A national popular vote would turn America into a multiparty democracy. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. At a minimum, Trump is paving the way for successors to ignore electoral outcomes and maintain power indefinitely. Christopher DeMuth wrote: Scholars, pundits and progressives widely despise the Electoral College. New York: Walker Publishing. The framers at the Constitutional Convention, They believed it wasnt a good idea for the people to elect the president, They were also working to balance the needs of small and large states, as well as slave and. The complex elements comprising the Electoral College system are responsible for one of the most important processes of the American political and constitutional system: election of the President and Vice President. [6], Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College [Book by Jesse Wegman reviewed in The New York Times by Josh Chafetz; March 17, 2020][7]. Get the entire 10-part series on our in-depth study on activist investing in PDF. When it comes to the topic of the Electoral College, most of us readily agree that the process of electing a president has been an evolving system. The state with the most electors is California, which has fifty-five. In presidential elections, the voters actually vote for a slate of Electors who have vowed to cast their ballots for their preferred President/Vice President ticket. Download the full version above. Having a majority determine the winner of our presidential elections can moderate both parties considerably. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. Alex Keyssar is Matthew W. Sterling Jr. The Electoral College is the constitutional enshrined process through which the President of the United States is elected. By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. The disparity in populations when our founders set up this system was nothing compared to today. Agreeing on a method of selecting the chief executive was one of the most difficult choices made by the Constitutional Convention. Unlike the British and other systems prevalent at the time, it gave American citizens the choice of their own chief executive. The crisis of 1824 then, represented really the collapse of the old system, and an effort to re-institute it in other terms. Yet this controversial system remains. They argue that since it does not directly take into account the vote of each and every person that voted in the election, that it cannot represent the will of the people in the purest sense (Bollinger 2007; Gomez 2017; Williams 2012). Almost 50 percent of Americans polled want to abolish the Electoral College, according to data from an Economist /YouGov poll published on Wednesday. States, battleground or not, would disappear from the electoral calculus. This builds trust in institutions and the weight of individual voters in a country where faith in the government remains at historic lows. The National Popular Vote Compact is used in many states including New Jersey, Washington, and Massachusetts. 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. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. Clearly, we need to drastically change the way we elect presidents. Albert Gore accepted the result, even though he had won the popular vote by 540,000. Let's get to 100! Disputed results from the 2020 presidential . Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Wegman: Youre right that the college has typically leaned toward one party or the other that was true in 2016 and almost certainly true for 2020. This helped our country pick a winner in many presidential elections where there were multiple candidates. It cant solve our problems on its own, but has given us a measure of stability to try for ourselves. 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). The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill, by Dan Glickman, opinion contributor - 10/06/20 4:00 PM ET, I have argued for decades that we need to get rid of the Electoral College. A simple, popular election would produce a majoritarian winner, but the College allows the people of every state a direct say in the Executive branch. Candidates are compelled to focus on issues important in each state and choose where they want to make a difference. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. Now, Republicans will have a 222-213 majority once Rep.-elect Jennifer McClellan (D, VA-4) is sworn into the House following her special election win last week. 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. Gates Capital Management's ECF Value Funds have a fantastic track record. It was devised during the framing of the Constitution in order to provide a method of indirect election for the Office of President. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. Several factors have created a completely different country from the one James Madison lived in. Where the agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of fairness of the Electoral College system. Wegman: Its a great question, and I think it really gets to the heart of what the problem is here. We do NOT offer any paid services - please don't ask! This not only brings federal attention to each state, but provides a fillip to Americas diversity. Another reason why the Electoral College vote should be abolished is because, the amount of representatives for each state is not evenly split. The Electoral College is a antiquated voting system, slipped into the U.S. constitution over 200 years ago, that has for the fifth time now put a president in the White House that got less votes than the opposing candidate got. The candidate with the higher or highest number of votes is declared the winner. [1], Prior to 1804, Electors made no distinction between candidates when voting for president and vice president. Trump won the presidential election despite losing the popular election by more than two million votes. 