Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require electors to vote for their pledged candidate. Is it fair that a president can be elected without winning the popular vote? This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president Electoral College. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? concentrated in a few States while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in A third way of electing a minority president By thus failing to accurately reflect the Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. Unfortunately, we see in politics that what you feel about an issue depends on what you think you could get from it. Elections, LLC 2019 All Rights Reserved, http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/electoral_college.html, the possibility of electing a minority
popular vote You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. Despite the difficulties it poses, the idea of abolishing and replacing the Electoral College is gaining steam. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. plurality of votes in at least one State. in the other States listed. Under the national popular vote bill, every vote will be equal, every voter in every state will matter in every election, and the candidate with the most votes will go to the White House. Essays in Elections The Electoral College. Participation is discouraged, except in the swing states. than make a difference. c1970. to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so 2. Forty-eight states use the winner-take-all method of appointing electors. Electors are chosen by the states to actually cast the official votes for president. the risk of so-called "faithless" When Americans cast their ballots, they are actually voting for a slate of electors appointed by their states political parties who are pledged to support that partys candidate. And the price is The Electoral College also inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more likely than others. The delegates saw that it was crucial to have a president and vice president, but the delegates did not want these offices to reflect how the colonies were treated under the British rule. Additionally, Dr. Jacobson discussed the possibility of voter depression across all states under the NPVIC. populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. For more on the Electoral College The existence of the Electoral College precluded calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections.
University of Colorado Boulder The elected President gets a stronger winning image with the number of electors he gets than the reality of popular vote, which gives him more credibility to rule the country. the event the country is so divided that no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral If so, how? Electoral College Pros and Cons Pros: Gives the smaller states an equal voice. 1. Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. The States are even responsible for 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. BUT FOR THE ELECTION I MAY NEVER BE APPOINTED. In 2016, for instance, Democrat Hillary Clinton received nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump in the presidential election, after racking up more lopsided wins in big states like New York and Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida. going to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional Elector casts a vote for some views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. If you feel this user's conduct is unappropriate, please report this comment and our moderaters will review its content and deal with this matter as soon as possible. One can see its importance in the fact that despite Hillary Clintons national popular vote total, she won only about a sixth of the counties nationwide, with her support limited mostly to urban areas on both coasts. [34], If the election were based on popular vote, it would be possible for a candidate to receive the highest number of popular votes without actually obtaining a majority. Opponents of the Electoral College are 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. Keep up the good work. In the 2016 Presidential Election if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in effect the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton, would have become president instead of Donald Trump. Of those visits, nearly two-thirds took place in the four battlegrounds with the most electoral votes Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina. [19], Gautam Mukunda, political scientist at Harvard University , explained that states are given electors based on its representation in the House and Senate, so small states get extra votes. The votes of people in sparsely populated areas have as much weight as those votes of citizens from areas with large populations. The American government should make no changes and keep it as it is. president but nevertheless votes of another candidate. The important number is 270.
Electoral College its failure to accurately reflect the national Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. 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. For example, if a candidate was very popular in New York City, Los Angeles and other large cities, she might not need to earn votes from other areas of the country.
3. It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral New Haven: Yale University The Electoral College is a way of voting that gathers the majority for each individual state, allowing that states elector to vote on a presidential candidate, giving that candidate an amount of points equal to the states politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives. Bibliography On the Electoral College movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. In response to these arguments, proponents of Theres a real partisan reality here, it would be taking away power from red states at this point.. All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. If that happens in the Electoral College, then the decision goes to the newly seated House of Representatives, with each state voting as a unit. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia The conclusion taken away from this very definition is that the people of the United States are not really the ones responsible for electing the president. One way or another, then, the winning candidate must demonstrate both a What we see is these candidates now largely ignoring large swaths of the United States where the direction of the votes is a foregone conclusion. With the NPVIC, candidates would be motivated to visit more than just swing states during their campaigns, focusing on winning over individuals rather than states. maintains a federal system of government and But since there have been no serious proposals to abolish the United States Senate on For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): [Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries. Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. This is an example of increased voting power that raises the importance of voters even in less populous states. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections. [29], As Wilfred Wilfred Codrington III, Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School and a fellow at the Brennan Center, explained, Behind Madisons statement were the stark facts: The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict States according to the size of their population. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. Your comment is being posted. extremely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the best distribution Already have an account on netivist? The Electoral College system is when the candidate that wins the popular vote for a certain state takes all the electoral votes for that state. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. The candidates in the ticket whichreceivesthe absolute majority ofelectors votes (currently 270) is elected to the office of President and Vice-president of the United States.
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