They think it antiquated, irrational and undemocratic and argue for scrapping it in favor of a national popular vote. It's electors who decide elections, and there is a . 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. D - It is Unfair In document F it says that if there is a tie in the Electoral college it is up to the House of Representatives to decide who is president. Interestingly, the electoral vote totals of Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2016 were identical 306. Two electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate winning the overall popular vote in each of the then . Neale states The Constitution gives each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of Senate membership (two for each state) and the House of Representatives delegation (currently ranging from one to 53, depending on population). 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Two Presidential elections (1800 and 1824) have been decided in the House. Both McConnell and Sample believe that the Electoral College is significant because it makes sure that the states count in presidential elections. If it didnt exist, no one today would consider creating it. [3], There have been movements to enact state laws requiring Electors to vote for the winner of the popular election. Both Democratic and Republican candidates focus on issues that are important to, say, coal miners in Pennsylvania or auto workers in Michigan, but those arent the only issues in the country. Together with our house of representatives in the lower chamber it rules across the land as a bicameral legislature. Everyones vote counts as much as everyone elses. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. In like manner, Thomas Neale also conveys the detail of how the electors are chosen and the electoral votes are established for each state. Amendment resolutions have tended to come in waves. I am not alone in holding. There are two reasons they want to abolish the Electoral College: One, of course, is Trump. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Its primary function is to malapportion political power, and it does so indeed, has always done so with strikingly awful consequences. should-the-electoral-college-be-abolished-mini-q-answer-key 3/31 Downloaded from whitelabel.nightwatch.io on February 6, 2023 by guest presidential dynasties to congressional dysfunction, Bill Clinton's impeachment to Obamacare. Your IP: Should The Electoral College Be Abolished? But does anyone still believe it is a great idea for our politics? In effect voters in the US never vote for the President but cast their ballots instructing electors . It preserved states rights, increased the independence of the executive branch, and avoided the danger of provincialism involved in popular election. 1956: Hubert Humphrey's (D-MN) S. J. In 2020, the Electoral College began showing its stuff in March, when Joe Biden, who had done poorly in early primaries, suddenly emerged from a pack of far more vivid candidates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Nearly all states follow the winner-take-all system, awarding all electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in that state. Steve Slavin - Nov 23, 2020, 2:52 pm. But do they really? Four were appointed by Democratic presidents. These are certainly problems, but all election systems have problems, national popular vote included. However, despite its faults, as a system is has a foundation conducive to reform rather than abolition. Editor's Note: In 2016, we asked two professors to debate whether the Electoral College should cease to be the mechanism used for selecting the U.S. president.Here are the yea and the nay. But Trump considers himself the winner this year. One reason the Electoral College should be abolished is that one of the candidates could win the popular vote and still end up losing the election. Twitter launches Violent Speech Policy with zero tolerance for severe Watch live: White House monkeypox response team holds briefing, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jo); States, battleground or not, would disappear from the electoral calculus. 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 cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". A national popular vote would have accentuated rather than moderated the zealous enthusiasms roiling the Democratic Party.. Thomas H. Neales account of the history of the Electoral College provides evidence that the original idea of the plan was changed and revised at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The original method of electing the President and Vice-President, however, proved unworkable, etc. (Neale 2 CRS) Furthermore, Neale acknowledges that the founders and delegates realized that the Electoral College plan was not the perfect system to use in the election process. This makes the candidates focus on swing states needs more than other states in order to win the election. Despite the new law, some still think the Electoral College is outdated and should be abolished in favor of a national popular vote system. The Electoral. For example, they created the Electoral College because news traveled slowly, so people weren't . 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. Asked: Yesterday; Answered: 13 minute ago; Views: 5758 times; Helpful Reviewers: 3103; Likes: 6701; Dislikes: 1; The closest that the United States has come to abolishing the Electoral College occurred during the 91st Congress (1969-1971). The Electoral College consists of electors, and an absolute majority of votes is needed for a candidate to win the election. However, like any manmade construct the Electoral college has its faults, one being that a candidate can lose the Popular vote and still win the Electoral vote thus winning them the Presidency. All our essays are uploaded by volunteers. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, The term "college" signifies the original intent that it was to be made up of "political wise men." The Electoral College was also the result of a couple of compromises. Further, he has enacted in office not the modest policies of a man without a true national mandate but has fueled our partisan warfare. DBQ packet, 1(Multiple Choice Worth 4 points) (04.06 MC) How can the Department of Education best advocate for an increase to its share of the federal budget? Since 1964 the has been 538 electors in . Candidates would need to travel everywhere instead of only to a handful of swing states that currently enjoy this attention. Could the BJP adopt the Presidential System? Let's get to 100! [5] Sabato, L. J. If 60,000 votes went the other way in Ohio, George W. Bush would have won the national popular vote by 3 million votes, but John Kerry wouldve been elected. Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Electoral College. It is these officials who choose the President and Vice President of the United States. 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. Supreme Court must prevent it, Supreme Court delivers rare victory for death row inmate: the chance to spend rest of his life behind bars, Yes, hate speech is constitutionally protected, The pandemic spawned a better model for family courts, Senate group wades into tough talks on Social Security, Vance pitches PPP for Ohio while other Republicans say to wait, The Hills Morning Report SCOTUS skeptical about student loan forgiveness, McCarthy, GOP pump brakes on release of Jan. 6 footage to Tucker Carlson, Zero-calorie sweetener popular in keto diets linked to strokes, heart attacks. Created to protect the slave states, it is championed now by conservatives who fear the power of America 's true majority. Clearly, whoever won Floridas 25 electoral votes would win the election. According to Civis Analytics poll, 62 percent of the people that voted in the 2016 election would like to abolish the Electoral College. With the Electoral College, the value of a vote depends on what state a person lives in. The bipartisan bill is designed to close loopholes that could lead to another Jan. 6-type incident that disrupts the electoral count process. This petition starter stood up and took action. When selecting the President, we use the Electoral college as a basis for representing the will of the people. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, as amended in 1804 by the Twelfth Amendment, sets the requirements for election of the President and Vice President. Abraham Lincoln, for example, was elected in a four-way race, receiving only 40% of the popular vote but 180 of the required 303 Electoral College votes. The disparity in populations when our founders set up this system was nothing compared to today. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. For starters, direct elections by voters can create incentives for broad public participation. But Id also say that its harder than we think to say that definitively in advance of an election. Campaigns would focus on large, voter-rich metropolitan areas and media markets, and on appeals to national demographic and occupational groups. Mya Sims Ms. The Electoral College was and continues to be an undemocratic system that stands as an obstacle for the United States to become a real democracy. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. My stance to abolish the Electoral College has drawn some ire. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. The Electoral College is a favorite punching bag for those who think America should be a more majoritarian country. Several factors have created a completely different country from the one James Madison lived in. Dan Glickman served as agriculture secretary under President Clinton and represented Kansas as a member of Congress. 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. Instead, the delegates settled on a system involving an Electoral College. jo.id = 'FJVoiceFeed'; Breitbart reported: He called the U.S. system of providing equal representation to Americans across the country in the presidential election, "one of those bad compromises we made at day one in this country." These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. This created situations where rivals could occupy those posts. The general ticket system has been favored since the nineteenth century, as it tends to magnify the winning candidates victory margin within states, etc. Thanks to Donald Trump, what was once the relic of our system is now an active threat to the future of our democracy. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. Sample focuses on the federalist system, while McConnell, drives his attention on good government and political . In this plan, the Electoral College would be abolished as known, but the then 531 electoral votes would still be put to use. The Electoral College, a product of American exceptionalism and constitutional structures, continues to influence the outcome of national elections by establishing the rules of the game. Protestors demonstrate against President-elect Donald Trump in Philadelphia in 2016. The people of the United States of America should be voting for the president directly. A voter in Wyoming has nearly four times more influence than a voter in California. In fact, he maintains without any proof -- that the election was rigged, while making an all-out effort to deny the will of the electorate. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Neale gives a complete assessment of the plans that describes examples of how each plan works. New York: Walker Publishing. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. Ask an Expert. 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. 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 . (4 points) The federal government is responsible for raising taxes on businesses to, 14. The framers struggled for months considering the alternatives: direct election; legislative choice; gubernatorial election; even lottery. (04.02 MC) Which of the following is a key belief of a supply-side approach to economic and fiscal policy? 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