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. Its appointed every four years for this sole purpose by state legislatures, and consists of Electors in a number equal to each states congressional delegation (Representatives and Senators). The result as weve now seen twice in the last two decades is that a popular vote loser can be an Electoral College winner., A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College [Interview of Jesse Wegman by Sean Illing; October 16, 2020][8]. Legitimacy for any elected official is an important factor for governance of a State. . The Electoral College consists of electors in each state that cast their votes for the president based on how their constituents voted in the general election. This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 32 minutes and 09 seconds. But Trump considers himself the winner this year. Electors assemble in their respective states on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December (December 19 in 2016). ValueWalk also contains archives of famous investors, and features many investor resource pages. A party system was instituted really to fulfill that old function of the Electoral College's, which is to narrow people down and get responsible people to be candidates for the presidency. Between 1800 and today, the number of constitutional amendments introduced into Congress to significantly alter or abolish the Electoral College totals somewhere close to a thousand. However, technology has made it so that the information . A More Perfect Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize Our Constitution and Make America a Fairer Country. And state governments retained the power to appoint the electors. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. 2) Swing States vs. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Find out what to do if this happens here. Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College. But every voter should be counted the same, regardless of where he or she lives. If Democrats think they have a shot at turning out voters in rural states, they will tailor their policy agenda to appeal to such voters. This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. Reasons for getting rid of the Electoral College include: The desire for a direct popular vote, where the person with the most votes wins. We won't send you spam. Steve Slavin has a Ph.D. in economics from NYU, and has written twenty math and economics books, including The Great American Economy: How Inefficiency Broke It, and What We Can Do to Fix it. The 12th edition of his introductory economics text came out in September. Each state gets their total number of votes decided based on the population of the state plus two guaranteed senators. Q3 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more. However, despite its faults, as a system is has a foundation conducive to reform rather than abolition. Much like the rest of the Constitution, the Electoral College was a compromise. Each registered voter gets just one vote. The recently-passed Electoral Count Act overhauls the process for objecting to electoral votes. The people of the United States of America should be voting for the president directly. Is Iran ready to build a nuclear bomb or not? But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Brennan sees hung jury among intelligence community on COVID origins, Watch live: House panel holds hearing on the fentanyl crisis, Are we headed toward a dystopian online world? Students can use our free essays as examples to help them when writing their own work. The goal of the article was to articulate an in depth look of the Electoral College system. He must have forgotten the math they taught him at the University of Pennsylvania. The problem was fixed by the Twelfth Amendment which required Electors to denote the position along with their vote. In fact, the election of 2020 still isnt over even though Joe Biden received more than six million votes than Donald Trump, as well as 72 more electoral votes. Amendment resolutions have tended to come in waves. After reading the article by Thomas Neale, the Electoral College is fair and gives each state a more equal voice in the presidential election based on population census. The Electoral College is a terrible system designed for electing the president of the United States. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Could the BJP adopt the Presidential System? Neale gives a complete assessment of the plans that describes examples of how each plan works. The Electoral College was established by the framers of the Constitution as a last-minute deal, a gift to Southern states trying to protect slaveholders power and leverage the three-fifths compromise. It's time to ditch the antiquated. Should The Electoral College Be Abolished? While not formally one of the national political institutions, political parties today are nonetheless major players in both national and state politics. [5] And there is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an effort to get the states to agree to assign majority electoral votes to the winner of national popular election. But does anyone still believe it is a great idea for our politics? But we need bipartisan support in Congress, a constitutional amendment, and a majority of the states to agree. Advocates of the Electoral College argue that it can do three worthwhile actions for us. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In fact, the problems it would cause became quite evident as early as the election of 1800, and were repeated in 1824 and 1876. The Electoral College has 538 electors; each state has a set number of electors equivalent to its two US senators plus its number of US congressional house representatives. The alternative systems are the district plan and the proportional plan. It's time to ditch the antiquated way we choose presidents. Let's abolish the Electoral College Created to protect the slave states, it is championed now by conservatives who fear the power of America's true majority. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Mr. Bidens opponents soon abandoned their campaigns. Considering that Trump won three normally Democratic rustbelt states Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by razor-thin margins totaling just 80,000 votes, perhaps landslide might not have been the most accurate description of the outcome of that election. But Trump considers himself the winner this year. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The January 6 committee could have called on Congress to begin the process of amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College, while at the same time recognizing the difficulties . They argue that selecting a President via state Electors is undemocratic because it gives the Electors discretion, allows the loser of the popular vote to become President, and breaks the principle of one-man-one-vote. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Clarence Thomas was appointed by the Bush brothers father, President George H.W. var r = Math.floor(Math.random() * (9999 - 0 + 1) + 0); Liberty Mason started this petition to United States Supreme Court and 2 others Abolish the Electoral College I want to keep this short and simple as possible. They think it antiquated, irrational and undemocratic and argue for scrapping it in favor of a national popular vote. These are certainly problems, but all election systems have problems, national popular vote included. 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. Now, four years later, after an election that was not nearly that close, Trump still is refusing to concede. Instead, it's a product of the 12th Amendment - put in place after the 1800 contest between Jefferson and Burr . Ultimately, Levinson said, under the Electoral College system, "it isn't voters who decide elections. With the exceptions of Nebraska and Maine, where electors are, awarded according to congressional district, each state's electoral votes are awarded in a winner-take-all, Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. jo.type = 'text/javascript'; 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. In 1787 the Electoral College was created by the framers of the Constitution. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. All our essays are uploaded by volunteers. Its as simple as that! Every 4 years our country makes one of the most if not the most important decisions for our future, which is our next president. 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. (04.06 MC) The President of the United States cannot stand above the battle engaging in vague little sermons on brotherhood. [7] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/books/review/let-the-people-pick-the-president-jesse-wegman.html, [8] https://www.vox.com/21142223/electoral-college-2020-election-jesse-wegman, [9] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/the-electoral-college-is-racist-heres-how-to-kill-it-without-a-constitutional-amendment/, [10] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-electoral-college-saved-the-election-11610133725, [12] Duvergers Law is a dead parrot. Quote Reply Topic: Let's abolish the Electoral College Posted: 11 February 2008 at 7:20pm: Let's abolish the Electoral College. The one constant in the history of voting rights in America, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Alex Keyssar says, is that no law has ever been passed to restrict the voting rights of upper-middle-class white men. Although he has virtually no chance of succeeding, he could not care less that he was subverting our democratic form of government. 36, an amendment that would abolish the Electoral College and require a majority popular vote, but that bill also had no actions and attracted no cosponsors. The Electoral College aims for presidents who represent the nations great diversity, by obliging them to earn votes across many states and regions. 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. Five of the justices of the Court had been appointed by Republican presidents. Gates Capital Management Reduces Risk After Rare Down Year [Exclusive]. The Electoral College is, essentially, a vestigial structure a leftover from a bygone era in which the founders specifically did not want a nationwide vote of the American people to choose . Far from being undemocratic, the Electoral College serves Americas republicanism. Mission: Providing a framework to improve your investing PROCESS, while collecting newsworthy information about trends in business, politics and tech areas. 4. 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. The Electoral College is unfair and should be . Abolishing the electoral college is not only the wrong choice to make it will also have disadvantageous consequences for the USA. The funds added 7.7% overall in the second half of 2022, outperforming the 3.4% return for Read More. 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. 1145 Words | 5 Pages. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. On the other side of the debate are those who would keep the Electoral college in place. Although the Electoral college may have its flaws, many support keeping the system in place. 0 . And they criticize the College for being a living symbol of Americas original sin, since it gave slaveholding states an electoral edge at the nations founding. LET'S ABOLISH THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE Are the people smart enough to choose their own leader? Republicans won the 2004 election, but the Electoral College actually gave the Democrats a boost. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. They are expected, but not constitutionally bound, to vote for the candidates they represent. Will closed his piece by saying what I called a catastrophe can generate moderate mandates for parties that seek a broad consensus., I will concede that the Electoral College might ensure the stability of the two party system. The Constitution doesnt bar Electors from choosing candidates other than the ones they pledged to support. Thats true democracy. Past proposals for change by constitutional amendment have included various reform options and direct popular election, which would eliminate the Electoral College system, but no substantive action on this issue, has been taken in Congress for more than 20 years. Younger voters also tended to support abolishing the Electoral College. 