But we need bipartisan support in Congress, a constitutional amendment, and a majority of the states to agree. In 2016, although the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, received almost three million more votes than Donald Trump, the Republican, Trump received 306 electoral votes to Clintons 234 a victory Trump termed a landslide.. Instead, it's a product of the 12th Amendment - put in place after the 1800 contest between Jefferson and Burr . Legitimacy for any elected official is an important factor for governance of a State. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. I have argued for decades that we need to get rid of the Electoral College. Yet this controversial system remains. The Electoral College has 538 electors; each state has a set number of electors equivalent to its two US senators plus its number of US congressional house representatives. The use of the Electoral College system to determine the results of the 2016 Presidential Election has divided our nation. In fact, he maintains without any proof -- that the election was rigged, while making an all-out effort to deny the will of the electorate. F- It is Unfair Doc. That is a laborious process and a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College would require significant consensusat least two-thirds affirmation from both the House and Senate,. It empowers rural states, allows presidential candidates to moderate their views to form broad. What Would Gandhi Think of Our Constitution? The main complaints against the Electoral College are that it can elect someone who didnt win the nationwide popular vote and that it causes candidates to campaign heavily in battleground states while ignoring those they think they are certain to carry or not. The closest Congress has come to amending the Electoral College since 1804 was in the late 1960s when the House passed a resolution eliminating the College altogether and replacing it with direct election and a runoff election if no candidate received more than 40% of the vote. Each state gets their total number of votes decided based on the population of the state plus two guaranteed senators. 1145 Words | 5 Pages. Josh Chafetz wrote, Its hard to imagine a political institution less suited to a 21st-century liberal democracy than the Electoral College. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. But the Electoral College is worse than merely useless. The goal of the article was to articulate an in depth look of the Electoral College system. Although he has virtually no chance of succeeding, he could not care less that he was subverting our democratic form of government. Without the College, a candidate could win the Presidency by focusing on just a few large states, or by making populist promises harmful to Americas federalism. Wilson said it was a valuable improvement. It gets rid of one great evil, that of cabal and corruption; and Continental characters will multiply as we more and more coalesce, so as to enable the electors in every part of the Union to know and judge of them. Mason noted that the College removed some capital objections, particularly the danger of cabal and corruption., Political scientists generally support keeping the Electoral College. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. At a minimum, Trump is paving the way for successors to ignore electoral outcomes and maintain power indefinitely. Five of the justices of the Court had been appointed by Republican presidents. . Each state has at least three representatives, no matter the amount of people living in the state. Amendment resolutions have tended to come in waves. Since 1964 the has been 538 electors in . They view the Popular vote as a way to lessen the power of the people in rural areas, and make the focus of elections and political campaigns centered around the urban and city regions of each state. Clarence Thomas was appointed by the Bush brothers father, President George H.W. Safe States In 48 states, a presidential candidate can win 50.01% of the popular vote in a state, yet receive 100% of the electoral votes from that state. With Trump`s win, the debate of whether to keep or abolish the Electoral College has heated up and intensified. Ask an Expert. Now, Republicans will have a 222-213 majority once Rep.-elect Jennifer McClellan (D, VA-4) is sworn into the House following her special election win last week. Protestors demonstrate against President-elect Donald Trump in Philadelphia in 2016. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. Neale states The Constitution gives each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of Senate membership (two for each state) and the House of Representatives delegation (currently ranging from one to 53, depending on population). On the other side of the debate are those who would keep the Electoral college in place. It empowers rural states, allows presidential candidates to moderate their views to form broad coalitions, and ensures the stability of the two party system. The state with the most electors is California, which has fifty-five. 69.163.234.236 In effect voters in the US never vote for the President but cast their ballots instructing electors . Who is the Real Architect of India's Constitution, Nehru or Ambedkar? But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. jo.src = 'https://www.financialjuice.com/widgets/voice-player.js?mode=inline&display=1&container=FJ-voice-news-player&info=valuewalk&r=' + r; A failure to elect a President, or worse, the choice of a chief executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could precipitate a constitutional crisis that would require prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by Congress. Since the beginning of the millennium we have had five presidential elections. Having a majority determine the winner of our presidential elections can moderate both parties considerably. