It fails to reach the ideal of one-person one-vote. Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. The Electoral College is very undemocratic and riddled with issues. Definition and Examples, Learn How Many Total Electoral Votes There Are. Because there was a difference of less than 1,000 tabulated votes between George W. Bush and Al Gore in one state, Florida, the nation watched as 6 million votes were recounted by machine, several hundred thousand were recounted by hand in counties with differing recount standards, partisan litigators fought each other in state and federal courts, the secretary of state backed by the majority of state legislators (all Republicans) warred with the state's majority Democratic judiciary -- until 37 days after the election the U.S. Supreme Court, in a bitterly controversial 5-4 decision effectively declared Bush the winner. In the 2020 general election, a ballot proposition attempted to overturn Colorado's membership to the pact, but the measure failed, 52.3% to 47.7% in the referendum. An individuals vote doesnt make a difference when it is counted against the votes of the delegates in the House of Representatives and Senate. As a result, the bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing an additional 74 electoral votes. 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. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost. 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. Steve Sisolak vetoed it. 2. List of the Cons of Using the Popular Vote 1. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 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. Today, many electors are bound to vote according to their states' popular vote results, and those who aren't almost always do. 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. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. The senators in the U.S. Senate make up two votes in addition to the votes that represent the number of its members in the U.S. House of Representatives (Archives). Make a contribution to support Common Cause today. The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset The electoral college is a tradition of American politics that's fairly controversial. Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of electors who represent each state's votes. 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. America is known to have the costliest, prolonged, and complicated structure when electing a head of state. The United States does not have direct election of its president, yet most national, state and local offices are filled by the candidate with the most votes. 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.. Their answer is simple: one in which every citizen's vote is equal to every other citizen's vote and one in which the winner of the presidential popular vote, no matter how small his or her percentage is of those who voted, would be elected. Here are six reasons why legislators should reject this attempt to jettison our electoral system: 1. It would be a national mandate to put someone in office, even if that winning candidate received less than 50% of the vote. Home| Government| Elections| Electoral College| Electoral College Pros And Cons. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. [Add switching votes of losing party to the other partys voter totals in every state using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system (except for 5 EC votes in Maine and Nebraska that are awarded proportionally instead of by Winner-Take-All.]. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. Rural voters would almost always be in the minority. 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. Before the 2016 election, the largest vote deficit in the popular vote was Al Gore securing over 500,000 votes more than George W. Bush. 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. 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. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The appeal of NPV is the simplicity of its message. This divide creates natural divisions between groups of people who both support their country, but in different ways. ThoughtCo. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. 1. The Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns . The advantage of this system is that it preserves the preferences of. Moving to the popular vote structure would eliminate this potential issue. Yes. Without any sort of broad support, the politics of the country could become even more fractured than they already are. 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. It isnt impossible to pass a Constitutional amendment, though history shows that it is not an easy process to complete. If enacted by enough states, the National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. How Many Electoral Votes Does a Candidate Need to Win? For the popular vote, however, Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, while Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. But if we set politics aside and focus on what is really best for democracy in our country in the long run I believe that the advantages of using the NPV compact to elect our president outweigh the disadvantages and the best way to elect our president in the 21st century is by direct popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. The selection of presidential electors is specifically entrusted to the states by the Constitution. The National Popular Vote plan does not do away with the Electoral College system, an action that would require a constitutional amendment. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047 (accessed March 4, 2023). Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. Watch out! The National Popular Vote Bill is not a Democrat or Republican bill. But we're closer to that than you might think 15 states and the District of Columbia have already signed on, providing 196 electoral votes of the needed 270. The National Popular Vote initiative transpired in 2006. Lastly, the biggest problem that the Electoral College produces is the reality that a persons vote really doesnt matter (Black). In 2016, Hillary Clinton had more than 10 million of these votes, while Donald Trump had more than 8.3 million, even though Trump won 30 states and Clinton won 20 and the District of Columbia. The National Popular Vote Bill is a bill for Americans interested in both preserving our Electoral College and reforming the shortcomings of our current "winner-take-all" system that awards all the electors of one state to the candidate who wins in that particular state and . However, some critics argue that the advantages of a direct popular election including reflecting democratic principals, outweigh the disadvantages. Analyzes how william c. kimberling, the deputy director of the federal election commission, is a credible author over the issue. But NPV could force our electors to disregard the wishes of the . Longley, Robert. The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. The NPVC is a proposed interstate compact in which the signatory states agree that they will appoint their presidential electors in accordance with the national popular vote rather than their own state electorate's vote. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. It could help to reduce partisanship. A direct popular election would make it more possible for third-party candidates to succeed and would also encourage political parties to become more radical and extreme. The winner would receive all of the compact states electoral votes, giving them at least the necessary 270 to win the White House. If that was to take place, America could potentially face the same issues it is facing now. every decade states are redistricted could be redrawn to capture house seats and corrupt the Presidential election That means a candidate who receives a majority of their votes in a high-delegate state, such as California, could make a dramatic impact on the rest of the election. The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. The alternative view of democracy is more complex; it is one that includes but is not limited to the pursuit of equality. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. To become president of the United States of America, you must be at least 35 years old, have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years and be a natural-born citizen. That structure makes it easier for extremist views to find official representation. At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. For more information, please see our She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with bachelor's degrees in creative writing, English/American literature and international studies. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. amazon web services address herndon va custom airbrush spray tan near me custom airbrush spray tan near me 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. (LogOut/ That view of democracy recognizes the existence and desirability of organized interests and enshrines that principle under the concept of pluralism. Proponents of the National Popular Vote fail to understand the most basic facts about the American presidential electoral system. Although many supporters of the electoral college argue that a two-party political system is more stable, some critics counter that having more than two parties would give Americans more choice. There are a number of pros for this method. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. Weve already seen this issue take place with the GOP primaries in 2016. The one-vote approach does not align with the way the electoral votes operates. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. Privacy Policy. 7. In contrast, in a direct popular election, each vote matters equally. Although the 20th Amendment to the Constitution provides clarity to this situation, that process is based on the electoral college. Right now, the President of the United States is not elected by a popular vote. cons of the national popular vote planchicago religious demographics. 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. 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.