After reading the article and watching the video, what questions do you have for Mr. Wegman? Some of the most important framers, including James Madison and James Wilson, wanted to write a direct popular vote into the Constitution. Do you agree? In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. Keeping the electoral college restricts the voting to acknowledged states only. Suddenly, every voter will count, no matter where they live. Whether youre Republican or Democrat, your vote probably doesnt count the way it should. Now is the time for sober and spirited citizens from both parties to devise a new system for 2020. In other words, the Electoral College isnt sacred, and theres no reason we cant change how it works today. Do you think any of these arguments, or others, are convincing reasons for preserving the Electoral College as it stands now? The Electoral College was created by the framers of the U.S Why? In May, the Washington State Supreme Courtuphelda state election law that said an elector who did not vote for the candidate he pledged to support could be fined up to $1,000 in civil penalties. The way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. "Precisely what it does is proportionately advantages where the people are," Levy said. The election, as Mr. Trump would say though not for the right reasons is rigged. We will focus on elections in the 20th and 21st centuries. But dont forget, Bush won the popular vote four years later by three million votes. m.startribune.com Tell us about it. Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning. Despite political challenges to reforming the manner in which the United States selects its president, there is danger in maintaining the status quo. Colin Powell was the primary beneficiary, receiving three votes. The reasons for the Electoral College may not be relevant any more. The Electoral College has elected a president who did not win the popular vote twice in the past 20 years, in 2000 and 2016. Erdogan's 'polar opposite' wants to replace him as president of Turkey. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. Anyone can read what you share. Democracy is, at its core, about fair, equal representation one person, one vote. The great problems with our presidential selection system today stem from the haphazard way we choose the two major party presidential candidates. In this case, 19 state legislatures are currently controlled solely by Democrats. In the Electoral College, there are 51 voting jurisdiction (states) that includes D.C. It is the formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. They want the option to select a president based on who gets the most votes nationally. That same view will doubtless color the 2016 election as well. Then the 2020 census will be valid for the 2024 and 2028 elections. The pact raises questions of its own for democracy: It creates a situation in which voters in, for example, Colorado, may cast most of their votes for the Democrat in a presidential race but the state might wind up giving its electors to the Republican depending on the national outcome. Should we abolish the Electoral College? - Constitution Center "And places where there are more people become more important when you're counting votes.". Some laws simply state that electors must vote for the candidate of the party they represent; others require electors to sign an oath or a pledge. That fall, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon defeated . The compact would only go into effect once the number of states involved surpasses the 270 Electoral College vote threshold that is required to win the presidency. That means that the national winner would start out with 102 Electoral College votes. Its also the only place where the District of Columbia functions as a state since the 23rd Amendment allocates 3 electors to it. Reagan would almost make a clean sweep in 1984 as well, taking 525 of 538 electoral votes and only losing Minnesota and DC. What happens if the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration? Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., at an organizing event in February. The primary benefit of the electoral college is that it works to protect the best interests of the minority in every election. Beto O'Rourke Announces His Run For President In 2020, Moderate Democrats Under Pressure As Party's Left Grabs Attention. And thats it. But the reality is, right now neither the small states nor the big ones have the voice they should. Recurring debt ceiling fights will only be solved by budget reform, Amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most votes wins. But the court has not tackled to what extent states can enforce such a pledge. Electoral vote totals will equal 538. Do you think this means the system is broken? Maintaining the Electoral College may seem like the most politically expedient position for the Republican Party in the short term, but it may cause significant damage in the long term. Debate renewed in 2016 after theelectionof the fifth U.S. president who won the presidency despite losing the popular vote. It seems to me that the original system may have been superior to what we now have. It is not simply Republican elected officials who want to maintain the Electoral College system; Republican voters support it as well. It also stops the distribution process where California gets 55 votes, but a state like Delaware only gets 3. And even when that doesn't happen, Wegman sees another problem with the . Each of those states has Democratic control of the state legislature. Including prescription drug benefits and all seniors at every income level. But they spend almost no time talking about issues that matter to millions of voters elsewhere, like public transportation in New York or climate change in California. The pros and cons of abolishing the Electoral College must go beyond the 65% of people who want it gone. 7. Having the states play an autonomous role in presidential elections, it is said, reinforces the division of governing authority between the nation and the states. That means if you live in a rural area, your vote may count more toward who gets to be the eventual president. There are millions of Republicans in deep-blue states, like Massachusetts and California. While there are two different means to amend the founding document, this country has always used the same route: a 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress, followed by the ratification of 3/4ths of the states. 