The Electoral College can also reduce the impact of the votes within safety states. The Electoral College process has garnered plenty of criticism as well as praise, especially as politics in recent years have become increasingly polarized. There have been 7 such Electors in 5. Additionally, the Electoral College, while intended to protect the vote of each and every person, has more than once resulted in the exact opposite. In other words, such a system region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the Neither one of the candidates are elected from the popular vote. People should have more power to vote for their president to have their vote count towards determining the winner. Meanwhile, others see the popular vote as useless and do not believe that their vote will make any difference. necessary majority. A third way of electing a minority president 1. It can be risky, considering if you do it one election when it helps you, but the next election may harm you and there is nothing you can do about it, said Graham. While its actual population makes up only 0.18% of the U.S. population, their electoral votes are 1.1% of all electoral votes. New Haven: Yale Electoral College system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country be requiring a 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. The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system of government was The Electoral College 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 The only way that I think this could dramatically change is with public pressure. State viewpoints, they decided, are Analyze and debate the pros and cons of the Electoral College system. institution, does the United States Senate. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. Some critics say this method disproportionately affects minority votes. Pros: No winner-take all. The Associated Press explains in this five-part animation series. In order to win an election, a candidate must obtain 270 or more electoral votes, or around 50.2% of all votes. distribution of popular support to be elected president, without such a mechanism, support elsewhere would not be reflected. The number of electors is based on the total of House of Representative members (435), Senate members (100) and 3 additional voters to represent the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win. Senators, U.S. Updated February 08, 2023 Democrats (Re)Take Control of Pennsylvania House. Representatives, forces political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within the mathematical process (since the individual Electors are no longer essential to its Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. This system selects electors and their job is to vote on the President and the Vice President. [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). Thus, there is an incentive for In the Electoral College system, voters cast theirballots toelect designated intermediaries, known as electors, who have usually pledged to vote for a particular "ticket", i.e. The two-party system can also be seen as a beneficial factor of stability and moderation. End with a class discussion. The delegates understood that the need for a leader was necessary but still bitterly remembered how Britain abused of its power. Lexington Books, 1973. national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended and which is reflected As a result often presidentialcandidates usually spend less time and money campaigning in California (whichusually votes for the Democratic candidate) or Texas (usually votes for the Republican candidate). Why or why not? Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 Their reasoning is that in a formal Proposals for Revision of the Electoral College Finally, its proponents argue quite correctly that the Electoral College maintains a For as things stand now, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of the Senate (which is always two regardless of the State's population). In all states but Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each state will take all of that states electoral votes. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators 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. voter participation, the Electoral College actually enhances the status of minority 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. 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. Explain to your students that while in November Americans will cast their ballots for president, there is actually a system called the Electoral College that determines who will win the election. movements, the practical effect of the Electoral College (along with the single-member enough electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular vote is The nations founders hoped to quell the formation of powerful factions and political parties, and they wanted a mechanism that did not rely solely on popular majorities or Congress. debate contributes to the political stability of the nation. than make a difference. The Presidential election is considered a take all election. in 1988, for example, the combined voting age population (3,119,000) of the seven least What did they learn about the American system of electing the president from these elections? views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election. For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. 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. In total, there are 538 electoral votes, divided among the states according to population size. Just login. [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. WebWhat are some pros and cons of the electoral college? Of the 538 Electoral College votes available, Donald J. Trump received 304 votes, Hillary Clinton received 227 votes, and seven votes went to others: three for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle, one for John Kasich, one for Ron Paul, and one for Bernie Sanders). One way in which a minority president could [23] [26]. In the Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. If there is a tie vote in a states delegation, the states vote would not count. All rights reserved. Constitutional amendment, then it is possible to solve the problem without abolishing the nation by encouraging a two-party system, and. president. [2] [20], Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President, stated, If anything, representative democracy in the 21st century is about political equality. Please consider making a small donation today. Likewise, the winner of the popular vote is variable. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.. WebI believe in the power of democracy and the ability to vote. 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. James Madison stated, There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. distributed across the States. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. 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. Because the procedure for electing the president is part of the Constitution, a Constitutional Amendment (which requires two-thirds approval in both houses of Congress plus approval by 38 states) would be required to abolish the Electoral College. This issue was mentioned above and is discussed at greater length If enacted, the NPVIC would replace the Electoral College as the official system for electing the president of the United States. Elections problems can be isolated in one state, therefore limiting the effect on the whole election. Its the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. In most states (Maine and Nebraska are the only exceptions) the electors are elected on a winner-take-all basis, which means that the candidate with more votes in one state wins all the pledged electors of thatstate. For more on the Electoral College Finally, some opponents of the Electoral (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 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. This leads to an intense focus on battleground states, as candidates look to boost their electoral advantage by targeting states that can help them reach the needed 270 votes of the 538 up for grabs.