hide caption. Christine Stenglein and Saku Gopinath provided research support for this post. If, say, environmental sustainability or abortion or the Second Amendment is your dominant concern, it does not matter whether you live in Wyoming or California, Pennsylvania or Delaware. I used to like the idea of the Popular Vote, but now realize the Electoral College is far better for the U.S.A. Gregg says that change would radicalize politics. In August, a panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appealsruleddifferently in a case raising similar issues. That means the information receives an update every 10 years. In his video, Mr. Wegman offers counterarguments to what he calls myths about the Electoral College. Warren Focuses On Policy, Which Looks Like A Tough Sell With Voters, Which Democrats Are Running In 2020 And Which Still Might. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/learning/is-the-electoral-college-a-problem-does-it-need-to-be-fixed.html. 2: The founders wanted it this way. Students, watch the video and read Mr. Wegmans Op-Ed, and then tell us: What does democracy mean to you? However, it is possible to win the presidency without winning the popular vote. Source: Daily Kos Elections. Our 230-year-old jerry-built system for picking the president, known as the Electoral College. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Social change can seem sudden, as if millions awoke one day to the same realization. As we all know only too well, in practice this archaic system means that the person who wins the most votes may not win the election. 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. What would happen if the Electoral College was abolished? Sixty years later inRay v. Blair, the court ruled the Constitution, including the 12th Amendment, does not bar a political party from requiring electors to sign a pledge to support the nominees of the national convention. According to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., if the Electoral College of the United States was abolished, the collapse of the already weakened two-party political system would be fast tracked; resulting in multiplication of splinter parties. What are the positive arguments in favor of replacing the existing electoral system with a national popular vote? For one thing, slavery. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The politicians are tapping into what's become a popular position with many voters, especially Democrats. There have been three: John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. Two hundred years after James Madisons letter, the state winner-take-all rule is still crippling our politics and artificially dividing us. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful. It probably reduces the cost of presidential campaigns by confining television advertising to the battleground states (and spares the rest of us the tedium of endless repetitive ads). Presidential elections have little if anything to do with the subject, even when some candidates claim to be running against Washington.. It's just not clear how you could do that.". And it confines vote-counting disputes to just one, or maybe a few, states. Recurring debt ceiling fights will only be solved by budget reform, Amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most votes wins. List of the Pros of Abolishing the Electoral College 1. But if youre a voter in the United States, theres a really good chance your vote doesnt count the way you think it does. Changing or eliminating the Electoral College can be accomplished only by an amendment to the Constitution, which requires the consent of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. 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. In 2016, Donald Trump won the White House by earning a majority of electoral votes, even though almost three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. Five times in our history, presidential candidates who have won more votes than their opponent have still lost the election. Using bots can streamline some law firm work, American Bar Association This spring, numerous candidates for president expressed support for either abolishing or changing the Electoral College, which ultimately picks the U.S. president. It was replaced by party conventions, which eventually were replaced (almost) with strings of single or multiple state primaries and caucuses. "There's no realistic chance of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College," said Jacob Levy, a professor of political theory at McGill University. That means centrist ideas tend to be the ones that receive the most traction instead of the individual priorities of platforms on the extreme left or right. An amendment hasn't been adopted since the 27th, in 1992, and one hasn't been adopted relatively quickly since the 26th, which took 100 days from proposal to adoption in 1971. By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. That same view will doubtless color the 2016 election as well. In 2016, the results were even more dramatic. Beto O'Rourke Announces His Run For President In 2020, Moderate Democrats Under Pressure As Party's Left Grabs Attention. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the way the president is elected should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency, while 35% favor keeping the current Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 27-July 4, 2022. The way it gets implemented is the result of dozens of state laws, which evolved over time as the country settled into a two-party system. Britannicas ProCon.org lists three reasons: 1) The founding fathers thought the Electoral College was the best method for electing the president.2) The Electoral College ensures that different parts of the country, such as Iowa and Ohio, are involved in selecting the president, rather than just the most populated areas.3) The Electoral College guarantees certainty, whereas a popular vote system might lead to no candidate getting a majority. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. The Electoral College thus presents democratic risks without serving any of its original purposes. Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul, and Faith Spotted Eagle received one each. The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Does the Electoral College need to be reformed? This has happened five times in American history. The 2010 census is therefore valid for the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Presidential elections. [2] Both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature are currently controlled by Democrats; however, the 2020 elections shifted both chambers to Republican control. As American leadership falters, scholars say, autocrats are on the rise. Support of that magnitude has become rare for anything in a sharply divided United States. Electoral vote totals will equal 538. That fall, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon defeated . 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. This isnt a partisan issue its a fairness issue. There have also been five elections where the eventual president didnt win a majority of the vote, including Trump in 2016. When a state passes legislation to join the National Popular Vote Compact, it compels the state to award its electoral votes to whomever wins the national popular vote, regardless of which candidate won in that state. So overall, while the Electoral College may not make much of a difference to the results of our modern elections, it forces our politicians to have a larger scope of the issues facing this country, rather than just focusing on the concerns people in areas with large populations care about. Given that a change would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures, it is not going to happen. 1. Thats because, regardless of its overall merits, change is always rooted in the politics of the day. A split of electoral votes has occurred once in each of these states. Why, or why not? Some of the most important framers, including James Madison and James Wilson, wanted to write a direct popular vote into the Constitution. Do you think this means the system is broken? It wasnt the first time a president won by losing or the second or even the fourth. It can be fixed. The voices of small states, like Rhode Island and Wyoming, would be drowned out. That means the major party that can maintain its base could win elections without a clear majority. For example, in 1967, 58 percent favored its abolition, while in 1981, 75 percent of . Map. For years, a majority of Americans have opposed the Electoral College. 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. A New Mexico doctor describes the pain and horror of caring for COVID-19 patients. What do you think of Mr. Wegmans arguments? Changing or eliminating the Electoral College can be accomplished only by an amendment to the Constitution, which requires the. 6. Reagan would almost make a clean sweep in 1984 as well, taking 525 of 538 electoral votes and only losing Minnesota and DC. US election 2020. {{currentYear}} American Bar Association, all rights reserved. It took time for people to learn what was happening in the nations capital. While politicians continue to put major focus on highly-populated urban cities of many states, such as Cleveland, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Electoral College pushes candidates to address issues in states as a whole and not just in metropolitan regions. Technically, it is . Why We Should Abolish the Electoral College - New York Times Having the person who loses the popular vote win the presidency will seriously undermine the legitimacy of our elections. The U.S. Census creates the allocations of electoral votes that each state receives. Why did they lose? Democracy is, at its core, about fair, equal representation one person, one vote. In the video above, we delve into the reasons people give for keeping the Electoral College and why theyre wrong. Whether youre Republican or Democrat, the Electoral College is unfair. The great problems with our presidential selection system today stem from the haphazard way we choose the two major party presidential candidates. Trump made a similar argument earlier this week, warning that "smaller states & then entire Midwest would end up losing all power.". 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. Would the federal government get into the business of administering the elections, or leave that up to state and local officials, as it does today? The two-party system solves the fractured vote problem more effectively than the Electoral College ever did, and the electors never exercised genuine independence. "How would that work?" In the video above, Mr. Wegman argues that the Electoral College is undemocratic. 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. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. It is the formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. It doesnt. It no longer serves the intended job. The Electoral College website now has an easy-to-remember address. 6. And this was an effort that was supported by the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, and progressive and liberal groups outside. But really, scholars say, consensus is constructed through thousands of small acts over generations. It is extremely difficult to amend the Constitution. But heres the important part. Without the Electoral College in place, presidential candidates would build platforms that would speak to their base. Two of those elections have occurred since 2000. 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. Adding even more candidates into this discussion without the protections of this structure could create circumstances where someone with less than 35% of the vote could potentially win a four-year term. The pros and cons of abolishing the Electoral College must go beyond the 65% of people who want it gone. 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. The reason we even have swing states is because almost all states award their electoral votes using a winner-take-all system. They are simply party loyalists who do not deliberate about anything more than where to eat lunch. Spend some time moving states into the Biden and Trump circles and make notes about what you notice and wonder. As Americans look at their election processes, a complete review of the pros and cons of abolishing the Electoral College is useful when taking this unique structure into account. It's another way the system ensures it's perpetuity. "You look at the Florida situation we had in 2000 that already took a lot of time and effort, but imagine if that was done across the country. After reading the article and watching the video, what questions do you have for Mr. Wegman?