Ask your students what they remember about the 2016 election. That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. For instance, if you have a score of 659 and are borrowing 75% of the home's value, you'll pay a fee equal to 1.5% of the loan balance whereas you'd pay no fee if you had a 780+ credit score. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. Critics, however, argue that Founders reasoning is no longer relevant as todays voters are better-educated and have virtually unlimited access to information and to the candidates stances on the issues. According to the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, some proponents of the Electoral College argue that it isolates election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout. In 2016, Florida had 29 electoral votes and 9.4 million voters, created a voter value of 0.72. After all, the Electoral College makes it possible that a candidate who wins the majority of the votes could still lose the election. Fellows will focus on important federal legislation, and find ways they can improve their state's child welfare program. National Popular Vote is a constitutional and practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President a goal traditionally supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. 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. Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators This text is available online and is used for gudiance and inspiration, We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. Thats the way it has been in this country for a long time. That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. A special commission named by the House chose Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden, after 20 electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were disputed. But she lost the presidency due to Trumps winning margin in the Electoral College, which came after he pulled out narrow victories in less populated Midwestern states like Michigan and Wisconsin. A popular vote structure would virtually eliminate the idea of a third-party candidate having a chance in an election. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY: Copyright 2023 NewsHour Production LLC. Fair or not fair? What are some of the main advantages and disadvantages of the Electoral College? 5. The conference's consulting services on policy issues go beyond testifying. Find the most comprehensive and complete 50-state information in NCSL's searchable bill tracking databases. Mayors, governors, and senators are all elected by a simple majority. Because its so hard to get an amendment to the Constitution passed that means that once it becomes law it will probably remain so for a long time because the bar to change it back is so high. Start and finish your paper with ease. A shift of a relative handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in six of the last 12 presidential elections. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. The states that join the NPV Compact will not be able to certify their Electoral College Votes until all 50 states and DC certify their state popular votes and any mandated/requested recounts since the Compact state ECVs are dependent on the winner of the national popular vote and not just their own state popular votes. The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). (LogOut/ Have each group select one student to present an argument in favor of or against the current system to the class. 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 California. And finally, the Electoral College doesnt work today anywhere near how the Founding Fathers intended it to work when they created it back in 1787. Lastly, the biggest problem that the Electoral College produces is the reality that a persons vote really doesnt matter (Black). What can your students conclude? There are various options for reforming the Electoral College system, including abolishing it altogether, adopting a national popular vote system, and proportional allocation Thats how the framers of the Constitution set it up. But the biggest problem with changing how we elect our president using the NPV Compact is that its too easy to change it back. Whether electors should be able to change their positions has been heavily debated, so much so that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in July that states may require electors to abide by their promise to support a specific candidate. This unique system of electing presidents is a big reason why Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. This move would ensure that the Presidency would be given to the candidate that received the most popular votes all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. 4. Electoral votes are designated among the states based on Census. 2. In the 2016 election, "swing states" that might vote Republican or Democrat like Wisconsin were targets of candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. At a time of little national identity and competition among the states, there were concerns that people would favor their regional candidates and that big states with denser populations would dominate the vote. The allotment of the extra votes would almost always ensure that the person who wins the popular vote would also win the Electoral College. Rescue crews are fighting rugged terrain in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as search efforts for a missing man remain ongoing. If the election is based off a popular vote, each of these areas would need to be closely examined in real-time, which would enhance the security of each vote that is cast. Contact your states liaison to schedule a briefing or to learn more. But in practice it could happen every 10 or 20 years when the Electoral College votes change because the congressional boundaries change with the new population census. When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. [ 1] Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz often split about 60% of the GOP vote, which allowed Donald Trump to win early primaries with 35% of the vote. Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. 7. Most Popular. Currently, Republicans control 26 state delegations, while Democrats control 22. BREAKING NEWS: Announcing the 2022 NAPA Top DC Advisor Teams. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. A direct popular election would make it more possible for third-party candidates to succeed and would also encourage political parties to become more radical and extreme. During the 2012 elections, 38 states, also known as spectator states, were ignored and forgotten. It has also happened four times out of the 56 presidential elections. The Pros and Cons of Pooled Employer Plans: Debate. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. While we look further into the National Popular Vote, lets investigate some of its pro and cons for the American democracy. 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. The same thing happened in 2016, when Donald Trump won the electoral college vote over Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election (Archives). In theory that could happen every four years. 4. 3. Prevents disputed outcomes ensuring a peaceful transition of power Reduces the costs of national presidential campaigns. Favouring the Reform of the Electoral College. Sets found in the same folder. One such movement, the National Popular Vote plan would ensure that the winner of the popular vote would also win at least enough Electoral College votes to be elected president. Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to. Our experts will write for you an essay on any topic, with any deadline and requirements from scratch, Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons. And in all states but Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in that state is awarded all of its electoral votes, whether the split is 51% to 49% or 99% to 1%. That principle should be expanded to presidential elections. One of the main critiques of the Electoral College is that because 48 states choose to allocate electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis (the College is established by the Constitution, but the . Surprisingly enough, the National Popular Vote bill could possibly bring forth some problems. Watch out! 8. Lastly, it may cause a third-party candidate to prevail and win, which would allow Americans to be given more choices besides the two primary parties (Richards). The Youth Homelessness Fellows Program is a year long opportunity to legislators and legislative staff particularly interested in the topic of youth and young adult homelessness. This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. In 2016, Gary Johnson received 4.48 million votes and 0 electoral votes, but the potential is always there for this to happen. This divide creates natural divisions between groups of people who both support their country, but in different ways. Ultimately, any disputes about the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court. 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 California. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. Because of how the system is set up, it is possible for one candidate to win the popular vote and another to win the electoral vote. Retrieved from https://samploon.com/electoral-college-and-national-popular-vote-pros-and-cons/, Should the Electoral College Be Abolished, Pros for The Electoral College in the United States, Electoral College is Undemocratic but We Have no Better System, The Electoral College Should Be Terminated, The Electoral College Annotated Bibliography. (The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.). It did not change the outcome. Understand how the Electoral College system works. Thats a bank of about 14 million potential voters that reliably vote as a majority for Democratic candidates. The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. Also the NPV Compact allows states to withdraw from the compact as late as four months before an election. If you need 321 electoral votes to win, and you can get 102 by winning the national 354 popular plurality, you need only 219 of the state electoral votes. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. The Supreme Court has said in local and state elections voting should be based on the principle of one person one vote. The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. popular vote pros and cons-shootings in south dallasshootings in south dallas The state legislatures of the cooperating states would . This means that the U.S. would fundamentally be unable to pay back its existing loans, described by Bloomberg as a "major disaster" that could significantly impact the world economy. 1. These battleground or swing states receive 7% more federal grants, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions (National Popular Vote). Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The important number is 270. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. ThoughtCo. Each states electoral votes are tallied by Congress in the House chamber by House and Senate representatives on the 6th day of January following the Presidential election. 5. 13 Early College High School Pros and Cons, 18 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of the Payback Period, 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing a Car, 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing, 24 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of a C Corporation, 16 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Mediation, 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Gated Community, 17 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups, 17 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Bonds, 19 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Annuities, 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising. All other votes cast for that candidate are therefore superfluous. That created a voter value of 2.85. Individual states agree to pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, provided that enough other states follow suit. It has been enacted by twelve states, which include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California. NCSL actively tracks more than 1,400 issue areas. After all, is said and done, the candidate who attains the largest number of votes can still lose. The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. For example: States already have the power to award their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, although this would be disadvantageous to the state that did so unless it was joined simultaneously by other states that represent a majority of electoral votes. As with other powers entrusted to the states, it is an application, not a circumvention, of the Constitution when the states utilize those powers as they see fit. According to the Constitution, the Electoral College is a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens (National Archives). "Pros and cons of the Electoral College it said this about what supporters think about the electoral college "Naturally . The Founding Fathers chose it as a compromise between allowing Congress to choose the president and having the president elected directly by the popular vote of the people. The Electoral College also inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more likely than others. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. In 2004, for example, candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry campaigned heavily in states such as Nevada while ignoring political issues in New York, a state that Kerry was sure to win, according to the University of the Pacific. The NPV Interstate Compact does not eliminate the very complicated Electoral College system that most voters dont really understand. 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. That effectively means that votes in the the 75% of the country that are in swing states effectively dont count at all. Certain penalties exist in other states. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. National Popular Vote is a constitutional and practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President a goal traditionally supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans How does the system currently work? Since the Constitution and the Bill of Rights became governing documents in the United States, there have only been 17 amendments made to it. This outdated institution creates unnecessary . But with the NPV Compact a change in party control of just one or two states could restore the old system of electing the president and then four years later it could be changed back.
1997 Arkansas Football Roster,
Mary Munday Cause Of Death,
Capsule Wardrobe Brands,
Professional Gift Wrapping Services,
Payne Funeral Home Obituaries Memphis, Mo,
Articles N