3) The Electoral . As the graph below illustrates, over the course of the 20th century the distance between the biggest state by population and the median state increased. Stanford, CA 94305-6105 *** For the purposes here, all electoral votes in a given state were awarded to the proper winner, thus attributing faithless electors to the proper candidate. Because the Electoral College is based on the structure of state populations and representation in the House, some people have a vote that carries more weight per delegate than others. 3Qs: Should the Electoral College be abolished? - News It took time for people to learn what was happening in the nations capital. This is just one way the legacy of slavery still taints our politics today. Gronke notes, however, that there would be major administrative challenges if the U.S. ever got to the point of switching to a national popular vote. Donald Trump was open about ignoring the pleas of the safe blue states like New York when they were suffering the most from the coronavirus pandemic. ## For the purposes here, all electoral votes in a given state were awarded to the proper winner, thus attributing faithless electors to the proper candidate. Only one election was so close that it had to go to the House of Representatives, which is how John Quincy Adams won over Andrew Jackson. Its how we run every election in the country, except the most important one of all. [1] Over the years some of them, so-called faithless electors, have deviated from this norm but in 29 states and the District of Colombia state laws exist which bind the electors to vote for the winner of the popular vote. Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke said there is a "lot of wisdom" in the idea and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., also said she's open to it. Does this interactive influence how you feel about the Electoral College? Every vote matters, commented Senator Elizabet Warren (D-Mass) in an early campaign stop in Mississippi in 2019, and the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.. The point is, even accounting for demographic changes, neither party has a built-in advantage under a popular-vote system. This agreement includes several states and DC, giving the electoral vote count assigned to them to the candidate who receives the most votes in the national election. First, there's the Constitutional problem. There are currently 538 electors up for grabs in an election, which means a majority of 270 is necessary to elect the President. The chances of a recount would increase dramatically with election. This means that every election, 80 percent of American voters, roughly 100 million people, get ignored. In the 20th century there were 25 presidential elections and none of them resulted in an Electoral College winner who lost the popular vote. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful. That is, the compact does not go into effect until there is a critical mass of states for it to be effective. Every vote would count equally instead. And yet we have generally accepted it for centuries on the assumption it serves an important purpose. John Locher/AP PDF It's time to abolish the Electoral College - Brookings The elected officials of both parties have incentives to choose candidates with an eye toward popular electability and governing skill. The three-fifths clause became irrelevant with the end of slavery (thankfully! This is because the president is not . We have an Electoral College because thats what the founders added to the Constitution at the last minute. 2016 is on track to be the fifth election in U.S. political history in which the candidate who wins the most votes is not the one elected president -- giving rise to another round of calls to. If you live in a state where youre in the political minority, your vote is effectively erased. That might invite legal challenges from candidates or voters' groups if it took place. [2] Both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature are currently controlled by Democrats; however, the 2020 elections shifted both chambers to Republican control. Despite California having millions of more people living in the state compared to Wyoming, the weight of a vote is 30% less. Enslaved people couldnt vote, but they were still counted toward the slave states representation in Congress. Bible Commentary Bible Verses Devotionals Faith Prayers Coloring Pages Pros and Cons, 7 Uplifting Prayers for Desperate Situations, 50 Biblically Accurate Facts About Angels in the Bible, 50 Most Profitable Youth Group Fundraising Ideas for Your Church, 250 Ice Breaker Questions for Teen Youth Groups, 25 Important Examples of Pride in the Bible, Why Jesus Wept and 11 Lessons from His Tears, 25 Different Ways to Worship God and Praise the Lord. Alternative 1: Two electoral votes to national popular vote winner; state winner-take-all for the remainder, *Each of these races included faithless electors, such that the total of electoral votes, as shown, does not equal 538. Plenty. Thanks to the Internet, telephones, email, social media, and every other form of communication that we have today, people can choose for themselves whether a new story has an underlying sinister bias. Abolishing the Electoral College would get rid of this confusing process. What happens if a candidate with electoral votes dies or becomes But its worth taking a closer look at arguments in favor of keeping the status quo. In the current Congress, this would require every Democratic House member to vote in favor of such an amendment and be joined by 59 Republicans and every Democratic Senator to be joined by 19 of their Republican colleagues. This Student Opinion prompt and a related Lesson of the Day will prepare students to participate in our live panel discussion about the Electoral College, on Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. Eastern. Turkey general election 2023 guide: what you need to know | CNN Republicans especially worry about tipping the balance away from their party. This is clear in polling on the topic. He makes the case that both Republicans and Democrats should support a change. For instance, in 1900 New York was the biggest state in the union with 7,268,894 people and the state with the median population, Louisiana, had 1,381,625 people. Without the Electoral College, big states like California and New York would dominate elections. 