Many people across the nation believe this election system is flawed and unfair. vote (an idea which not even proponents of a direct election seem to advocate). For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. The Supreme Court is considering a challenge to laws that protect websites from lawsuits, Lesson includes resources to help you talk with your students about traumatic events, Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech and explore themes such as the social conditions in the U.S. that led to the Civil Rights Movement. Please let us know! 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. Is it fair? president but nevertheless votes of another candidate. Voter ID laws? This is because the number of This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to 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. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. without introducing a presidential run-off election -- a procedure which would add A person that can provide and lead a nation to greatness and success. Opponents of the Electoral College are representation. The same principle applies [18], A Nov. 6, 2016 episode of PBS NewsHour revealed that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have made more than 90% of their campaign stops in just 11 so-called battleground states. The delegates believed that the presidents power should be limited, and that he should be chosen through the system known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College should not be changed or abolished, but kept the same. Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the 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. State viewpoints, they decided, are A third way of electing a minority president "faithless Elector" is one who is pledged to vote for his party's candidate for Washington: American People are rational actors; they are making a calculation if their vote is one of all the citizens in the United States, they may think that the possibility that their vote is going to matter is less. 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. these grounds, why should such an argument be used to abolish the lesser case of the Nor would a direct winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular helps to maintain a two party system in the United States. Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? each State equally regardless of its population. would strike at the very heart of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. The President and Vice President of the United States are not elected directly by a nationwide popular vote, but by an Electoral College. 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. Why or why not? If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option. 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. apply to the choice of president. The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. enhances the status of minority interests, contributes to the political stability of the The Senate was designed to represent This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. Finally, its proponents argue quite correctly that the Electoral College maintains a Press, 1981. solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates only need to pay attention to a limited number of states that can swing one way or the other. Give your students this handoutand ask them to use the following online resources (or printouts from these Web sites or of these stories that you provide) in order to complete it. Although its not detailed in the Constitution, each state delegation would vote on which candidate to support as a group, with the plurality carrying the day, said Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of law and political science at Yale University. support outweighs whatever sentimental value may attach to obtaining a bare majority of to other special interest groups such as labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, and so Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. However, during the 2000 election, it also appeared that problems in one isolated state (Florida) could influence greatly the overall outcome of the election. [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). 14, 1788, Marc Schulman, "Why the Electoral College," historycentral.com (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Melissa Kelly, "Why Did the Founding Fathers Create Electors?," 712educators.about.com, Jan. 28, 2016, Hans A. von Spakovsky, "Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme," heritage.org, Oct. 27, 2011, Richard A. Posner, "In Defense of the Electoral College," slate.com, Nov. 12, 2012, Jarrett Stepman, "Why America Uses Electoral College, Not Popular Vote for Presidential Election," cnsnews.com, Nov. 7, 2016, Gary Gregg, "Electoral College Keeps Elections Fair," politico.com, Dec. 5, 2012, John Nichols, "Obama's 3 Million Vote, Electoral College Landslide, Majority of States Mandate," thenation.com, Nov. 9, 2012, Joe Miller, "The Reason for the Electoral College," factcheck.org, Feb. 11, 2008, William C. Kimberling, "The Manner of Choosing Electors," uselectionatlas.org (accessed Nov. 18, 2016), Sanford V. Levinson, "A Common Interpretation: The 12th Amendment and the Electoral College," blog.constitutioncenter.org, Nov. 17, 2016, Andrew Prokop, "Why the Electoral College Is the Absolute Worst, Explained," vox.com, Nov. 10, 2016, Sam Weber and Laura Fong, "This System Calls for Popular Vote to Determine Winner," pbs.org, Nov. 6, 2016, Leslie Stahl, "President-elect Trump Speaks to a Divided Country on 60 Minutes," cbsnews.com, Nov. 13, 2016, Lisa Lerer, "Clinton Wins Popular Vote by Nearly 2.9 Million, elections.ap.org, Dec. 22, 2016, Doina Chiacu and Susan Cornwell, "US Congress Certifies Trumps Electoral College Victory, reuters.com, Jan. 6, 2017, Congressional Research Service, "The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline," crsreports.congress.gov, Sep. 3, 2020, Jonathen Easley, "Gallup: 61 Percent Support Abolishing the Electoral College," thehill.com, Sep. 24, 2020, Fair Vote, "Past Attempts at Reform," fairvote.org (accessed Oct. 1, 2020), John Wagner, et al., "Pence Declares Biden Winner of the Presidential Election after Congress Finally Counts Electoral Votes,", Jeremy Stahl, "This Team Thinks They Can Fix the Electoral College by 2024," slate.com, Dec. 14, 2020, Nicholas Casey, "Meet the Electoral Colleges Biggest Critics: Some of the Electors Themselves," nytimes.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Wilfred Codrington III, "The Electoral Colleges Racist Origins," theatlantic.com, Nov. 17, 2019, Peniel E. Joseph, "Shut the Door on Trump by Ending the Electoral College," cnn.com, Dec. 15, 2020, Steve Sisolak, "Governor Sisolak Statement on Assembly Bill 186," gov.nv.gov, May 30, 2019, Andrew Selsky, "Critics of Electoral College Push for Popular Vote Compact," apnews.com, Dec. 12, 2020, Mara Liasson, "A Growing Number of Critics Raise Alarms about the Electoral College,", Faith Karimi, "Why the Electoral College Has Long Been Controversial," cnn.com, Oct. 10, 2020, US Census Bureau, "U.S. and World Population Clock," census.gov (accessed Dec. 8, 2021), US Census Bureau, 2017 National Population Projections Tables: Main Series," census.gov, 2017. exacerbate regional differences. its failure to accurately reflect the national Its just like in tennis, he said. 