yea and the nay. There are also circumstances where a majority of electors might not be available, which would throw the results of the election into the House of Representatives. 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,. Even when it is against the law for these folks to vote for someone other than what the electoral results in their state indicate, there is always an option to become a faithless elector under the American structure. For instance, in 1900 New York was the biggest state in the union with 7,268,894 people and the state with the median population, Louisiana, had 1,381,625 people. "And places where there are more people become more important when you're counting votes.". This agreement includes several states and DC, giving the electoral vote count assigned to them to the candidate who receives the most votes in the national election. It would only come into effect when it could guarantee that outcome. 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 . They want the option to select a president based on who gets the most votes nationally. It no longer serves the intended job. You may have heard this one in high school. But get this, the way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. Currently, 15 states and DC have approved the NPVIC. Debate renewed in 2016 after theelectionof the fifth U.S. president who won the presidency despite losing the popular vote. Take the Electoral College, Americas system for picking the president. Why? Spend some time moving states into the Biden and Trump circles and make notes about what you notice and wonder. The group of 16 (as of August 2019) currently control 196 electoral votes together. In fact, lets tally up all the votes cast for president between 1932 and 2008. Parties must obtain no less than 7% of votes - either on their own or in alliance with other parties - in order to enter . That same view will doubtless color the 2016 election as well. Three happened in the 19th century; none in the 20th century and two in the 21st century. While there are two different means to amend the founding document, this country has always used the same route: a 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress, followed by the ratification of 3/4ths of the states. 3. It wasnt the first time a president won by losing or the second or even the fourth. But the Electoral College is worse than merely useless. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/learning/is-the-electoral-college-a-problem-does-it-need-to-be-fixed.html. The places where there are more people become the top priority, especially if there is a chance to swing some votes. Mr. Wegman argues that reforming the Electoral College isnt a partisan issue its a fairness issue. Source: Daily Kos Elections. Sticking to the electoral college format allows us to use electors as intended instead of relying on all of the votes counting. In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. 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. /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. The outcome has prompted some to question whether the Electoral College the body of officials that formally elects the nation's president every four yearsis good for democracy, and even compelled outgoing California Sen. Barbara Boxer to file legislation to abolish the 229-year-old system. Or does the Electoral College work the way its supposed to, even if the candidate who wins the most votes loses? Our votes would count the same wherever they were cast. Nonetheless, it is likely the most viable alternative to the current Electoral College system. Most Americans would breathe a sigh of relief, I believe, if we had a system capable of choosing the U.S. equivalent of Theresa May instead of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Only two Republicans voted for someone other than Trump and Pence. Adding even more candidates into this discussion without the protections of this structure could create circumstances where someone with less than 35% of the vote could potentially win a four-year term. This scenario is very different from what happened in 2000 when Gore and Bush were separated by less than 1 percent of the popular vote. This toolkit provides guidance and resources to those associated with community colleges who are interested in either creating a pathway program to law school or enhancing an existing program. That might invite legal challenges from candidates or voters' groups if it took place. 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. The size of a state does not affect our real political preferences, even though the Electoral College system imagines that it does. Keeping the electoral college restricts the voting to acknowledged states only. Why did President Obama spend so much money bailing out the auto industry? The NPV would effectively abolish the Electoral College and co-opt even those states who did not join the compact into accepting an electoral regime they never agreed to or approved. Back in 1787, when the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were trying to figure out how the President should be chosen, some wanted the Congress to choose, and . 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. 11. Critics of the system would argue that the elections of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump are evidence that this impact is no longer present in U.S. politics. Thrown together at the last minute by the countrys founders, it almost immediately stopped functioning as they thought it would. In part, that is because theElectoral Collegeis constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. But the court has not tackled to what extent states can enforce such a pledge. It gives each state in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct electors equal to its representation in Congress. (John . Two closely watched cases arising from the 2016 electoral process, however, might provide the justices with an opportunity to do just that. So lets put the power to select the president where it actually belongs, in the hands of all the people. Blue states give all their electors to the Democrat, no matter how many Republicans voted for their candidate; vice versa in the red states.
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