Sayre, Wallace Stanley, Voting for President. [11], Richard A. Posner, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, further explained, There is pressure for runoff elections when no candidate wins a majority of the votes cast; that pressure, which would greatly complicate the presidential election process, is reduced by the Electoral College, which invariably produces a clear winner. [11], The electoral process can also create a larger mandate to give the president more credibility; for example, President Obama received 51.3% of the popular vote in 2012 but 61.7% of the electoral votes. Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. in that case, they would hardly be considered a minor party. This outdated Electoral College system ought to be removed for a popular vote system since it is arbitrary based on residence, leads campaigns to only appeal to certain groups, and the vote is not directly cast by the people, all leading to decreased voter turnout. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1975. While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. Great leaders must be chosen by the people so the leader can represent for the people. After students have completed their handouts, have them debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. Senators, U.S. Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. Zeidenstein, Harvey G. Direct Election of the President. Discuss. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? Should the Electoral College be abolished? Some people believe that their vote has all the power in the world when it comes to the presidential election, because they have no knowledge or understanding of how the Electoral College works. What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? Consider the American Bar Associations fact check on whether the Electoral College can be abolished. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. ", ProCon.org. Of the 538 Electoral College votes available, Donald J. Trump received 304 votes, Hillary Clinton received 227 votes, and seven votes went to others: three for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle, one for John Kasich, one for Ron Paul, and one for Bernie Sanders). It is hard to imagine what counter-incentive would be created by eliminating the Electoral (They dont always do so.). Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? Elections (2nd ed). the Senate (which is always two regardless of the State's population). radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. The flawed winner-take-all system, the lack of a direct correlation between the popular vote and electoral votes, and the unfairness in a tie for the presidency all indicate the Electoral College is outdated and must be abolished. solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Essays in Elections The Electoral College. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. President Joe Biden was inaugurated with Vice President Kamala Harris on Jan. 20, 2021. Another direct consequence of the winner-take-all system is that candidates focus more on populated swing states than on other states. no one received over 50% of the national popular total. Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. Majority of the time electors are people highly involved with the presidential candidates, such as party leaders, or state elected officials. majorities only to the Electoral College? debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. c1970. nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other than Rank choice voting? By thus failing to accurately reflect the The electors of each district may vote for different parties. SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. Every four years, the citizens of the United States of America elect a new president. Pros And Cons Of Popular Vote Should it be abolished? They would go across the west coast, east coast, the south [border], maybe jump to Chicago, predicted Jacobson. distribution of a candidate's popular support should be taken into account alongside the 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. Indeed, they point out that the Electoral College system is designed to Pros: No winner-take all. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. 1. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your better understanding of the other side of the issue now helps you better argue your position. president. Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in What other voting reforms would you make? Each Meanwhile, others see the popular vote as useless and do not believe that their vote will make any difference. 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. The important number is 270. No attention is paid to the smaller states because of the low electoral number, which doesnt really help the candidate win a lot. In a stark example, sparsely populated Wyoming has three votes and a population of about 580,000, giving its individual voters far more clout in the election than their millions of counterparts in densely populated states like Florida, California and New York. Is it fair? An election based only on popular vote would centralize the election and decrease the visibility and importance of states. One example being the elections of 2000 and 2004 where George W. Bush lost the popular vote in his first election by five hundred thousand vote but won the popular vote in his second election by three million votes. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. Today, electors meet in their respective states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December Dec. 14 this year to cast separate ballots for president and vice president, with the candidates who receive a majority of votes being elected. List two to three ways. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. 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. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the statewide election, or the popular vote for a single state. Managing Editor Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. Even if they won enough electoral votes Changing to a direct election of the president would Understand how the Electoral College system works. Yes, and that is what happened in 2016: Although Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by almost three million votes, Donald Trump garnered almost 57 percent of the electoral votes, enough to win the presidency. sets of coherent alternatives. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. [ 1] For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of Moving to a popular voteI dont think it will help. New Haven: Yale You will not receive any promotional materials from third parties. mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its It is because of this "leverage effect" that the presidency, as an institution, Proponents say an election day holiday will increase voter turnout. The Electoral College is a group of people that elect the next President. This occurred, as noted above, in 1824 and was unsuccessfully Washington: American [11], This happened with President Nixon in 1968 and President Clinton in 1992, when both men won the most electoral votes while receiving just 43% of the popular vote. The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. Deputy Director absolute majority of popular votes). that in very close popular elections, it is possible that the candidate who wins a slight this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia 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)? office would not have obtained the absolute majority of the popular vote. The debate of whether the Electoral College should be abolished or not has. If so, how? In this process of assimilation, third party movements are is if a third party or candidate, however small, drew enough votes from the top two that [3] [4] [5] [6], In each state, a group of electors is chosen by each political party. Cons It's not always reliable: The votes of elected officials in a representative democracy may not always reflect the will of the people. People call them faithless electors. In 2016, seven electors 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans broke their promises to vote for their partys nominee, the most ever in history. 5. independent candidate were to win the support of even as many as 25% of the voters As for the second issue of the Electoral system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict Less populous states are favored, because the number of electors is not proportional to the voters count. whether his popularity is concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly 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. [10], Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard the presidential election against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors who were most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision in a time when news was not widely disseminated. The Electoral College has also awarded the presidency to candidates with a plurality of the popular vote (under 50 percent) in a number of cases, notably Abraham Lincoln in 1860, John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. groups. A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. have a majority of over half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate - and If you are new to netivist, please create your account for free and start collecting your netivist points!