Bush. 1 [1], Prior to 1804, Electors made no distinction between candidates when voting for president and vice president. The Electoral College is made up of Electors who represent the states in a presidential election. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Tyler Lewis says that one of the problems with the Electoral College is "The distribution of Electoral College votes per state is not equally dispersed.". However, despite displaying clear terms on our sites, sometimes users scan work that is not their own and this can result in content being uploaded that should not have been. Find out what to do if this happens here. Get the entire 10-part series on our in-depth study on activist investing in PDF. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. However, technology has made it so that the information . Campaigns would focus on large, voter-rich metropolitan areas and media markets, and on appeals to national demographic and occupational groups. The Electoral College is made up of Electors who represent the states in a presidential election. 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. 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. Each state has at least three representatives, no matter the amount of people living in the state. Mya Sims Ms. Thanks to Donald Trump, what was once the relic of our system is now an active threat to the future of our democracy. Every 4 years our country makes one of the most if not the most important decisions for our future, which is our next president. There are two reasons they want to abolish the Electoral College: One, of course, is Trump. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. 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." They were also working to balance the needs of small and large states, as well as slave and free states. Why is that a big deal? My stance to abolish the Electoral College has drawn some ire. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. 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 . But Madison used an already accepted formula of state representation. (function () { Was the Electoral College abolished? They think it antiquated, irrational and undemocratic and argue for scrapping it in favor of a national popular vote. Calls for reforming the College grow louder every time it produces as the winner a presidential candidate who lost the popular vote. Wilson had proposed dividing the states into districts and establishing special electors from each. I respect Will as an astute observer of politics. Wegman: This idea that somehow small states currently have a voice under the Electoral College system, and that they would lose that voice under a popular vote, is just the exact inverse of reality. Instead of pitting the top two candidates against each other for the same electorate to vote again, the College allows an additional filter of state Electors to make the choice. The Constitutional crisis was finally over. At 100 signatures, this petition is more likely to be featured in recommendations! After three disputed Presidential elections in just 20 years, it's time for Congress to abolish the Electoral College. How Do Bacteria Become Resistant Answer Key; Peds Exam 1 - Professor Lewis, Pediatric Exam 1 Notes; MKT 2080 - Chapter 2 Essay; Chapter 8 Practice; Instead we . By one analysis of the 2012 presidential election, four out of five voters had virtually zero influence on the outcome. He must have forgotten the math they taught him at the University of Pennsylvania. The Electoral College is unfair and should be . Save it to your desktop, read it on your tablet, or print it out to read anywhere! The Electoral College does empower rural states. 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. Laura Thompson wrote, The case against the Electoral College is straightforward: Because states are allocated electors based on the size of their congressional delegations, those with smaller populations have an outsize influence on presidential elections. One may say that we should keep the Electoral College in place because the Founding Fathers had valid reasons for it, but some dont apply anymore. The method was ultimately settled in the last days by the 11-member Brearly Committee, which proposed election by special Electors chosen by the state legislatures. But I do wonder if he and other defenders of the Electoral College still believe that any of these arguments are worth holding onto. 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). Its 538 electors reflect Congress's 100 senators and 435 representatives, apportioned to each state according to the national census conducted every 10 years, electors for the District of Columbia. "The main complaints against the Electoral College are that it can elect someone who didn't win the nationwide popular vote and that it causes candidates to campaign heavily in 'battleground states' while ignoring those they think they are certain to carry or not. 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. In 2000, and again in 2020, the outcomes of elections resulted in Constitutional crises. Dan Glickman served as agriculture secretary under President Clinton and represented Kansas as a member of Congress. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. If 60,000 votes went the other way in Ohio, George W. Bush would have won the national popular. He is now a vice president at the Aspen Institute and a senior fellow with the Bipartisan Policy Center. After more than a month of acrimonious counting and recounting, Bush emerged with a winning margin of 571 votes out of more than 5.4 million votes cast. The site offers no paid services and is funded entirely by advertising. 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 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. Neale provides his audience with the origin and purpose of the Electoral College system. Why should the Electoral College be abolished? In 1787 the Electoral College was created by the framers of the Constitution. 4. Even back then they knew that the popular . If it didnt exist, no one today would consider creating it. For example, they created the Electoral College because news traveled slowly, so people werent as informed about the candidates. The result is that a small number of voters in certain battleground states become kingmakers. Wegman: Its a great question, and I think it really gets to the heart of what the problem is here. Since the 18th century, the United States has used the Electoral College, made up of 538 individual electors, to elect its presidents instead of going by the popular vote. 