1, that Democrats will win a popular vote every time. An example of a state closely split by congressional district is Florida in 2016, where Trump won in 14 of them and Clinton won in 13. While people were moving to the coasts, especially California, the Electoral College stayed the same. Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992 with only 43% of the vote, and then in 1996 with 49.2%. As far as the 2016 election is concerned, Hillary Clinton would still be the likely winner if the Electoral College didn't exist. Stanford University. 4. The basis for the Electoral College is found inArticle II, Section 1of the Constitution, which spells out how the president shall be chosen. In the first instance, states could decide to award 2 Electoral College votes (EVs) to the winner of the national popular vote (NPV) and the remainder to the winner of the state. As we begin the third decade of the 21st century, change benefits the Democrats. As a result, most are considered safe, that is, comfortably in hand for one party or the other. In the video above, Mr. Wegman argues that the Electoral College is undemocratic. Eliminating this barrier could mean that some parts of the country never become part of the overall campaign. In the history of the United States, there have been five elections where the eventual winner didnt receive a clear majority of the vote. Back in 1787, when the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were trying to figure out how the President should be chosen, some wanted the Congress to choose, and . The tribalism and mob rule, of which the Founders warned would be realized, and the voices of smaller states would become marginalized. The Constitution originally stipulated that the top vote-getter chosen by these electors would become president and the individual with the second-most votes would be vice president. Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President? It is extremely difficult to amend the Constitution. The Electoral College website now has an easy-to-remember address. The group of 16 (as of August 2019) currently control 196 electoral votes together. Most Americans would breathe a sigh of relief, I believe, if we had a system capable of choosing the U.S. equivalent of Theresa May instead of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. The correct number is 102. ** Adjusted Maine to act as one state rather than separate EV districts. Most people in America want the Electoral College gone, and they want to select a president based on who gets the most votes nationally, polls say. It causes some votes to have greater weight than others. Thats when the Founding Fathers crafted a compromise between those who argued for the election of the president by a vote of Congress and the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Myth No. Residents of places like Puerto Rico and Guam would have their votes be counted in the final total, and these locations consistently vote for one party. In recent years, a new scheme has emerged that claims it can bypass the seemingly insurmountable impediment of a constitutional amendment process but have the same result of nullifying the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Compact (NPV). Poll: A Majority of Americans Want to Abolish the Electoral College The Electoral College Will Destroy America, The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, free daily writing prompts for remote learning. In 1892, the court upheld inMcPherson v. Blackerthat Congress can set the date nationally for the Electoral College to meet, but it also said that the states could determine how electors were apportioned and chosen. It's just not clear how you could do that.". Even though proponents of the Electoral College want it to stay so that every state can have a specific say in the outcome of the election, the candidates are already starting to behave in the same ways that people fear they would when targeting a majority population groups. What are the positive arguments in favor of replacing the existing electoral system with a national popular vote? Instead of a politician trying to appeal to someone with specific needs, the adoption of a general platform that maximizes votes in urban centers would become the emphasis of each party. Mr. Wegman argues that reforming the Electoral College isnt a partisan issue its a fairness issue. What Might Make Joe Biden Unelectable Is a Very Scary Threat The following table shows how this would have changed the outcome in the two contested elections of the 21st century and includes 2004 for comparison. Under the current plan, states that join will not activate the compact until enough states have joined to total 270 electoral votes. During the 2020 election cycle, there are several candidates who are promising to work on doing just that. Is the Electoral College a Problem? These states currently total 196 electoral votes, although after the 2020 census is completed, projections suggest a net loss of two seats, lowering that number to 194. We should be talking about other things. However, in the five presidential elections of the 21st century, two ended up with the winner of the popular vote losing the Electoral College. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. Do you agree with him that the winner-take-all system that most states use for the Electoral College is undemocratic and unfair? The Constitution provides no express role for the states after appointment of its presidential electors, the 10th Circuit panel said, adding, Once appointed, (electors) are free to vote as they choose.. In each case, the number of faithless electors who exercised that behavior would not have had a meaningful impact on the outcome. The US presidential election takes place 3 November. Abolish the electoral college. Spend some time moving states into the Biden and Trump circles and make notes about what you notice and wonder. But in the end, Republicans and Democrats are virtually tied. So if the results of most presidential elections tend to reflect the choice of the people, why do we still have the Electoral College? Instead of having a regional focus that incorporates specific campaigning elements, there would be a national campaign instead. Faith in elections, trust in government, and the legitimacy of elected officials and the offices they hold will be challenged by a system that consistently turns its back on the will of the voters.

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