If the Electoral College doesnt produce a majority winner, the election of the president goes to the House of Representatives where each state casts a single vote. It just so happened that Bushs brother, Jeb, also a Republican, was the governor of Florida, and another Republican, Katherine Harris, was Floridas Secretary of State, and would supervise the count and recounts. 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. Yes! EssaySauce.com is a free resource for students, providing thousands of example essays to help them complete their college and university coursework. This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. So the advantages arent so fixed. Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Presidential System Much Less Dangerous: ShashiTharoor, Parliament Faces Terminal Decline if Speaker Isnt Independent: ArvindDatar, https://history.house.gov/Institution/Electoral-College/Electoral-College/, https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Electoral-College/, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/opinion/time-to-end-the-electoral-college.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/books/review/let-the-people-pick-the-president-jesse-wegman.html, https://www.vox.com/21142223/electoral-college-2020-election-jesse-wegman, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/the-electoral-college-is-racist-heres-how-to-kill-it-without-a-constitutional-amendment/, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-electoral-college-saved-the-election-11610133725, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2012/06/20/duvergers-law-is-dead/, https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1909#Elliot_1314-05_2172, https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#changes, Nehrus Role in Constitution-Making Far Greater than Ambedkar. 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. Most Americans, by a wide margin, believe the Electoral College should be abolished. LET'S ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE Are the people smart enough to choose their own leader? Those who wish to abolish the system have laid out plans to replace the system with a more Popular vote oriented system which counts each individual vote directly (Neale 2004). Abolish The Electoral College And Replace It With National Popular Vote, Please speak to a licensed financial professional, DAX Index is back above its 200-day average after surging, Palo Alto Networks On Track For 52-Week High. Will you do the same? Party elders, led by Barack Obama, realized the key to the general election would be moderate suburban voters, including Trump-weary Republicansmany of whom were terrified of Bernie Sanderss socialism and Elizabeth Warrens economic populism. The state with the most electors is California, which has fifty-five. The federal government would have to regulate voter and candidate qualifications, voting requirements and election procedures. Interestingly, the electoral vote totals of Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2016 were identical - 306. Lewis is saying that the "playing field" is not equal when it comes to the vote. You can view ourterms of use here. Now the Electoral College benefits the Republican Party almost exclusively. These Politics essays have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies. Democrat Hillary Clinton got over 2 million 800 thousand more votes than Republican Donald T Whereas some are convinced that the popular vote should be used to determine the president, others maintain that the Electoral College process has been successfully used in all of the past presidential elections and should remain the deciding factor. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Most states however use oaths and penalties to bind them. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". It empowers rural states, allows presidential candidates to moderate their views to form broad coalitions, and ensures the stability of the two party system. Lets briefly review what happened in 2000 during Bush vs. Gore. It's composed of senators, each representing a single state. The candidate with the higher or highest number of votes is declared the winner. Both sides agreed to let the U.S. Supreme Court settle the outcome once and for all. Although the Electoral college may have its flaws, many support keeping the system in place. For starters, direct elections by voters can create incentives for broad public participation. 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. By: Emilee Delap Doc. It made the executives direct election acceptable to small states, slaveholding states, and state governments. The people of the United States of America should be voting for the president directly. However, like any manmade construct the Electoral college has its faults, one being that a candidate can lose the Popular vote and still win the Electoral vote thus winning them the Presidency. 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. Last week, we released our initial House ratings for 2024. The two-party system, which took form as soon as Washington left the stage, is an artifact of the Electoral College and the states winner-take-all rules. THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. What Would Gandhi Think of Our Constitution? But we need bipartisan support in Congress, a constitutional amendment, and a majority of the states to agree. In this extraordinarily strange election year, debating the Electoral College . More amendments have been proposed on this subject than on any other in US history. Agreeing on a method of selecting the chief executive was one of the most difficult choices made by the Constitutional Convention. Right now, small states have no voice because they, like big states and medium-size states across the country, are not battleground states. Faithless Electors, those who break their pledge, are rare and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election. The problem was fixed by the Twelfth Amendment which required Electors to denote the position along with their vote. However, despite displaying clear terms on our sites, sometimes users scan work that is not their own and this can result in content being uploaded that should not have been. Protestors demonstrate against President-elect Donald Trump in Philadelphia in 2016. (2007). Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful consequences. 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. EssaySauce.com has thousands of great essay examples for students to use as inspiration when writing their own essays. EssaySauce.com is a completely free resource for students. With the Electoral College, the value of a vote depends on what state a person lives in. These are certainly problems, but all election systems have problems, national popular vote included. According to Civis Analytics poll, 62 percent of the people that voted in the 2016 election would like to abolish the Electoral College. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. majority of the people are not always represented in the Electoral College, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they are actually choosing presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College. Why is that a big deal? jo.id = 'FJVoiceFeed'; However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Wegman: Its a great question, and I think it really gets to the heart of what the problem is here. We respect your privacy. Four were appointed by Democratic presidents. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. The College is also a brilliant alternative to runoff elections. When candidates only visit a few states and even a few regions in those few states, you really see a warping of policy priorities. Sample focuses on the federalist system, while McConnell, drives his attention on good government and political . Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. D - It is Unfair In document F it says that if there is a tie in the Electoral college it is up to the House of Representatives to decide who is president. Get updates on the latest posts and more from ValueWalk straight to your inbox. Almost 50 percent of Americans polled want to abolish the Electoral College, according to data from an Economist /YouGov poll published on Wednesday. The Founding Fathers knew that there needed to be a system like an electoral college in place to ensure the USA flourishes. Therefore, they are not focusing on the needs of the people all over America which is going against what the founding fathers wanted. 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. Christopher DeMuth wrote: Scholars, pundits and progressives widely despise the Electoral College. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. 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. Was the Electoral College abolished? Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President. Get Our Activist Investing Case Study! It's time to ditch the antiquated way we choose presidents. The Electoral College is made up of Electors who represent the states in a presidential election. The framers struggled for months considering the alternatives: direct election; legislative choice; gubernatorial election; even lottery. 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. In response to Donald Trump winning the presidency despite losing the popular vote, numerous individuals have weighed in with letters-to-the-editor, op-eds, blog posts, videos, and the like, and thanks to the revolution in digital communications, these items have reached an exceptionally wide audience. Laura Thompson wrote, The case against the Electoral College is straightforward: Because states are allocated electors based on the size of their congressional delegations, those with smaller populations have an outsize influence on presidential elections. For example, Alaska has very few citizens and still gets three votes. The electoral "college" is an example. First, lets refer back to the DBQ packet, document D, the chart shows that twelve of the smaller states plus. It is these officials who choose the President and Vice President of the United States. But Id also say that its harder than we think to say that definitively in advance of an election. Richard Nixon in 1968 won 43% of the popular vote but 56% of the Electoral College, and Bill Clinton in 1992 won 43% of the popular vote but 69% of the Electoral College. But it was very disturbing that the election had to be decided by a vote of the Supreme Court. The plan was changed and revised the plan to make it a more workable system. On the other side of the debate are those who would keep the Electoral college in place. })(); ValueWalk.com is a highly regarded, non-partisan site the website provides unique coverage on hedge funds, large asset managers, and value investing. State electoral vote results are reported to Congress and other designated authorities; they are then counted and declared at a joint session of Congress held on January 6 of the year after the election; Congress may, however, change this date by joint resolution. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. method is known as the Electoral College. The Electoral College should be abolished because it treats all Americans equally, If you look over at the functions of the Electoral College alters the system. Many people have talked about abolishing the Electoral College like president Donald J. Trump as he said I would rather have a popular election but are not taking action. DBQ packet, 1(Multiple Choice Worth 4 points) (04.06 MC) How can the Department of Education best advocate for an increase to its share of the federal budget? It removes a potential for disaster in presidential elections. 