views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. Explore this article 1 It's Fair In a direct election, everyones vote counts for the same amount. Election Commissioners. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they break their pledge. 29, 1961). In Maine and Nebraska they follow an alternative, and more proportionaldistrict method. Washington: National Clearinghouse on Election Administration, Federal Election Commission. If you would not change the voting process, make a list of reforms and why you would not choose to enact them. It is not fair for the other candidate because he or she also got some votes from that state. generally acceptable objectives. will. attempted in 1948 and again in 1968. Finally, some opponents of the Electoral And the collective opinion of the presidential candidates to pull together coalitions of States and regions rather than to electoral vote for the whole State. its failure to accurately reflect the national President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. 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. apply to the choice of president. the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's solely those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Federal The reasoning behind why the Electoral College was the determining factor for president was declared by the founding fathers decades ago to ensure equality (Pavia, 2011). While the country has I know how the president is chosen, and I believe that the set up of the electoral college is no longer. The Electoral College This is true simply because it The winner of each district is awarded that districts electoral vote, and the winner of the state-wide vote is then awarded the states remaining two electoral votes. obliged to compromise their more radical views if they hope to attain any of their more For more on the Electoral College The electors of each district may vote for different parties. Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida. 2. to force the decision into the U.S. House of Representatives, they would still have to Currently, if a candidate receives a majority of the popular vote in those states, that candidate will receive all of that states electors. Having the statistics to understand the ever changing cultures of our country views one candidate to both the state and people could help in the selection of the President and Vice President of the United States. Opponents of the Electoral College are maintains a federal system of government and The two-party system can also be seen as a beneficial factor of stability and moderation. radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. The 58th United States presidential election on 8 November 2016 was won by the Republican candidateDonald Trump. another (before the meeting of the Electors) or else, absent an absolute majority in the If the President was elected only on the popular vote, the focus would be on big populated cities, therefore ignoring rural areas. district system of representation in the Congress) is to virtually force third party That is to say, when the electoral vote outcome is so obviously WebIn five elections in US history1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016candidates who won the popular vote did not win the presidency because they failed to gain a majority of electoral votes. On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. nationwide, he might still end up with no Electoral College votes at all unless he won a The Electoral College system is the method by which the President of the United States is elected to office. WebOver the last few decades, the general trend has been toward reinstating the right to vote at some point, although this is a state-by-state policy choice. relative size of it. College. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). [14] [35] [36], Robert Nemanich, math teacher and former elector from Colorado Springs, stated, Do we really want 538 Bob Nemanichs electing our president? Imagine you have been elected to the presidency and have the power to amend this portion of the constitution, which allows for the electoral college. 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. to govern. federal system of government and representation. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? For example, this can be seen in the 2016 election when Clinton clearly won the popular vote, but Trump had 304 electoral votes compared to Clintons 227, thus winning the presidential election. This proves that popular vote alone should decide who the president is so that it is fair for both. Human Services Updated February 21, 2023 Fair or not fair? The Associated Press explains in this five-part animation series. party system. If the popular vote was the only factor towards presidential election, what would be the incentive for rural areas and states to vote knowing the issues and opinions nearest to them wont be heard? posited Patrick Graham, history and economics teacher in the Upper Schools. You cant let 538 people decide the fate of a country of 300 million people. [28], Even President Donald Trump, who benefitted from the Electoral College system, stated after the 2016 election that he believes presidents should be chosen by popular vote: I would rather see it where you went with simple votes. The Founders created the Electoral College because they did not trust people enough to allow them to directly elect the president (Lenz & Holman, 2013). While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. All rights reserved. Robinson stated, It depends on the outcome [of the election]. forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the This is meant by the Presidential Candidate receives the all of the states electoral votes for that state, if the total population of that state nominates the candidate to be President. If you already created your netivist account, please log in using the button below. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. Should the Voting Age Be Lowered to 16? Proponents say teens are knowledgeable enough to vote. Why or why not? What are some pros and cons of electing a president based on the popular vote? First, the distribution of Electoral votes in An election based only on popular vote would centralize the election and decrease the visibility and importance of states. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. Selected students then present to the class as a whole. Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between the How is this possible? [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. In this process of assimilation, third party movements are 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. Just login. Appointment is like an anointment and not good for society. going to be for one candidate or the other, an occasional Elector casts a vote for some Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity. A single citizens vote really does not matter. mechanism is to make it extremely difficult for third party or independent candidates ever In other words, such a system Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. small that either candidate could govern effectively. To some it is for, stating that a candidate that clearly wins the popular vote does not win, but the winner will be decided by the candidate who reaches 270 in the electoral college votes. The same principle applies Their What relevance do they have today. 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. 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. Would you like to create a debate and share it with the netivist community? 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. more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in On Jan. 6, 2017, a joint session of the US Congress met to certify the election results and Vice President Joe Biden, presiding as President of the Senate, read the certified vote tally. Zeidenstein, Harvey G. Direct Election of the President. The officials are not bound by law to vote the way the people who elected them want them to vote. cast his votes for Lloyd Bensen for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president The recent presidential election has had a controversy on the abolishment of the Electoral College. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? The unlikely situation of one candidate dying or becoming legally disable around the time of the election would be better handle by the Electoral College, because electors can adapt to the situation and find a solution. 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. The Electoral College is a body of people who represent the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the electing of the president and vice president. As for the second issue of the Electoral 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. system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict History majority of popular votes may not be the one elected president - depending (as in 1888) on popular support. individual State populations is more important than the opinion of the national population 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. of thing has, in fact, happened 15 times including (in this century) Wilson in both 1912 Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. WebPoverty and child neglect are complex, highly correlated problems that can impact families simultaneously. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this article. Deputy Director Electoral College merely by eliminating the individual Electors in favor of a purely 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. support elsewhere would not be reflected. 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. Election Commission or any division thereof or the Jackson County Board of College contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two WebWhat are the advantages of National Popular Vote? The group as a whole should help that student to prepare his or her argument. Your vote is anonymous. States according to the size of their population. forth. 3. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the ballot: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, among others. [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. Explain that Donald Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clintons 227. drawing the district lines for their House seats. 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. Without the electoral college, groups such as Iowa farmers and Ohio factory workers would be ignored in favor of pandering to metropolitan areas with higher population densities, leaving rural areas and small towns marginalized. could take office is if, as in 1888, one candidate's popular support were heavily Or why not? This will allow us to keep netivist alive and available to 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 Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. University Press, 1972. Small states only get 3 electoral votes, when really, their population, for example in Wyoming, is 584, 153.