The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. Someone will care more than the other person and be left hurt and let down. [T]he result violated what has become one of the most important principles governing our democracy one person, one vote, Lessig wrote. Informed citizens are democracys best defense, 2023 Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Government Targeting of Minority Communities, National Task Force on Democracy Reform & the Rule of Law, equal to the number of its representatives and senators, How Electoral Votes Are Counted for the Presidential Election, This Supreme Court Case Could Have Major Consequences for Presidential Races. Several developments have led me to alter my opinion on this institution: income inequality, geographic disparities, and how discrepancies between the popular vote and Electoral College are likely to become more commonplace given economic and geographic inequities. One thing is clear, though: The Electoral College as we have it now should go. is plagued by three major defects: (1) the winner of the popular vote is not guaranteed the presidency; (2) electors are not required to vote in accord with the popular vote; and (3) any election might have to be decided in the House of Representatives. Electoral College: A System Born of Compromise At the time of the Philadelphia convention, no other country in the world directly elected its chief executive, so the delegates were wading into. For instance, Justice Alito defended his decision not to report Mr. Singers freebie because it was personal hospitality, which he believed, like his colleague Justice Thomas, did not need to be reported. The Electoral College was designed by the framers deliberately, like the rest of the Constitution, to counteract the worst human impulses and protect the nation from the dangers inherent in democracy. Florida, at the other end of the spectrum, saw 11,144,855 voters determining 29 electoral votes giving each Florida voter one-fourth the power of each Wyoming voter. That format overrepresents small- and medium-sized states at the expense of large states. 3) If presidents were elected by direct popular vote, they would wage a campaign and advertise all across the nation, rather than concentrating almost all of their time and effort in a handful of . When it became clear that President Donald Trump would lose the popular vote in Novembers election, questions again arose about the Electoral College, and whether it is fair. Based on this legal ruling and in a highly polarized political environment where people have strong feelings about various candidates, it is possible that future faithless electors could tip the presidency one way or another, thereby nullifying the popular vote. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Realistic or not, I would love to find my prince charming. But in 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that system, ruling that it violated the fundamental principle of one person, one vote.. makes it unfair if a minority president wins the election The Brennan Center works to build an America that is democratic, just, and free. Remember when he mouthed not true, on live national television, in reaction to President Barack Obamas criticism of the courts Citizens United decision during the 2010 State of the Union address? Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like the only way to establish democracy is to, why was the electoral college established?, why is the electoral college unfair in its practice? When looking at how many people in each state are eligible to vote, Wyomings voters have 6.59 electoral votes per million eligible voters. The Constitution grantsstate legislatures the power to decide how to appoint their electors. The reasons the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College are no longer relevant. Called the unit county system, it gave voters in lightly populated counties more influence over who was elected governor than voters in more populous counties had. On Tuesday evening, hours before the ProPublica report came out, Justice Alito took to the ramparts again. To make the United States a more representative democracy, reformers are pushing for the presidency to be decided instead by the national popular vote, which would help ensure that every voter counts equally. I have always believed in love and fairytales. LET THE PEOPLE PICK THE PRESIDENTThe Case for Abolishing the Electoral CollegeBy Jesse Wegman296 pp. It also creates a sense of injustice as peoples voices are simply going unheard. A presidential candidate must win a majority of the electoral votes cast to win at least 270 if all 538 electors vote. The drafters of the Constitution assumed that electors would vote according to their individual discretion, not the dictates of a state or national party. A presidential candidate can lose the popular vote and still win the Electoral College vote, and therefore the presidency. As currently constituted, each state has two Electoral College votes regardless of population size, plus additional votes to match its number of House members. The Top Seven Ways the Electoral College is Unfair, Stupid and Dangerous. But over time, all but two states (Maine and Nebraska) passed laws to give all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the states popular vote count. Bryant, who holds a masters degree in political science, reportedly said in a 2016 radio interview: The election is rigged . Those wanting a stronger national government tended to favor Congress, while states rights adherents preferred state legislatures. A national popular vote would help ensure that every vote counts equally, making American democracy more representative. In 2007, Maryland became the first state to enact the compact. [23]On Jan. 6, 2021, Congress held a joint session to certify the electoral college votes during which several Republican lawmakers objected to the results and pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol sending Vice President Pence, lawmakers and staff to secure locations. For starters, there were no political parties in 1787. What is the Electoral College? We are being hammered daily, and I think quite unfairly in a lot of instances. And if you werent good friends, what were you doing accepting this?. But determining exactly how many electors to assign to each state was another sticking point. Bush won Floridas Electoral College votes and thus the presidency even though Gore had won the popular vote by almost half a million votes. