This text is available online and is used for gudiance and inspiration, We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. 4. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. It makes things easier for extreme parties to gain representation. It has also happened four times out of the 56 presidential elections. 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. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. NCSL conducts policy research in areas ranging from agriculture and budget and tax issues to education and health care to immigration and transportation. The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. But in practice it could happen every 10 or 20 years when the Electoral College votes change because the congressional boundaries change with the new population census. 15 states and Washington, D.C. have joined the National Popular Vote compact. The years-old effort is slowly making its way through state legislatures in hopes of changing the way 12th Amendment: Fixing the Electoral College, What Is Majoritarianism? 7. Disadvantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. A Critique of the National Popular Vote October 13, 2008 Policy Analysis No. 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. For example: States already have the power to award their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, although this would be disadvantageous to the state that did so unless it was joined simultaneously by other states that represent a majority of electoral votes. Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. How the US Electoral College System Works, Biography of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, What Is Statutory Law? 41 States (with 80% of U.S. population) will be Ignored in the 2024 Presidential Election. 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. Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. 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. National Popular Vote - Pros and Cons "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. These battleground or swing states receive 7% more federal grants, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions (National Popular Vote). Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were elected with less than a majority of the votes cast. As of December 2020, the bill has been fully adopted predominately by Democratic-majority blue states which delivered the 14 largest vote shares for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election. The states' approval of the compact is a victory for democracy and the principle of "one person, one vote." Bosque de Palabras In theory we could change how we elect our president every four years. Secondly, it creates a minimalist depiction in the minds of the candidate towards more than 40 states. Today, the fact that Nebraska and Maine do not use the winner-take-all system serves as proof that modifying the Electoral College system, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan is constitutional and does not require a constitutional amendment. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. Many people may feel that any major change in how we elect the president should be in the Constitution and not in a legal loop hole even if its legal and technically constitutional. All other votes cast for that candidate are therefore superfluous. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. 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. Would you like to get a custom essay? pros and cons." dave leip's atlas of u.s. presidential elections. 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. 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. Candidates feel these states need a little bit more of their attention and apply pressure to supply these states with solutions to their problems in order to gain their vote. Currently, 48 of the 50 states follow the winner-take-all rule. 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. Although it is sometimes conjectured that a national popular election would focus only on big cities, it is clear that this would not be the case. Electoral votes are designated among the states based on Census. 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. Going to the popular vote would eliminate this issue altogether. We have seen this outcome in the 2016 Presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and in the 2000 election between George H.W. 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. 1. This has occurred in 5 of the nation's 56 presidential elections, most recently in 2016. 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. In contrast, in a direct popular election, each vote matters equally. According to the Constitution, the Electoral College is a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens (National Archives). The votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. Lastly, it may cause a third-party candidate to prevail and win, which would allow Americans to be given more choices besides the two primary parties (Richards). April 8, 2016 National popular vote far better than Electoral College system for choosing presidents, Stanford professors say. Samploon is a database of free essay samples. Unless the national popular vote was very close, or there were all lot of recounts outstanding, the Compact states in most cases would effectively know what the outcome would be and could be prepared to certify their state votes very quickly to make the Electoral College meeting date deadline. At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. 2. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. Longley, Robert. cons of the national popular vote plan. There would be fewer opportunities to illegally alter the results of an election. 2015. Even the minority party wouldnt be encouraged to negotiate because they could simply stall until the next election. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. 5. Published: Mar. Although faithless electors have not affected the results or outcome of an election yet, in 2016, there were 7 faithless electors. In addition, the bill has been unanimously approved at the committee level in the states of Georgia and Missouri, controlling a combined 27 electoral votes. 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. After the process, the President of the Senate reveals who has officially been voted in as President and Vice President of the United States. NPV is more than a third of the way to its goal. ThoughtCo, Dec. 16, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. Second, some believe itll intensify election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout (Richards). The National Popular Vote (NPV) refers to the concept of allocating a state's presidential electors to the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide regardless of the state results in a presidential election. 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. By continuing well assume youre on board with our, https://samploon.com/electoral-college-and-national-popular-vote-pros-and-cons/, Select a writer from a large pool of experts. If the presidential election were switched to the popular vote, then it would only take about 35% of the vote for a candidate to win. Many Americans are confused about how a win is obtained under these conditions and are on a quest to change this traditional statute. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. The advantage of this system is that it preserves the preferences of. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. Either would provide a reason for both parties to compete in most states because there would be electors to win. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. 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. 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 . Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Would it aid a fight to eliminate first past the post or would it further entrench the established party system voters American voters have expressed disdain for. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45thPresident of the United States. Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. It happened once, in 1876. During the 2012 elections, 38 states, also known as spectator states, were ignored and forgotten. The pros and cons of the popular vote structure of an election allow for the majority to have their say in who they wish to serve. 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. 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. But for those people who feel that changing how we elect the president should only be done by constitutional amendment they will feel that using the NPV Compact will undermine the legitimacy of the process even though its perfectly legal and constitutional. For the popular vote, however, Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, while Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. 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. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The time to stop its momentum is now. A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. That means some voters, like Republicans in California or Democrats in Mississippi, are voting without power and without attention from their preferred candidates each year. Yet, by May 2021, 15 states and Washington, D.C., had signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. In U.S. history, the electoral college winner has failed to secure the popular vote 5 times. 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. Get breaking news and updates from Common Cause. To date, the bill has passed at least one legislative chamber in 9 states possessing 82 combined electoral votes: AR, AZ, ME, MI, MN, NC, NV, OK, and OR. 7. 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. 2. However, a popular vote system, although hard to implement, is a more purely democratic system than the Electoral College. In fact, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which has now been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 196 electoral votes, is an actionable and realistic . Definition and Examples, Learn How Many Total Electoral Votes There Are. The National Popular Vote Plan. amazon web services address herndon va custom airbrush spray tan near me custom airbrush spray tan near me 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). A shift of a relative handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in six of the last 12 presidential elections. It isnt impossible to pass a Constitutional amendment, though history shows that it is not an easy process to complete. Under the Electoral College system, voters in states that are overwhelmingly in support of one candidate might feel like their vote is unimportant. Today, many electors are bound to vote according to their states' popular vote results, and those who aren't almost always do. If the election is based off a popular vote, each of these areas would need to be closely examined in real-time, which would enhance the security of each vote that is cast. 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. That view of democracy recognizes the existence and desirability of organized interests and enshrines that principle under the concept of pluralism. That means every state is allowed a minimum of 3 electoral votes. And unlike direct elections, either would provide an incentive for grass-roots activity, coalition building and enhanced citizen participation. Unexpected emergencies would be difficult to handle. The principal flaw in the plan is its assumption that under the plan there will still be only two major parties competing for the presidency in 2020. . 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. Candidates get one vote for every congressional district they win, and then two votes for winning the state-wide vote. In countries where the concept of popular votes is in place, every vote has an equal weight regarding the election outcome. 6. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. On a close popular vote, often defined as a difference of 0.5% or less in the tabulated results, an automatic recount would likely be triggered. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Proportional Plan N.p., n.d. This is a situation that has caused controversy in the election years of of 1800, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 when the elected president won the Electoral College and the presidency but did not win the popular vote. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact In the 2016 Presidential Election if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in effect the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton, would have become president instead of Donald Trump. 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. 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. 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. Inicio; Nota Biografica; Obra; Blogs. The Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns . It awards all the bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. The use of the Electoral College has been the only approach the U.S. has used to gain a President, but this way has generated numerous issues. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Most recently, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 4016 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 2818 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 574 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 3721 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House." 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. In the early 19th century, many states ratified an approach that would allow the candidate with the most votes in that state to be the winner. This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some . The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). Dont know what Ranked Choice Voting is? 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. Image the country thinks it is going to elect the president by National Popular Vote and then changing back to using the old Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system just four months before an election. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. How Many Electoral Votes Does a Candidate Need to Win? The Constitution specifically leaves details like how the electoral votes are cast up to the states. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. It is perhaps the most simplistic form of an election. "The National Popular Vote Plan." Or the opposite could be true. Here are the essential pros and cons of popular vote elections to examine. If this happens many people in the red states will not feel that the change is legitimate even if its legal and technically constitutional. Heres how. 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. Our experts will write for you an essay on any topic, with any deadline and requirements from scratch, Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons. 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. Lastly, some Americans believe that there would be an increase in voter turn-out if people felt that their vote was viewed as a significant asset to their country. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. Because every vote is equal inside Ohio or Florida, presidential candidates avidly seek out voters in small, medium, and large towns. In states with large population centers, individual voters have less power than voters in smaller states. Instead, each state and Washington D.C. is assigned a certain number of electoral votes based on its population. The National Popular Vote plan does not do away with the Electoral College system, an action that would require a constitutional amendment. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost. It knows that a majoritarianism that produces a plurality is not the voice of a majority of the citizenry. There are alternatives to winner-take-all that do not involve abandoning the positive aspects of the 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. 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.