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. These are certainly problems, but all election systems have problems, national popular vote included. Even if the Electoral College is abolished, the Senate ensures that rural states have great influence beyond their populations. This hour -- the history of the electoral system and what should replace it. Although this is very unlikely to happen, the fact that a candidate could win the elections with only 21.8 percent of the popular vote clearly shows that the majority of the people are not always represented in the Electoral College. They are expected, but not constitutionally bound, to vote for the candidates they represent. Despite sharp polarization of the parties on many issues in 21 st century politics, Republicans and Democrats broadly agree on both longstanding election reform proposals. Twitter launches Violent Speech Policy with zero tolerance for severe Watch live: White House monkeypox response team holds briefing, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. [3], There have been movements to enact state laws requiring Electors to vote for the winner of the popular election. Through a presidential executive order Through an, 11. Shortly after, former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. introduced his H.J.Res. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. On election night just like this year the election was too close to call. Both Democratic and Republican candidates focus on issues that are important to, say, coal miners in Pennsylvania or auto workers in Michigan, but those arent the only issues in the country. Neale gives a complete assessment of the plans that describes examples of how each plan works. It arose from a convoluted compromise hammered out late in the Constitutional Convention, and the rise of political parties in the late 18th century and the spread of democratic ideals in the early 19th quickly undermined its rationales. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. majority of the people are not always represented in the Electoral College, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. The Electoral College is also essential to our nations political cohesiveness. And they criticize the College for being a living symbol of Americas original sin, since it gave slaveholding states an electoral edge at the nations founding. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. Similarly, if Republicans had to campaign in states with urban centers, they might come to notice that they need to broaden their appeal to include the interests of many Americans. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, Where the agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of fairness of the Electoral College system. We saw this happen in the 2016 election with Donald J. Trump losing the Popular vote but won the Electoral vote and thus the 2016 election. Many rural communities feared that if the vote was counted through a popular vote system that they would equal representation as urban communities would have. Tyler Lewis says that one of the problems with the Electoral College is "The distribution of Electoral College votes per state is not equally dispersed.". Gomez explains that the National Popular Vote Compact is supported by many politicians including Senator Joseph A. Griffo, Newt Gingrich, and Billy Hewes of Mississippi. It is these officials who choose the President and Vice President of the United States. EssaySauce.com is a free resource for students, providing thousands of example essays to help them complete their college and university coursework. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Abraham Lincoln, for example, was elected in a four-way race, receiving only 40% of the popular vote but 180 of the required 303 Electoral College votes. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Since the 18th century, the United States has used the Electoral College, made up of 538 individual electors, to elect its presidents instead of going by the popular vote. It was compromise between the states and the people. Election by national popular vote would dispense with the need for continental diversification. Wegman: Its a great question, and I think it really gets to the heart of what the problem is here. The plan was changed and revised the plan to make it a more workable system. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. It's composed of senators, each representing a single state. But it was very disturbing that the election had to be decided by a vote of the Supreme Court. The Green New Deal the electoral college should be abolished jessica ponik civics block march 19, 2019 couple of years after the united states was established, Skip to document. After tracing the Electoral College's tangled origins at the Constitutional Convention, he explores the efforts from 1800 to 2020 to abolish or significantly reform it, showing why each has failed. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, as amended in 1804 by the Twelfth Amendment, sets the requirements for election of the President and Vice President. But do they really? We do NOT offer any paid services - please don't ask! In fact, if given the choice of either accepting his loss or preserving our democracy, which outcome would Trump choose? Will himself left the party for this actual reason in 2016. * This essay may have been previously published on Essay.uk.com at an earlier date. Both sides agreed to let the U.S. Supreme Court settle the outcome once and for all. Subscribe to ValueWalk Newsletter. Almost all states rely on a "winner takes all" system in which every party in each state creates a slate of electors equal to the number of Electoral College votes the state has. Start by abolishing the Electoral College. When candidates only visit a few states and even a few regions in those few states, you really see a warping of policy priorities. 4. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/06/20/duvergers-law-is-dead/, [13] Constitutional Convention quotations are from Madisons Notes; https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1909#Elliot_1314-05_2172, [14] https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#changes, [15] Actually, the Electoral College Was a Pro-Slavery Ploy by Akhil Reed Amar, The New York Times, 6 Apr 2019, Why India Needs the Presidential System [Book]. For example, they created the Electoral College because news traveled slowly, so people weren't . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Presidential System Could be More Suitable for India, Why Ambedkar Didnt Like Indias Constitution. Ultimately, Levinson said, under the Electoral College system, "it isn't voters who decide elections. Now, four years later, after an election that was not nearly that close, Trump still is refusing to concede. Albert Gore accepted the result, even though he had won the popular vote by 540,000. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. The Electoral College is essential if we are to preserve our American ideals and the Constitutional form of government that has served us so well for so long. Let's Abolish the Electoral College . Get updates on the latest posts and more from ValueWalk straight to your inbox. Why is that a big deal? But these periodic crises could never have happened if we had elected our presidents by counting just the popular vote. Interestingly, the electoral vote totals of Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2016 were identical 306. Breitbart reported: He called the U.S. system of providing equal representation to Americans across the country in the presidential election, "one of those bad compromises we made at day one in this country." Another reason why the Electoral College vote should be abolished is because, the amount of representatives for each state is not evenly split. The result is that a small number of voters in certain battleground states become kingmakers. However, nowadays registered voters can get their news instantly, thus are informed about the candidates. In like manner, Thomas Neale also conveys the detail of how the electors are chosen and the electoral votes are established for each state. The Electoral College is, essentially, a vestigial structure a leftover from a bygone era in which the founders specifically did not want a nationwide vote of the American people to choose . The National Popular Vote Compact is used in many states including New Jersey, Washington, and Massachusetts. Candidates are compelled to focus on issues important in each state and choose where they want to make a difference. Now, with an aspiring autocrat refusing to give up his presidency even after a clear-cut electoral defeat, our democratic form of government is being degraded, if not entirely destroyed. Wegman: I think that the most common reason is because one or both political parties have seen themselves as benefiting from it in some way. Let's abolish the Electoral College Created to protect the slave states, it is championed now by conservatives who fear the power of America's true majority. This created situations where rivals could occupy those posts. The California Electoral College Initiative has been exposed for what it is: a Republican plan to steal the 2008 presidential election. Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the popular vote in 1860but 59% of the Electoral College. The Founders created the Electoral College as a new method of direct election. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Save it to your . One reason the Electoral College should be abolished is that one of the candidates could win the popular vote and still end up losing the election. Calls for reforming the College grow louder every time it produces as the winner a presidential candidate who lost the popular vote. They were also working to balance the needs of small and large states, as well as slave and free states. The Electoral College is a terrible system designed for electing the president of the United States. It frequently bestows a broad-based majority mandate on a candidate who has won only a plurality of the national popular vote, which is particularly important in messy elections with three or more candidates. When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they are actually choosing presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College. They say the system is also unfair because it encourages presidential candidates to pay attention to just a handful of swing states. It's time to ditch the antiquated way we choose presidents. We won't send you spam. Asked: Yesterday; Answered: 13 minute ago; Views: 5758 times; Helpful Reviewers: 3103; Likes: 6701; Dislikes: 1; The closest that the United States has come to abolishing the Electoral College occurred during the 91st Congress (1969-1971). Gates Capital Management's ECF Value Funds have a fantastic track record. Faithless Electors, those who break their pledge, are rare and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election. Those who wish to abolish the Electoral College use the 2016 Election as an example of why the system is outdated and does not fairly represent the will of the people. The one constant in the history of voting rights in America, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Alex Keyssar says, is that no law has ever been passed to restrict the voting rights of upper-middle-class white men. Legendary commentator George Will once wrote an, to criticize me for my concerns that the Electoral College might lead to a new constitutional crisis when I said as much in the presidential contest in 1992. In September 28, 2004, Thomas H. Neale wrote an article called The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections for the Congressional Research Service. Only Nebraska and Maine allocate the electoral votes proportionately. Should U.S. Supreme Court Justices Have Term Limits? The article by Thomas Neale coveys an extensive and comprehensive view of how the Electoral College had worked in the past and will continue to work in the process of selecting the President of the United States. Now the Electoral College benefits the Republican Party almost exclusively. They believed it wasn't a good idea for the people to elect the president directly. [7] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/books/review/let-the-people-pick-the-president-jesse-wegman.html, [8] https://www.vox.com/21142223/electoral-college-2020-election-jesse-wegman, [9] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/the-electoral-college-is-racist-heres-how-to-kill-it-without-a-constitutional-amendment/, [10] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-electoral-college-saved-the-election-11610133725, [12] Duvergers Law is a dead parrot. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. (2007). This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. Relevant ads and marketing campaigns School of government marketing campaigns to pay attention to just a handful of states! 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