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia use a winner-take-all system, awarding all of their electoral votes to the popular vote winner in the state. Congress later amended the Constitution to prevent that ballot confusion from happening again. The debate contributed to the conventions eventual decision to establish the Electoral College, which applied thethree-fifths compromisethat had already been devised for apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. Because no candidate received the necessary 131 votes to attain the Electoral College majority, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives. Deriving their name from Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, they convinced a few members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for other Republican candidates, such as John Kasich or Mitt Romney. If enacted, the NPV would incentivize presidential candidates to expand their campaign efforts nationwide, rather than focus only on a small number of swing states. My analysis finds that voters in small states have more Electoral College votes per capita than larger, more diverse states, using several different measures and therefore more power to choose a president than they would have in a national popular election. Those numbers demonstrate the fundamental mismatch between economic vitality and political power. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive [i.e., extensive] in the Northern than the Southern States, said Madison, and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.. At that time, the ballot did not distinguish between Electoral College votes for president and vice president. If no ticket wins a majority of Electoral College votes, the presidential election issent to the House of Representativesfor a runoff. Justice Clarence Thomas has been under fire for, among other things, failing to recuse himself from cases involving the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, even though his wife, Ginni, was in regular communication with the Trump White House in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Throughout American history, 157 electors have voted contrary to their states chosen winner. From the time that I was a little girl Ive imagined meeting the perfect man to sweep me off my feet, waiting for the right one to come along and live happily ever after with. The Electoral College is a group of intermediaries designated by the Constitution to select the president and vice president of the United States. The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. Plus the old-school electoral system has its benefits. Allegations of election unfairness also clouded the 2000 race. Instead of allowing the House to decide the presidential winner, as prescribed by the 12th Amendment, Congress passed a new law to create a bipartisan Electoral Commission. The vote of a citizen in Vermont is three times as powerful as a vote in Missouri. All of these treatments are detailed, but eminently readable. Im a professor of political science who has analyzed elections in American politics. Then, on January 6, a joint session of Congress meets at the Capitol to count the electoral votes and declare the outcome of the election, paving the way for the presidential inauguration on January 20. What would happen if one state lowered the voting age to 16? The Electoral College was established in 1788 by Article II of the US Constitution, which also established the executive branch of the US government, and was revised by the Twelfth Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804), the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 1868), and the Twenty-Third Amendment (ratified Mar. Counting electorial vote 1921, 2/9/21 If you're a United States citizen, 18 years of age or older, you probably think you have the right to vote for presidential candidates in the national election. The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute, striving to uphold the values of democracy. Each state is allocated a number of electoral votes based on the total size of its congressional delegation. First, they thought 18th-century voters lacked the resources to be fully informed about the candidates, especially in rural outposts. Any semblance of elector independence has been fully wiped out. The source for Lessigs exact figures is unclear, but his larger point is accurate. Its an elegant way of awarding the presidency to the popular vote winner without a constitutional amendment. The Electoral College was made under unfair assumptions and creates injustice in our government. He neither recused himself from the case nor reported the free flight, which could have cost him up to $100,000 on the open market, and which appears to be a violation of a federal law requiring the disclosure of such gifts. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY, left) shakes hands with Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) after the electoral votes from the 2008 presidential elections were counted and certified in the House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol January 8, 2009. In doing so, he illustrated how flimsy even a Supreme Court justices reasoning can be when he attempts to be a judge in his own cause. For the NPV to take effect, it must first be adopted by states that control at least 270 electoral votes. The votes were certified in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021 by Vice President Pence, declaring Joe Biden the 46th US President. Nearly all the other justices, conservative and liberal, have accepted free travel and other gifts over the years, although these have rarely involved such a clear connection to cases that have come before the court. READ MORE: How the Great Compromise Affects Politics Today. Technically, it is these electors, and not the American people, who vote for the president. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential race, Donald Trump and his allies fueled an effort to overturn the results of the election, spreading repeated lies about widespread voter fraud. For most of his 17 years on the court, he has appeared to relish playing the role of bare-knuckled partisan soldier, standing athwart history in loyal service to a vengeful, theocratic right-wing movement that elevates religious liberty for some over basic freedoms for all. He noted that larger states, which he described as more liberal, had more electoral votes than smaller, conservative ones like his own. The essay, in both form and substance, epitomizes the bitterness and superciliousness that he has demonstrated in regular doses throughout his years on the Supreme Court. Unlike typical House practice, however, each state only gets one vote, decided by the party that controls the states House delegation. Read the original article. The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. In a lengthy screed on The Wall Street Journals opinion page, he absolved himself of any wrongdoing, flatly rejecting any suggestion that he should have recused himself or reported Mr. Singers gift. Each elector votes for two persons. After the unanimous election of George Washington as the nations first president, the Founders figured that consequent elections would feature tons of candidates who would divide up the electoral pie into tiny chunks, giving Congress a chance to pick the winner. Justice Alito, by choosing to speak up at length and in a forum that he knew would be both friendly and prominent, muscled his opinion into public view. Not only was the creation of the Electoral College in part a political workaround for the persistence of slavery in the United States, but almost none of the Founding Fathers assumptions about the electoral system proved true. The precedent set by these people creates uncertainty about how future Electoral College votes could proceed. The Electoral College does give disproportionate mathematical weight to small states. Instead, the states would each appoint independent electors who would cast the actual ballots for the presidency. But its goofy structure means almost all of them are ignored in presidential politics. If the president was. Rather than try to square that circle and admit hed been caught doing something ethically wrong and arguably illegal, Justice Alito went to laughable lengths to lawyer his way out. The states popular vote determines which partys slates will be made electors. Today, the vote of a citizen in Wyoming is four times as powerful as the vote of a citizen in Michigan. That should concern Chief Justice John Roberts above all, because his name and legacy will be forever attached to this court. No other advanced democracy in the world uses. Thats also about four times as much influence as voters in Florida, who have 1.86 electoral votes per million eligible voters a statistic that includes people over age 18 but excludes noncitizens and, in many states, people who have been convicted of a felony. 2) The Electoral College gives disproportionate weight to the small states. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. The U.S. presidential election is really the combination of 51 separate elections one in each state and in the District of Columbia. and more. On the other hand, you might go into it with no feelings at all. At least 700 amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College. This assumption is absurd because who is to judge who is smart enough to vote. On Jan. 6, 2017, a joint session of the US Congress met to certify the election results and Vice President Joe Biden, presiding as President of the Senate, read the certified vote tally. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. A state is entitled to a number of electors equal to its number of senators and representatives. Only 5 states, however, impose a penalty on faithless electors, and only 14 states provide for faithless electors to be removed or for their votes to be canceled. They prefer to follow rules and let their opinions do the talking. However, nonvoting enslaved people made up about one-third of the southern states population. Maine and Nebraska award one electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each of their congressional districts and their remaining two electoral votes to the statewide winner. In 2008, Justice Alito accepted a free flight to a luxury fishing resort in Alaska on a private jet owned by Paul Singer, the hugely wealthy hedge-fund owner and major conservative donor. I said the founders created the institution to make sure that large states did not dominate small ones in presidential elections, that power between Congress and state legislatures was balanced, and that there would be checks and balances in the constitutional system. They cobbled together this plan because they couldnt agree on anything else.. Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to vote for candidates who win the nationwide popular vote, even if that candidate loses the popular vote within their state. Their compromise is known as the Electoral College. The second as part of the structure of the government that gave extra power to the smaller states. For a candidate to win the presidency, he or she must win at least 270 Electoral College votes. In addition, there was considerable discussion regarding whether Congress or state legislatures should choose the chief executive. The party in power typically benefits from the existence of the Electoral College, says Edwards, and the minority party has little chance of changing the system because a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds supermajority in Congress plus ratification by three-fourths of the states. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. In 1787, roughly 40 percent of people living in the Southern states were enslaved Black people, who couldnt vote. You deserve better than that. Most judges, whether by temperament or fidelity, avoid the spotlight. States are assigned electoral votes based in part on their total populations. This included attempts by a number of state legislatures to nullify some of their states votes, which often targeted jurisdictions with large numbers of Black voters. On Tuesday evening, hours before the ProPublica report came out, Justice Alito took to the ramparts again. Through this commission, five members each from the House, Senate, and Supreme Court would assign the 20 contested electoral votes from Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, and Oregon to either Hayes or Tilden. Three out of five enslaved people were counted as part of a states total population, though they were nonetheless prohibited from voting. According to experts, there are four consensus reasons to as why the founding fathers established the Electoral College. In that determination, voters in less populous states get an advantage, because no state can have fewer than three electoral votes, no matter how few people live there. The decision would have far-reaching consequences because in return for securing the votes of the Southern states, Hayes agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, thereby paving the way for vigilante violence against African Americans and the denial of their civil rights. Each of the 50 states is allocated presidential electorsequal to the number of its representatives and senators. Electoral College: Outdated and Inefficient - The Vision In 1787, the Electoral College was approved by the Constitutional Convention, and since then, it has not undergone any major changes.
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