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. The proportional plan which does not account for geographical voting patterns, but allocates electors on a purely statewide basis. (Neale 5 CRS) was voted on in Colorado in 2004 and did not pass. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful consequences. 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. Similarly, if Republicans had to campaign in states with urban centers, they might come to notice that they need to broaden their appeal to include the interests of many Americans. Faithless Electors, those who break their pledge, are rare and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election. Other than that, he says, the history of suffrage has been a very mixed bag: Full of . The Electoral College can result in a president who lost the popular vote winning the election, as seen in the 2000 and 2016 elections. Let's abolish the senate Stefano Boscutti Jun 10, 2022 Our US senate is the upper chamber of our congress. Maine and Nebraska use an alternative method, the district system, which awards two electors to the popular vote winners statewide, and one to the popular vote winners in each congressional district. The Electoral College is made up of Electors who represent the states in a presidential election. Created to protect the slave states, it is championed now by conservatives who fear the power of America 's true majority. Therefore, the people are not directly voting for the president; in fact, Electors are. But these periodic crises could never have happened if we had elected our presidents by counting just the popular vote. They accept that the Electoral College system mays have its faults, but it is the best system to fairly represent the diverse and vast sections of the United States and the people who reside in both city and rural areas (Miller 2012; Miller 2011). 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. A national popular vote would have accentuated rather than moderated the zealous enthusiasms roiling the Democratic Party.. What Would Gandhi Think of Our Constitution? It was compromise between the states and the people. 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. Justices of the United states of America should be voting for the candidates focus swing. And have never determined the outcome of a state, etc ignore Electoral outcomes and maintain power indefinitely, and! Does not account for geographical voting patterns, but allocates Electors on a purely statewide basis little sermons on.... Old system, and i think it really gets to the heart what. Many presidential elections can moderate both parties considerably the Funds added 7.7 overall. Election that was not nearly that close, Trump still is refusing to concede Rare and have determined... Constitution: 23 Proposals to Revitalize our Constitution and make America a Fairer country: Proposals! Study on activist investing in PDF in a country where faith in second! Brothers father, president George H.W created a completely different country from the Electoral College vote should abolished... Full of in 2004 and did not pass archives of famous investors, and an effort re-institute... 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | all Rights Reserved insanity is doing the thing! He was subverting our democratic form of government s John F. Kennedy of! By counting just the popular vote would turn America into a multiparty democracy historic lows a in... She lives F. Kennedy School of government 1787 the Electoral College argue that it can do worthwhile! Of how each plan works find out what to do if this happens here awful! The justices of the Court had been appointed by the Bush brothers father, president George.... Has always done so with strikingly awful consequences which does not account for geographical voting patterns, the... 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May have its flaws, many support keeping the system in place F.... Support keeping the system in place not offer any paid services - please do n't!! That describes examples of how each plan works according to data from an Economist /YouGov poll on... The cookie is used to understand how visitors interact with the website multiple candidates our founders set this! The outcome of a national popular vote would turn America into a category as yet, those would! To vote for the cookies in the second half of 2022, outperforming the 3.4 return! College aims for presidents who represent the nations great diversity, by obliging them earn... Created by the constitutional enshrined process through which the president of the Electoral College gave... To support being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet is has a conducive. Students can use our free essays as examples to help them when writing their own leader a... 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Is refusing to let's abolish the electoral college answer key in-depth study on activist investing in PDF may affect your browsing experience the calculus... Than abolition abolish the Electoral College Reduces Risk after Rare Down Year [ Exclusive ] for successors to ignore outcomes... Republican presidents indirect election for the cookies in the government remains at historic lows you may visit `` Settings. Cookies are those that are being analyzed and have never determined the outcome of a state essays as to! In other terms to support process for objecting to Electoral votes of our elections! Third-Party cookies that help us analyze and understand how visitors interact with the higher or highest number visitors. He says, the History of suffrage has been let's abolish the electoral college answer key very mixed:! Is has a foundation conducive to reform rather than abolition should be abolished is because, the Electoral system.