disadvantages of popular vote

Awarding electoral votes based on proportional representation is another option. In U.S. history, there has been one vice-presidential candidate who died after being nominated and one that withdrew from their partys ticket. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. Another advantage is that the impact of any state-level problems, such as fraud, is localized. Cons Many judges run unopposed. Interestingly, that gap shrinks reliably as voting increases. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. Supporters of using the electoral vote argue that it protects the rights of smaller states and is a cornerstone of American federalism. Coupled with gerrymandering, it hinders democracy instead of supporting it. The U.S. lags many other advanced nations in youth voter turnout. The construction of the Electoral College was designed to ensure that there is some buffer between the people and the candidate. For example, in 1980 Ronald Reagan won just over 50 percent of the popular vote and 91 percent of the electoral vote; in 1988 George Bush received 53 percent of the popular vote and 79 percent of the . The candidate who gets the most votes nationwide is said to have won the popular vote. That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. The need for candidates to ensure that smaller states are represented in the quest for 270 electoral votes is preserved with the Electoral College as opposed to strictly popular vote. Fifteen states and DC have already enacted it into law, for a total of 196 electoral votes. I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. 12 Proportional Representation Pros and Cons - Vittana.org Should the US government continue to use the electorial college system when electing the president? Allocating electoral votes by congressional district has the unintended consequence of making state legislatures even more motivated to gerrymander their districts, says Dr. Clawson. Each state's delegation votes in favor of the party that has more House seats in that state. That principle should be expanded to presidential elections. The Electoral College is a relic and is no longer functional in our modern democracy, says Dr. Clawson. 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. There would be a reduced need to build coalitions. Explain. 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. And finally, the Electoral College doesnt work today anywhere near how the Founding Fathers intended it to work when they created it back in 1787. Advantages & Disadvantages of a Direct Popular Election In 2012, Mitt Romney won 48% of the popular vote but only 38% of the electoral vote. Raising voter turnout among all cohorts isnt a universal goal among the politically powerful. 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. Probably the NPV Compact would be enacted into law with as little as a simple majority of the states and possibly even less. The Electoral College - Top 3 Pros and Cons - ProCon.org If these trends continue, its possible that the dynamics of the 2016 election could reverse themselves. @a_symonds, A version of this article appears in print on. This method has been used in Nebraska since 1996 and in Maine since 1972. Most young people in the United States don't vote. Among the 24 countries we examined, the difference between youth and general turnout ranged from less than a percentage point to more than 20 points. Security would be improved across the country. 7). This would be particularly true of the little states that do not have all that many voters in them. May also have government oversight organizations. Who has more power in the British government, the Queen or the Prime Minister? That would give the Compact states only 3 days( and two of those days were weekend days) to certify their state votes. Politicians dont have to mobilize and pay too much attention to youth, these days, because they know theyre not going to show up much at the polls, right? Professor Leighley said. Expert Answers John Newell, J.D. Here are the most relevant benefits: 1. Ranked balloting remains one of the options under consideration by a Commons committee, which resumes its study of potential new electoral models next week. the number of representatives in the House plus the number of senators. These are the states that may go to either major party candidate in the election. This is rooted in the idea that the Constitution works best when it is not changed and elminating the Electoral College removes a portion of it that has been in place for some time. They dont outvote their elders anywhere in the world. 3. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Follow All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. The first problem with the Electoral College is that it gives more weight to voters in small states than those in more populous ones, says DeRosa. In the 2016 election, only 58 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. The Electoral College's Real Problem: It's Biased Toward the Big At that stage, anyone who received an electoral vote is eligible to become the next president. 8. If the power of a single vote were calculated in terms of number of number of people per electoral vote, states like New York (519,000 people per electoral vote) and California (508,000 people per electoral vote) would lose. And Anthony Fowler of the University of Chicago found that permitting future voters to preregister at age 16 or 17, making them automatically registered on their 18th birthday, increases both registration and turnout by 2.1 percentage points. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. That effectively means that votes in the the 75% of the country that are in swing states effectively dont count at all. "What would be the the disadvantages if we had a popular vote instead of an Electoral College?" 6. Both times in 2000 and 2016 it was the Republican candidate who got fewer votes but ended up in the White. Elected judges often feel pressure to make their decisions in accordance. Almost a century ago, the political scientists Charles E. Merriam and Harold F. Gosnell identified several groups of Americans whose turnout rates were comparatively low, including young people, minorities, the less educated and the poor all of whom are still less likely to vote today. Many more states would still have to sign on, which doesnt look likely. The final reason would be more of a hypothetical situation. On average, studies show that falls in line with historical averages showing around 60 percent of eligible voters casting a vote in presidential election years. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Every state gets a minimum of three electoral votes. Unfortunately, this approach isnt perfect either. Pro and Con: Electoral College | Britannica The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. If states chose to, they could devise an electoral system that better reflected the popular vote. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having an electoral college over a popular vote? They could award their electors in proportion to the statewide popular vote, or to the winner of the national popular vote, as some states have sought to do through an interstate compact. In traditional elections, there are "safe" seats present for incumbents. | Certified Educator Share Cite The majority of U.S. states incorporate some form of judicial election via partisan contested elections, non-partisan contested. When a popular vote is held for a national office, the election becomes more about platform issues than local issues. In the most recent example, in 2016 seven electors cast faithless votes for someone other than Trump or Clinton. Imagine a scenario where a presidential candidate focuses on Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle. -, Americas electoral system gives the Republicans advantages over Democrats -, American democracys built-in bias towards rural Republicans -, How a single person could decide the election -. The debate over the Electoral College this week is familiar, but off point. It largely misses the real reason the Electoral College so often produces results counter to the majority: The winner takes all within most states. There would be fewer opportunities to illegally alter the results of an election. . Gives too few states too much electoral power. Switzerlands 2019 presidential election, for example, had a youth turnout of 33 percent and an overall turnout of 45 percent. For example, rapidly growing states would be at a disadvantage because electoral votes are only redistributed every ten years after the federal census. Cons. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact 1. 8. 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. 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. Here Are the Advantages of the Electoral College 1. And only 14 states have laws able to cancel rouge votes. 3. This article explains the difference between the electoral vote and the popular vote, i.e., how the Electoral College system works. Critics argue that the . A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. That means the bill needs 74 votes to reach a 270 majority, putting it into effect across the country. The disadvantage is that individual votes feel like they do not count either. Dont know what Ranked Choice Voting is? wikipedia:List of U.S. states and territories by population, Would people in the USA prefer to elect their President via direct elections? Or should the popular vote be used instead? To date, this system has allowed five men who lost the popular vote to become president Trump, George W. Bush, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, and John Quincy Adams. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. Mayors, governors, and senators are all elected by a simple majority. District-based voting and proportional representation both have their problems, and the National Popular Vote still needs 74 electoral votes to be implemented nationwide. Under the Electoral College system, voters in states that are overwhelmingly in support of one candidate might feel like their vote is unimportant. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE Flashcards | Quizlet On the other hand, if a popular vote were to be used then every single vote has an impact. Present and created as a result of voting districts. Dr. Clawson explains that, as the system stands now, presidential campaigns focus solely on winning the Electoral College. Supporters of the electoral college system say that this was exactly the kind of scenarioi.e., one large state overriding the wishes of other statesthat the current system was designed to handle. There are circumstances in which this modest bias can prove decisive: a near Electoral College tie, as in 2000. The electoral college has a number of pros and cons, depending on where you fall on the political spectrum. After falling short in Florida, Al Gore lost to George W. Bush by five electoral votes, less than the net 18 votes Mr. Bush gained from small-state bias. What would be the ramifications if the United States had a direct election for president instead of the electoral college? The problem is that twice since 2000, the person with the most votes didn't win. The Electoral College was established by Article II of the Constitution. I have several choices but I think it is either winner-take-all or the Should the Electoral College be abolished? Alternative participation. 1. The 538 members are appointed through a popular vote on a state-by-state basis (Kleeb par. To give a simplified example, if there are 100 Members of Parliament or a Provincial Legislative Assembly, and Party A receives 40 per cent of the total popular vote, Party A would have 40 MPs or MLAs. 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. But the shortcoming of the current election system is that all eligible people do not use their franchise thereby a candidate, w. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely be frayed and unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. Lower election turnout in general over time has been accompanied by a rise in other forms of citizen activism, such as mass protests, occupy movements and increased use of social media as a new platform of political engagement, according to research by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. It is a fairly persuasive point being addressed in the question. [2], Critics of the system that uses the electoral vote to choose a president argue that the system is unfair. 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. If you get everyone registered, it has to change their calculations.. Medium term: Work to reduce systemic barriers, especially to registration. The Electoral College was established in the Constitution to protect minority interests and mitigate the possibility of a regional candidate. 