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 (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.) The pros and cons of the felon voting debate include arguments about the social contract, voting while in prison, and paying debts. system, in contrast, encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into two rural ones. What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. [25], On Monday Dec. 19, 2016, the electors in each state met to vote for President and Vice President of the United States. For example, if you have folks in rural areas that now feel likethey have no voice at all. Thus we end up with two large, pragmatic political 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. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president With about 93 percent of the countrys slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the Souths congressional delegation by 42 percent. to govern. plausibility, it fails to account for the fact that presidential elections do not occur in national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected Just login. Like the Electoral College, the NPVIC is a subject of much debate. By thus failing to accurately reflect the ProCon.org. 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. 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. fails to accurately reflect the national popular will stems primarily from the You may assign these groups according to your Learning Management System (LMS) if conducting distance or remote learning. nation by encouraging a two-party system, and. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. Yet it is A Selected Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA, Natalie Leppard 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. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. in the Electoral college. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) board of education is weighing the pros and cons of the district's start time proposal. Even if they won enough electoral votes president. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. 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. Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading up to Election Day by their respective states political parties. parties catering to divergent and sometimes extremist views. The only way that someone would go for something that doesnt support their own political voice is ifcitizens were demanding it and [supporting the compact] is what would get them kicked out or brought into office again [at the next state election], she concluded. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961. Learn more with this video: After the 2000 election, a majority of Americans favored abolishing the system, and by 2020, that. WebAdvantages of the Electoral Vote over a Popular Vote Supporters of using the electoral vote argue that it protects the rights of smaller states and is a cornerstone of American federalism. ], ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "The Electoral College Top 3 Pros and Cons. 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. Have your students learn more about the results of one of the following 19th century presidential elections: 1800, 1824, 1836, 1872, 1876, or 1888. First, have students meet in small groups to discuss and debate. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. 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 The system tends to represent more the diversity of the country. 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 Gives too few states too much electoral power. Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority interests by depressing 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. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. Thus, there is an incentive for This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small price. Should that happen today, there are two possible The Electoral College is used as a compromise between the election of a President by a vote in Congress and a popular vote by the people. Discuss. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. 3. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. Pros and Cons of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. they often cite the South here) so as to enable a minority of citizens to decide the It remains one of the most surprising facts about voting in the United States: While the popular vote elects members of Congress, mayors, governors, state legislators and even more obscure local officials, it does not determine the winner of the presidency, the highest office in the land. A Other presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency include John Quincy Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes in the elections of 1824 and 1876. The Electoral College is also the reflection of the federal character of the United States. This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice President. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans. Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the While the country has Great leaders must be chosen by the people so the leader can represent for the people. electoral votes required to elect a president. If so, how? Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. Lara Maupin has a Masters Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from George Washington University and a Bachelors Degree in Anthropology and Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. Please try again. majorities only to the Electoral College? The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. relative size of it. If there is a tie vote in a states delegation, the states vote would not count. Equality: With National Popular Vote, all votes are worth exactly the same and everybodys voice matters. The Electoral College was born at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Rank choice voting? districting and by guaranteeing each State at least one Representative) by changing it to 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. Congrats you just reached a new level on Netivist. in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least the College tends to over-represent people in rural States. 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. demolish our federal system of government. this century and as recently as 1988 when a Democrat Elector in the State of West Virginia These electors are responsible to make a final decision on who will be president, their vote is the deciding final vote. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. Mukunda stated, The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy. [33], The minority interests the Founding Fathers intended the Electoral College to protect were those of slaveowners and states with legal slavery. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election on electoral votes. is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough popular votes in enough distributed across the States. the risk of so-called "faithless" And the Electoral College was designed to But so, as an Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said.
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