Popular vote is a direct vote. Supporters of a national popular vote argue something must be done; the Electoral College disproportionately inflates the influence of rural areas while undervaluing the votes of cities. "Every vote matters," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in Mississippi on Monday. Getting rid of the Electoral College would radicalize politics. Under these laws, which states adopted to gain political advantage in the nations early years, even though it was never raised by the framers states award all their electors to the candidate with the most popular votes in their state. Democratic presidential candidates are weighing in too. The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. [2] Both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature are currently controlled by Democrats; however, the 2020 elections shifted both chambers to Republican control. Do you think this means the system is broken? Not one was a first-rank president, but their selection did not seriously injure the democratic character of our system. Do you think that more states or all states should join the compact? "It really does over-represent some sparsely populated states, and it provides some skew and bias to our system that I just don't think is healthy anymore," said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. Five times in our history, presidential candidates who have won more votes than their opponent have still lost the election. There have been some unusual elections, such as the 1972 affair when Richard Nixon took 520 electoral votes to George McGoverns 16. In other words, the Electoral College isnt sacred, and theres no reason we cant change how it works today. Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992 with only 43% of the vote, and then in 1996 with 49.2%. Do you support this movement? A second variation would be to award two Electoral College votes from each state to the winner of the national popular vote and award the remaining electors to the winner of each congressional district (CD). Find all our Student Opinion questions in this column. Have an idea for a Student Opinion question? If the Electoral College system begins to prevent, on a regular basis, the popular vote winner from becoming president, it will create systemic challenges. Thrown together at the last minute by the countrys founders, it almost immediately stopped functioning as they thought it would. Stanford, CA 94305-6105 The party structureswhich, for all their faults, have a vested interest in candidates from the moderate middle who are able to work with Congress and other officials to governhave been sidelined. Alexander Hamilton was a significant supporter of the Electoral College. Article V sets up the manner by which an amendment is passed. The founders opted for the Electoral College because the two leading alternatives, election by Congress and by popular vote, were thought to have serious defects. Save Our States, The Status of National Popular Vote, https://saveourstates.com/threats/the-status-of-npv (accessed April 17, 2020). Today the pact has the support of states and Washington D.C. that total 181 electoral votes, largely those that have gone for Democrats in recent years. After a long battle in Florida Bush won the state narrowly, giving him an Electoral College victory of 271 to 266 over Al Gore. Suddenly, every voter will count, no matter where they live. Having this structure go away would encourage more third-party development. Iowa farmers might lose out to California union workers since their population numbers are larger. The politicians are tapping into what's become a popular position with many voters, especially Democrats. It took time for people to learn what was happening in the nations capital. 6. Two hundred years after James Madisons letter, the state winner-take-all rule is still crippling our politics and artificially dividing us. 326 Galvez Street There are millions of Republicans in deep-blue states, like Massachusetts and California. James Madison, known as the father of the Constitution, was very disturbed by the state winner-take-all rule, which he considered one of the central flaws of the Electoral College as it took shape in the early 19th century. m.startribune.com Thats almost 1.5 billion votes. President Trump once supported abolishing the Electoral College he previously felt it was a "total disaster for democracy" but since his 2016 presidential victory over Hillary Clinton, in which Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, but Trump received 304 electoral votes, he has changed his mind. 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. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. After a long battle in Florida Bush won the state narrowly, giving him an Electoral College victory of 271 to 266 over Al Gore. And, as our colleague Bill Galston has written, the Electoral College continues to be a ticking time bomb. In the 2020 presidential election a shift of just 45,000 votes in three states, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona could have shattered Americans belief in the legitimacy of their political system by creating a tie in the Electoral College and sending the election to the House of Representatives. In part, that is because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. But there is something called the National Popular Vote Compact. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. It is no secret that the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all suffered, from the outset, from efforts to imply that there was something improper and unworthy or even suspicious in their elections. Why? 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. In the ensuing 215 years, the Electoral College system itself has changed little, although the popular vote has been rightfully guaranteed to millions more previously denied on the basis of race, gender and age. It's another way the system ensures it's perpetuity. 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. Is the Electoral College a Problem? Does It Need to Be Fixed? Is the way Americans choose the president undemocratic and unfair? Turkey general election 2023 guide: what you need to know | CNN No amount of campaigning will change that. 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. 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. 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. What do you think of Mr. Wegmans arguments? This system allows minorities to have a bigger microphone for their concerns as well. 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. Only Rutherford Hayes, with a 3% difference, won the electoral college despite being in the minority. There have also been five elections where the eventual president didnt win a majority of the vote, including Trump in 2016. Another 15 legislatures with varying degrees of Republican control would also need to ratify such an amendment for the Electoral College to be removed. They simply happen to be states that become competitive because of their demography, and which are readily identifiable as such because of the increasing sophistication of political polling. Under the current structure of the United States, there are 50 unique presidential contests instead of one nationwide affair to elect a President. And finally, Myth 3: The Electoral College protects small states. 11. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, even by a single vote, they get all of that states electoral votes. John Locher/AP TheNational Archives reportsthat over the past 200 years more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College without any becoming law. It is within a states authority under Article II, Section 1 to impose a fine on electors for failing to uphold their pledge, the court said in an 8-1 opinion. Stanford University. Maine and Nebraska, however, have enacted the congressional district method, which allocates one electoral vote to the winner of the popular vote in each state-drawn district. Every four years, tens of millions of Americans votes magically disappear before the real election for president happens about six weeks after Election Day, when 538 electors convene in state capitals across the country to cast their votes for president.
