The allotment of the extra votes would almost always ensure that the person who wins the popular vote would also win the Electoral College. The National Popular Vote would go into effect when states controlling 270a simple majorityof the total 538 electoral votes. This brings us to 196 of the 270 (73%) electoral votes needed to activate the pact just 74 votes away. 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. That created a voter value of 2.85. Start and finish your paper with ease. 5. Due to some states being heavily populated in comparison to others, that may help a candidate quickly obtain a win. One route would be a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate and ratification by the states, or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures. Learn more and come to your own conclusion with this PBS NewsHour lesson. There are logistical issues that are managed at the local level in each election. "Electoral College Pros and Cons." Some states, such as California and Hawaii, both had their bills vetoed by their governors before it was overridden and enacted by state legislators. 1. Before the 2016 election, the largest vote deficit in the popular vote was Al Gore securing over 500,000 votes more than George W. Bush. The amendment requires that any change to the rate of compensation for members of Congress can only take effect after a subsequent election in the House of Representatives. The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. (2021, February 17). Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. 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. 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. Over the long run the countrys popular vote in presidential elections has roughly been equally split between Republican and Democratic.*. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. If a popular vote were allowed to declare a winner instead, it wouldnt be through a state-by-state counting of electoral votes. A candidate may not have to concentrate anymore, but they may have to move their attention to states such as Texas, New York, California, and Alaska. ThoughtCo. The important number is 270. The conference's consulting services on policy issues go beyond testifying. So you run a campaign designed to maximize your votes in those few largest states. The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. Secondly, it creates a minimalist depiction in the minds of the candidate towards more than 40 states. If the National Popular Vote bill was secured within the American government, it would protect every vote and would allow those votes to equally matter in the presidential election. This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. Under the electoral college system, if a state consistently pulls as leaning to one party, someone who supports the other party may not vote because they feel like there isnt a need to do so. The senators in the U.S. Senate make up two votes in addition to the votes that represent the number of its members in the U.S. House of Representatives (Archives). 4. The country thinks we are going to elect the president using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system tans and then four months before the election we change to the National Popular Vote Compact system and elect the president by whoever gets the most popular votes. 2. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. More people live in urban regions, which means they would have a constant sway over the election. The system had some unusual results from the start, as evident in the election of 1800, a tie in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes. Understand how the Electoral College system works. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. National bonus plan. Many people may feel that any major change in how we elect the president should be in the Constitution and not in a legal loop hole even if its legal and technically constitutional. National Popular Vote Fix the Broken Electoral College. This hybrid system means that more weight is given to a single vote in a small state than the vote of someone in a large state, leading to outcomes at times that have been at odds with the popular vote. Going to the popular vote would eliminate this issue altogether. How about receiving a customized one? Unless the national popular vote was very close, or there were all lot of recounts outstanding, the Compact states in most cases would effectively know what the outcome would be and could be prepared to certify their state votes very quickly to make the Electoral College meeting date deadline. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. Note: Today we are in a phase where the popular vote in presidential elections leans Democratic. 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. At the moment, 98 more electoral votes are needed to pass this bill in all 50 states (National Conference of State Legislators). The aim of the National Popular Vote is to ensure the popular vote dictates the Electoral College results, making "every vote in every state" count. When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. popular vote pros and cons-shootings in south dallasshootings in south dallas Image the country thinks it is going to elect the president by National Popular Vote and then changing back to using the old Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system just four months before an election. Proposed Reforms to the Electoral College. Analyzes how william j.d. Students may work individually or in small groups. It could encourage voter turnout. 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. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. In the early 19th century, many states ratified an approach that would allow the candidate with the most votes in that state to be the winner. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. Electoral College Pros and Cons. 6. 3. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800
Without the popular vote bill, swing states would continue to get more leverage and attention from candidates to ensure that they would be able to capture their votes. The National Popular Vote; States in the National Popular Vote Compact; Voter Trends in 2016; Public Opinion on the Electoral College; What Congress Is Doing on the Electoral College; Pros & Cons of Ending Surprise Medical Billing; Pros & Cons of Mail-In Voting; Pros & Cons of Ending Surprise Medical Billing; PROs. To avoid another election that differs from . Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. (The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.). 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. Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. 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%. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump. 4. 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? What surprised them? https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. The 102 extra electoral votes are calculated from allotting two votes for every state and for Washington, D.C. Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. 6. FEC:The Electoral College That could lead to a very bad situation where, instead of the people voting in November to determine who the next president is, one or two states could effectively decide who becomes the next president simply by joining or withdrawing from the NPV Compact and changing the rules on how the votes for president are counted in the next election. Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. 6. Right now, the President of the United States is not elected by a popular vote. 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. Why or why not? And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. All Rights Reserved, How 2016 put pressure on the Electoral College. Probably the NPV Compact would be enacted into law with as little as a simple majority of the states and possibly even less. I will explain that in another blog post. That means some voters, like Republicans in California or Democrats in Mississippi, are voting without power and without attention from their preferred candidates each year. There was a lot of confusion over how Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. Following U.S. election results on a TV in a restaurant in Shanghai on Nov. 4. does not determine the winner of the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact. Bush and Al Gore (Black). But if we set politics aside and focus on what is really best for democracy in our country in the long run I believe that the advantages of using the NPV compact to elect our president outweigh the disadvantages and the best way to elect our president in the 21st century is by direct popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could determine the ability of state law enforcement agencies to use civil asset forfeiture, a practice that four states have abolished entirely. Some states list electors names on the general election ballot. There are various options for reforming the Electoral College system, including abolishing it altogether, adopting a national popular vote system, and proportional allocation WASHINGTON (AP) WHY IS IT THAT ONE CANDIDATE CAN WIN THE POPULAR VOTE BUT ANOTHER WINS THE ELECTORAL VOTE AND THUS THE PRESIDENCY? Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. 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. 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. A faithless elector in the United States is someone who casts an electoral ballot for someone other than the individuals to whom they are pledged. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. 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. Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading up to Election Day by their respective states political parties. 4. The selection of presidential electors is specifically entrusted to the states by the Constitution. Electoral votes are designated among the states based on Census. Under the current structure of presidential elections in the U.S., the states become a battleground of red states vs. blue states. On a close popular vote, often defined as a difference of 0.5% or less in the tabulated results, an automatic recount would likely be triggered. What Happens if There Is a Tie in the Electoral College? That would likely reduce the number of voters who cast a ballot in each election as most people are more concerned about local impacts than national policies. Four candidates in history have won the popular vote only to be denied the presidency by the Electoral College. The Founders believed that most common citizens of the day were poorly educated and uninformed on political issues. Ultimately, any disputes about the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court. In the U.S., that means people who lean Democratic live in urban areas, while people who lean Republican live in rural areas. A popular vote election takes all ballots that are cast, counts them, and declares the winner based on who received the most votes. This four-part series, hosted in partnership with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, will explore key topics in election administration such as funding, voter registration list maintenance, post-election audits and voting technology in conversations with each of the agency's four commissioners. Cons: Can disregard the will of the majority. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. Yes. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. In the case of a tie, there are contingencies in place to determine which person will serve in the elected office. Using the NPV system means that every vote counts the same. That means the bill needs 74 votes to reach a 270 majority, putting it into effect across the country . 2023 by National Conference of State Legislatures, NCSL 50-State Searchable Bill Tracking Databases, Supreme Court to Reexamine Use of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Every state is allocated several votes according to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation. 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. We answer more than 20,000 requests for information a year. Pro: It's the only way to avoid defaulting. Moving to the popular vote structure would eliminate this potential issue. Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. Cleveland ran again four years later and won back the White House. To be elected president, the winner must get at least half plus one or 270 electoral votes. Without any sort of broad support, the politics of the country could become even more fractured than they already are. The popular vote eliminates this issue too. cons of the national popular vote planproperty management without a license in texas aot 4, 2022 12:34 . 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. The country could become less stable and divided if he or she did not have a vast amount of support (Richards). This new series from the AP is dedicated to answering commonly asked questions from our audience about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. The electoral college leads to a heavy emphasis on swing states and also typically over-represents citizens in rural states. Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. April 23, 2023. . 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. One of the biggest reasons why voters dont vote is because they feel like their vote doesnt count. It would eliminate superfluous votes. That means every state is allowed a minimum of 3 electoral votes. [Add switching votes of losing party to the other partys voter totals in every state using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system (except for 5 EC votes in Maine and Nebraska that are awarded proportionally instead of by Winner-Take-All.]. Under the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system votes in small states, like Wyoming or Delaware count double what votes in large states like California or Texas. Then, election officials in all participating states would choose the electors sworn to support thepresidential candidate who received the largest number of popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Some areas may bend the rules of an election by extending voting hours illegally. All samples were added by students. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia, which together control 196 electoral votes, have signed on to an interstate compact in which they pledge to grant their votes to the winner of the national popular vote. They will do as promised if the candidates do a very good job vetting them and picking people who are rock-solid, Professor Amar said. But for those people who feel that changing how we elect the president should only be done by constitutional amendment they will feel that using the NPV Compact will undermine the legitimacy of the process even though its perfectly legal and constitutional. That principle should be expanded to presidential elections. By its very nature, the Electoral College system is confusing. 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. I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. This advance is referred to as the winner-take-all approach. 1. Battleground states would disappear in U.S. elections. Although the 20th Amendment to the Constitution provides clarity to this situation, that process is based on the electoral college. Get breaking news and updates from Common Cause. Consequently, they decided that using the proxy votes of the well-informed electors would lessen the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the minority are drowned out by those of the masses. 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. Based on Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution granting the states the exclusive power to control how their electoral votes are awarded, the National Popular Vote plan requires the legislature of each participating state to enact a bill agreeing that the state will award all of its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, regardless of the outcome of the popular vote in that specific state. In theory we could change how we elect our president every four years. 5. Or the opposite could be true. 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. However, some critics argue that the advantages of a direct popular election including reflecting democratic principals, outweigh the disadvantages. 5 terms. Why does the system continue? By adding this new interstate compact to the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect our president we are in fact making this system even more complicated and even harder for the voters to understand. In Election 2000, the eight most populous states had 228. 2. (LogOut/ It was a great idea in 1787 but the country has changed since 1787 and the people today want to elect the president by a simple, direct popular vote where whoever gets the most votes wins like we do in every other election in the country. Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said. After all, the Electoral College makes it possible that a candidate who wins the majority of the votes could still lose the election. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. Breaking News: Biden Vetoes Congressional Resolution Blocking ESG Rule . After the process, the President of the Senate reveals who has officially been voted in as President and Vice President of the United States. It could help to reduce partisanship. If this happens many people in the red states will not feel that the change is legitimate even if its legal and technically constitutional. 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. The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. It would reduce the threshold necessary to win the office. Contact your states liaison to schedule a briefing or to learn more. 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. What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. 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. Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, a lengthy and often unsuccessful process. BREAKING NEWS: Announcing the 2022 NAPA Top DC Advisor Teams.
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