2011-2023 VALUEWALK LLC. Could the BJP adopt the Presidential System? Everyones vote counts as much as everyone elses. Since the beginning of the millennium we have had five presidential elections. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Albert Gore accepted the result, even though he had won the popular vote by 540,000. All of our essays are donated in exchange for a free plagiarism scan on one of our partner sites. 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. My stance to abolish the Electoral College has drawn some ire. President Donald Trump won the election in 2016 through the. One may say that we should keep the Electoral College in place because the Founding Fathers had valid reasons for it, but some dont apply anymore. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Where the agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of fairness of the Electoral College system. Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College. Its 538 electors reflect Congress's 100 senators and 435 representatives, apportioned to each state according to the national census conducted every 10 years, electors for the District of Columbia. The term "college" signifies the original intent that it was to be made up of "political wise men." The Electoral College was also the result of a couple of compromises. I am not alone in holding. Wilson had proposed dividing the states into districts and establishing special electors from each. The Electoral College Should Be Abolished - Free Essay Example 24. juuli 2020 . 1 The brightest students know that the best way to learn is by example! We won't send you spam. Aside from all the problems that have arisen in determining who has actually won two of our last five presidential elections, we need to return to a basic electoral principle: One person, one vote. Even if the Electoral College is abolished, the Senate ensures that rural states have great influence beyond their populations. The resolution cleared the House 338 to 70, but failed to pass the Senate.[2]. Let's get to 100! Your vote encourages the electoral college to vote for your nominee What's the system called when a candidate for president gets the majority of the dates popular vote also gets all that states electoral votes Winner take all What's the other system where delegates are divided based on each districts popular vote Proportional A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The funds added 7.7% overall in the second half of 2022, outperforming the 3.4% return for Read More. Critics want the College abolished. Each registered voter gets just one vote. It was compromise between the states and the people. It authorizes each state to appoint, by whatever means the legislature chooses, a number of electors equal to the combined total of its Senate and House of Representatives delegations, for a contemporary total of 538, including 3 electors for the District of Columbia. States, battleground or not, would disappear from the electoral calculus. The Constitutional crisis was finally over. They are expected, but not constitutionally bound, to vote for the candidates they represent. (4 points) Libertarian Conservative A) No regulation Moderate regulation B) Government management of the, 5. I will concede that the Electoral College might ensure the stability of the two party system. The Electoral College has failed to push parties to form broad coalitions. Illing: What would you say is the biggest myth or misconception about the Electoral College? They view a transition from an Electoral College system to a more Popular vote system as a threat to the will of the people in the rural portions of the United States which makes up most of the United States (Hinich and Mickelsen and Ordeshook 1975). Many were anxious even for an immediate choice by the people.[13], The plan was met with a great sense of relief and passed 8 to 3. Mr. Bidens opponents soon abandoned their campaigns. The political party who's slate gets the most votes then controls all of the state's Electoral College votes. 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. Thanks to Donald Trump, what was once the relic of our system is now an active threat to the future of our democracy. document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jo); . There is no doubt that there are many things wrong with the electoral college. Republicans won the 2004 election, but the Electoral College actually gave the Democrats a boost. Ultimately, Levinson said, under the Electoral College system, "it isn't voters who decide elections. 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. At a minimum, Trump is paving the way for successors to ignore electoral outcomes and maintain power indefinitely. , you consent to the DBQ packet, document D, the value of a election! And the people are not focusing on the other side of the people smart enough choose... Position along with their vote on Wednesday College is abolished, the Electoral College to be decided by a depends... 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Protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google who represent the states in order to help you your... Once the relic of our system is now an active threat to the use of all the cookies way! To Civis Analytics poll, 62 percent of Americans polled want to the. Briefly review what happened in 2000 during Bush vs. Gore 62 percent of Americans polled want to the. A controlled consent of example essays to help you with your studies ValueWalk!