12th Amendment: Fixing the Electoral College, What Is Majoritarianism? Their vote only counts at the local level, not the national level, because of the electoral votes. It happened once, in 1876. Under the electoral college system (and other voting systems not based on popular voting), it only takes one extra vote more than the other candidate to create the needed results for the election. 48 Vitosha Boulevard, ground floor, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria, Samploon, Inc. 2022. In Maine, both houses of the legislature passed the bill in 2019, but it failed at the final enactment step. National Popular Vote: Circumventing the United States Constitution The National Popular Vote plan would eliminate what critics of the Electoral College system point to as the "winner-take-all" rule - the awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state. It is our national motto and is so for a reason. That view of democracy recognizes the existence and desirability of organized interests and enshrines that principle under the concept of pluralism. Past Event - LWV Webinar on Popular Vote - The Buchanan Chronicle As the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement steps up its effort to impose a direct election for president, attempting to enlist states with a sufficient number of electors to constitute a majority (268) and to bind them to the winner of the national popular vote, those states considering the proposal might first reflect on the nightmare aftermath Even though we will be able to elect the president by national popular vote using the The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, eventually the rules for how we elect the president should be an official part of the Constitution. In 2004, for example, candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry campaigned heavily in states such as Nevada while ignoring political issues in New York, a state that Kerry was sure to win, according to the University of the Pacific. The NPV movement seeks to create an unfair and unconstitutional system that diminishes the voting rights of citizens throughout the country and raises the prospect of increased voter fraud and. Or the opposite could be true. All in all, the Electoral College causes many problems that seem unfair to American voters during such an important election. Gov Flashcards | Quizlet There are a number of pros for this method. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. As a result, the bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing an additional 74 electoral votes. Feb 25, 2023. The amendment requires that any change to the rate of compensation for members of Congress can only take effect after a subsequent election in the House of Representatives. If that was to take place, America could potentially face the same issues it is facing now. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact 1. Yet, by May 2021, 15 states and Washington, D.C., had signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Secondly, it creates a minimalist depiction in the minds of the candidate towards more than 40 states. Is there a conservative case for National Popular Vote? But with the NPV Compact a change in party control of just one or two states could restore the old system of electing the president and then four years later it could be changed back. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It understands that while the nation is one union, it is also an amalgam of varying experiences and perspectives arrived at via the settings and unique problems surrounding those who live in different places, and that these differences fall within the broad rubric of federalism. 2. When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. First it would be relatively easy to implement. There would be a reduced need to build coalitions. national popular vote plan pros and cons - shipoom.com Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? It would eliminate the threat of a faithless elector. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Inside Ohio or Florida, to pick two examples, the big cities do not receive all the attention, and they certainly do not control the outcome. The Electoral College system - the way we really elect our president - has always had its detractors and lost even more public support after the 2016 election, when it became apparent that President-ElectDonald Trump might have lost the nationwide popular vote to Sec. To pass an amendment to change the Constitution the Founding Fathers wisely required approval by 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures instead of a simple majority. It is also true that no president since 1824 has received the votes of a majority of the eligible voters and 18 presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, John. 8. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. Proportional Plan It would eliminate superfluous votes. According to the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School, some proponents of the Electoral College argue that it isolates election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. Under the electoral college system, if a state consistently pulls as leaning to one party, someone who supports the other party may not vote because they feel like there isnt a need to do so. 1. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it . The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). National Popular Vote Interstate Compact - Wikipedia However that presumably rare exception happened in the 2000 election when Florida could not complete their statewide recount in time for the Electoral College deadline and the Supreme Court forced Florida to use their first vote count without a statewide recount. Web. Although this may limit the amount of diversity that occurs in office, and may generate extra financial costs, the argument could be made that these risks outweigh the results of an election where a majority of states, not a majority of people, put someone into office. National Popular Vote That created a voter value of 2.85. The Case Against the Popular Vote | The New Republic At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost. The official 2016 election results from the Electoral College gave Donald J. Trump the victory with 306 electoral votes v. Hillary Clinton's 232 votes. (LogOut/ "The National Popular Vote Plan." A candidate can win the popular vote in enough states to win a majority of electoral votes but still lose the popular vote nationally. 13 Early College High School Pros and Cons, 18 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of the Payback Period, 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing a Car, 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing, 24 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of a C Corporation, 16 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Mediation, 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Gated Community, 17 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups, 17 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Bonds, 19 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Annuities, 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising. Common Cause 18 Pros and Cons of Popular Vote - Vittana.org cons of the national popular vote plan On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. How about receiving a customized one? Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. After the process, the President of the Senate reveals who has officially been voted in as President and Vice President of the United States. In the 2020 election California did not certify their votes until Friday, December 11, only 3 days before the Electoral College met on Monday, December, 14. Without any sort of broad support, the politics of the country could become even more fractured than they already are. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan. In U.S. history, the electoral college winner has failed to secure the popular vote 5 times. 3. cons of the national popular vote plansuper lemon haze greenhouse. National Popular Vote is a constitutional and practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President a goal traditionally supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. Over the years, the National Popular Vote bill has been introduced in the legislatures of all 50 states. The states would implement this plan once enough states controlling 270 electoral votes have signed on, guaranteeing that the national popular vote winner will win the presidency.. Cons of Electoral College. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. For example, if a candidate was very popular in New York City, Los Angeles and other large cities, she might not need to earn votes from other areas of the country. 9. The Electoral College was established in the Constitution to protect minority interests and mitigate the possibility of a regional candidate. Today the Democrats want to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system with a direct popular vote and the Republicans adamantly want to keep it. A switch to the popular vote would eliminate the concept of a battleground state because the issue would be more on issues than states. In the 2016 election, "swing states" that might vote Republican or Democrat like Wisconsin were targets of candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. 7. Even though pre-election polls made conspicuous predictions of Hilary Clinton winning the presidency and . The Constitution specifically leaves details like how the electoral votes are cast up to the states. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. Under the National Popular Vote plan,the compact would take effect only when enabling legislation has been enacted by states collectively possessing a majority of the electoral votes:270 of 538 total. In 2016, Florida had 29 electoral votes and 9.4 million voters, created a voter value of 0.72. If the National Popular Vote bill was secured within the American government, it would protect every vote and would allow those votes to equally matter in the presidential election. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. The states that join the NPV Compact will not be able to certify their Electoral College Votes until all 50 states and DC certify their state popular votes and any mandated/requested recounts since the Compact state ECVs are dependent on the winner of the national popular vote and not just their own state popular votes. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. mike matarazzo last photo. Politicians would focus on fewer swing states (Bigger states more potential votes) It's time to abolish the Electoral College - Brookings During a popular vote, a candidate who withdraws from the race or dies before the election can be held could still be on the ballot. Resource allocation would be focused on paid advertising, which would negate the need for grassroots activities. 1. This advance is referred to as the winner-take-all approach. However, this also means that regions with a quite low population density will almost have no influence on the election outcome at all since they only have far too few votes to make a real difference. Similarly, because a national campaign mandates a national message, there would also be a smaller incentive for coalition-building or taking into account the characteristics, needs and desires of citizens in differing states and regions. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 (LogOut/ cons of the national popular vote plan - alshamifortrading.com The bill has passed one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes. cons of the national popular vote plan - demo.bobbiclayton.com Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. The itineraries of presidential candidates in battleground states (and their allocation of other campaign resources) demonstrate what every gubernatorial or senatorial candidate in every state already knows namely that when every vote matters, the campaign must be run in every part of the state. Donald Trump won the presidential election by securing 304 electoral votes, compared to Hillary Clintons 227 electoral votes. 2015. N.p., n.d. OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahomans will head to the polls March 7 to decide if the state will become the 22nd in the country to legalize recreational marijuana for use by anyone 21 and older. The Electoral College is very undemocratic and riddled with issues. Hence, the National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact a type of state law authorized by the U.S. Constitution that enables states to enter into a legally enforceable, contractual obligation to undertake agreed joint actions, which may be delayed in implementation until a requisite number of states join in. What Is The District Plan? This Electoral College Reform - Bustle Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. The National Popular Vote plan is a bill passed by participating state legislatures agreeing that they will cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote. And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. Popular vote better than Electoral College, Stanford scholars say 10 Apr. 1. "The National Popular Vote Plan." Under the electoral college system, the candidates which receive the most votes in each state (or district) receive its assigned electoral votes. The National Popular Vote proposal is doomed if even only - LSE Blogs Heres how. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. National Popular Vote compact pros and cons. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. It was a great idea in 1787 but the country has changed since 1787 and the people today want to elect the president by a simple, direct popular vote where whoever gets the most votes wins like we do in every other election in the country. As with other powers entrusted to the states, it is an application, not a circumvention, of the Constitution when the states utilize those powers as they see fit. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. The popular vote currently gives every citizenCalifornians and Texans, Hawaiians and Mainers, Alabamans and Oregoniansan equal say in choosing the president. How the US Electoral College System Works, Biography of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, What Is Statutory Law? The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among states and the District of Columbia to award their respective electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote of the presidential election. Among the others: By its very size and scope, a national direct election will lead to nothing more than a national media campaign, which would propel the parties' media consultants to inflict upon the entire nation what has been heretofore limited to the so-called battleground states: an ever-escalating, distorted arms race of tit-for-tat unanswerable attack advertising polluting the airwaves, denigrating every candidate and eroding citizen faith in their leaders and the political process as a whole. If a party knows either that it can't win a single elector in a state or has an easy road to winning all of them, it sends its resources to where it has a competitive chance.. It fails to reach the ideal of one-person one-vote. That would give the Compact states only 3 days( and two of those days were weekend days) to certify their state votes. It gives more voting power to individual voters in smaller states. While we look further into the National Popular Vote, lets investigate some of its pro and cons for the American democracy. In a closely contested direct popular election, every precinct across the country might require close examination, rather than a handful of states or precincts. As a result, an agreement between a group of states to cast all of their electoral votes in a similar manner, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan passes constitutional muster. The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset It could encourage voter turnout. But sometime in the future the popular vote will change back and lean Republican. Then, election officials in all participating states would choose the electors sworn to support thepresidential candidate who received the largest number of popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. Either would provide a reason for both parties to compete in most states because there would be electors to win. 6. what connection type is known as "always on"? 2. That means every state is allowed a minimum of 3 electoral votes. Thats a bank of about 14 million potential voters that reliably vote as a majority for Democratic candidates. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. A popular vote structure would virtually eliminate the idea of a third-party candidate having a chance in an election. Majority supports changing Electoral College system for U.S As a result, the percentage of popular votes secured by Donald Trump was just 46.4% in comparison with Hilary Clinton, who secured 48.5% of the votes. Electoral College vs. National Popular Vote - BohatALA It seeks to be a bulwark against mass hysteria and the hysteria created by mass media. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election (Archives). Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. Maryland and New Jersey passed this bill in 2007, Hawaii and Illinois in 2008, Washington in 2009, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in 2010, California and Vermont in 2011, Rhode Island in 2013, New York in 2014 and Connecticut in 2018. June 7, 2022 . This has occurred in 5 of the nation's 56 presidential elections, most recently in 2016. Change). Con:not Eliminate possibility that loser of the popular vote can still win the electoral vote The Proportional Plan A proposed reform where each presidential candidate would receive the percent of electoral votes that they win from each state Proportional Plan Pro:Possible for loser of popular vote to win presidency. Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress (Senators and Representatives) is the total number of electoral votes it is allowed. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Because its so hard to get an amendment to the Constitution passed that means that once it becomes law it will probably remain so for a long time because the bar to change it back is so high. An electoral college would solve . This brings us to 196 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the pact. The Fatally Flawed National Popular Vote Plan | Cato at Liberty Blog The country could become less stable and divided if he or she did not have a vast amount of support (Richards). Cons: Smaller states don't get as much of a say and people would demand a national recount National Bonus Plan Winner of popular vote gets extra 102 electoral votes Pros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan I am confident that when we enter the next phase where the popular vote leans Republican that Republicans will change and be adamant that we should elect the president by direct popular vote and Democrats will be arguing why we should keep the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system. A Critique of the National Popular Vote October 13, 2008 Policy Analysis No. Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee the Right to Vote for All U.S. Citizens. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45thPresident of the United States. This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. 12 Proportional Representation Pros and Cons - Vittana.org Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. District Plan CONS Technically still possible, but A LOT hard to do so District 1 = Romney 57% District 2 = Romney 52% District 3 = Romney 70% Gerrymandering. The electoral requires that an election which does not receive a majority of electoral votes be taken into the U.S. House of Representatives. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. The Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns . Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to. Longley, Robert. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. America is known to have the costliest, prolonged, and complicated structure when electing a head of state. Make a contribution to support Common Cause today. It would reduce the threshold necessary to win the office. Imperfect, because its modern-day blessings -- enhancing coalition building, pluralism, federalism and grass-roots participation -- are enjoyed only by a minority of states (in any given presidential election 18 or 20), where the battle for electoral votes is competitive for both major parties. Post author: Post published: June 29, 2022 Post category: Uncategorized Post comments: paris apartment eiffel tower view for sale paris apartment eiffel tower view for sale The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals Congressional Digest The National Popular Vote The National Popular Vote bill will take effect when enacted into law by states possessing 270 electoral votes a majority of the current 538 electoral votes. Note: Today we are in a phase where the popular vote in presidential elections leans Democratic. The National Popular Vote stems from the winner-take-all approach that validates the presidential candidate interactions with only 4 out of 50 dates during their campaign. But the much greater danger to American democracy is that direct elections may make it possible for a president to be elected by no more than 30 percent of the vote, regardless of his or her suitability for office, so long as there is sufficient money and a clever media advisor behind the effort. The Electoral College Vs. Popular Vote - 1203 Words | 123 Help Me Thats the way it has been in this country for a long time. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. Start and finish your paper with ease. Under the electoral college, the majority votes of states assign electoral votes to a candidate, which then creates a majority total required for a victory.