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 proposal was drawn by James Madison, and it drew on ideas first proposed by James Wilson, the chief proponent of a directly elected chief executive. Faithless Electors, those who break their pledge, are rare and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election. The recently-passed Electoral Count Act overhauls the process for objecting to electoral votes. 1956: Hubert Humphrey's (D-MN) S. J. Will you do the same? Let's abolish the senate Stefano Boscutti Jun 10, 2022 Our US senate is the upper chamber of our congress. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Its as simple as that! Everyones vote counts as much as everyone elses. Many were anxious even for an immediate choice by the people.[13], The plan was met with a great sense of relief and passed 8 to 3. Should The Electoral College Be Abolished? I am not alone in holding this perspective. 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. All our essays are uploaded by volunteers. Since 1964 the has been 538 electors in . 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. a. Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. 32 minutes and 09 seconds. Joining me to discuss the Electoral College are two of America's leading historians and political scientists, a veritable dream team of the Electoral College. Yes! In conclusion, the opposing view of the system insists the Electoral College is unfair and that every vote should count. It is beyond dispute that our system to elect presidents is no longer working. More amendments have been proposed on this subject than on any other in US history. The electoral college started with the constitution of the united states, it cited how many electors each state is able to have. It's electors who decide elections, and there is a . [15], [1] https://history.house.gov/Institution/Electoral-College/Electoral-College/, [2] https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Electoral-College/, [3] The New York Times, Editorial; 19 December 2016; https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/opinion/time-to-end-the-electoral-college.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article. When every ballot is counted in the same way, then the winner becomes easier to declare. Therefore, they are not focusing on the needs of the people all over America which is going against what the founding fathers wanted. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Most states however use oaths and penalties to bind them. That is how it works in every state election. A national popular election in 2020 would have made our problems immeasurably worse. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Younger voters also tended to support abolishing the Electoral College. Safe states are known to always vote for the same party, while swing states are always changing. The people of the United States of America should be voting for the president directly. 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. It focuses on the concept of "voting power," the ability of an individual to influence the outcome of an election, within the political context of the controversial 2000 and 2004 elections and. Without it, the small and sparsely populated states that make up most of the country would be ignored by presidential candidates. For starters, direct elections by voters can create incentives for broad public participation. We all know the answer. This is unfair because the small states are taking more seats than they should dictating the election. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, Why The Electoral College Should Be Abolished. President Donald Trump won the election in 2016 through the. Legendary commentator George Will once wrote an entire column to criticize me for my concerns that the Electoral College might lead to a new constitutional crisis when I said as much in the presidential contest in 1992. Through a presidential executive order Through an, 11. 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. When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they are actually choosing presidential electors, known collectively as the Electoral College. . They devised a method to elect a president that would ensure that the person elected would not gain too much power and independence. THE HILL 1625 K STREET, NW SUITE 900 WASHINGTON DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 TEL | 202-628-8503 FAX. Republicans won the 2004 election, but the Electoral College actually gave the Democrats a boost. Unlike the British and other systems prevalent at the time, it gave American citizens the choice of their own chief executive. This article depicts the National Popular Vote Compact as a system which would make all votes count. It empowers rural states, allows presidential candidates to moderate their views to form broad coalitions, and ensures the stability of the two party system. Clinton, who clearly despised Trump, graciously conceded the election on Election Night. Far from being undemocratic, the Electoral College serves Americas republicanism. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Mission: Providing a framework to improve your investing PROCESS, while collecting newsworthy information about trends in business, politics and tech areas. This has happened five times: John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, George W. Bush in 2000, and Donald J. Trump in 2016. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. It made the executives direct election acceptable to small states, slaveholding states, and state governments. It's time to ditch the antiquated. Do you agree A race is a group with inborn qualities that can either improve or degenerate., Speech is Power how beneficial speech pathologists can be, C. maculatus prefers smaller sized beans for oviposition. 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. When we were kids on the playground and an angry dispute ensued, someone would always shout "majority rules." And we'd vote. (4 points) Libertarian Conservative A) No regulation Moderate regulation B) Government management of the, 5. But the Electoral College is worse than merely useless. When selecting the President, we use the Electoral college as a basis for representing the will of the people. Election by national popular vote would dispense with the need for continental diversification. Objecting to Electoral votes focusing on the needs of the system insists the Electoral College has some! 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