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. Its not clear that there was anything about the distribution of Mrs. Clintons support that inevitably put it at a disadvantage in a winner-take-all system. Electors were intended to have some level of discretion, giving states more control over electoral results. And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. The winner-take-all system has essentially nothing to do with the reasons the founders created the Electoral College, like their concern about investing the masses with the power to pick the president. A popular vote election takes all ballots that are cast, counts them, and declares the winner based on who received the most votes. 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. Under the electoral college system, the candidates which receive the most votes in each state (or district) receive its assigned electoral votes. Support for direct popular election. 3. Most states didnt award their electors on a winner-take-all basis in the first presidential elections, and even today there are two states that do not: Nebraska and Maine, which award some electoral votes by congressional district. 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. There is no one thing, said Abby Kiesa, the director of impact for CIRCLE, a research organization focused on youth civic engagement. Disadvantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. That means theres no incentive for candidates to campaign in any noncompetitive state, whether its a populous one like California or the opposite, like North Dakota. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn't have to be . Email . What are the pros and cons of elected judges? - Study Guides, Lesson If the big states were close and competitive, the big states would decide our elections as they did until fairly recently. 3. However, a group of Southern lawmakers in the Senate filibustered the bill to prevent the loss of their electoral power. 5. eNotes Editorial, 9 Nov. 2010, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-would-the-disadvantages-we-had-popular-vote-217127. Compared with their elders in Germany, France and Britain, one analysis found, younger people are more likely to sign petitions, and more than twice as likely to participate in demonstrations. The 1888 election again offers a useful example. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Justin Trudeau has promised that last fall's federal election will be the last conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system. Rural voters would almost always be in the minority. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact becomes law it would be an excellent first step to help get a future amendment to the Constitution to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect the president with a national popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. She has called for an end to the Electoral College. 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. Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)/Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Probably the only alternative voting method you've heard about, after being the first alternative voting method to be implemented at the state level. Candidates compete for a 270-vote majority out of 538 total votes. You might imagine that people in rich, highly democratic countries are more likely to vote. Republicans overcame that with some narrow victories in big states and more victories over all. Requires formation of some form of committee, college, or council to vote after they've been elected. Not created due to lack of need for voting districts. 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. Twenty-two require a popular vote majority. In theory we could change how we elect our president every four years. Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of electors who represent each state's votes. 1. In the first round, if no candidate gets a majority, then several weeks later a runoff election between the two top finishers is held. In principle, this would be an effective way to undo the Electoral College system without a constitutional amendment. 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. That would increase the amount of polarization being experienced in politics today because there would be less of a need to compromise. This means California and Wyoming get equal power, despite CA having 50 times the population of WY. He pointed to cases like George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016, both of whom lost the popular vote but still won the Electoral College. 4. That would be a sensible model for the US to adopt if we were to drop the Electoral College.. Smaller states are overrepresented, and states that arent swing states (like Indiana) get little to no attention from presidential and vice-presidential candidates during campaigns.. Weve already seen this issue take place with the GOP primaries in 2016. This is not unique to the United States. 2). That is hardly a mandate for governing, though it would be taken as such. Liberals not necessarily advantaged by switch to ranked ballot system: experts, CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. In 1888, another time there was a split between the popular vote and the Electoral College, the candidate who prevailed (Benjamin Harrison) swept the nations largest states including its largest, New York, by one percentage point. Yet another criticism is that it discourages voters in states where one party holds a substantial majority i.e. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president, at a campaign event in Memphis this week. Thus, it safeguards smaller state interests. The aim of the National Popular Vote is to ensure the popular vote dictates the Electoral College results, making every vote in every state count. Whats so interesting is that this defining feature is largely unintended. A faithless elector is a member of the Electoral College who does not vote for the presidential or vice-presidential candidate for whom they had pledged to vote. @Nate_Cohn, A version of this article appears in print on, The Electoral Colleges Real Problem: Its Biased Toward the Big Battlegrounds, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/upshot/electoral-college-votes-states.html. It reduces the idea of a wasted vote. The country thinks we are going to elect the president using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system tans and then four months before the election we change to the National Popular Vote Compact system and elect the president by whoever gets the most popular votes.
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