should the electoral college be reformed quizlet

Three happened in the 19th century; none in the 20th century and two in the 21st century. The current electoral system in the United States allows for the possibility that the winner of the popular vote may not be able to secure enough Electoral College votes to win the presidency. " You can build your own. Activity 1: Is the Electoral College fair? After all, that's how we run every other election in this country, says Jesse Wegman, the author of Let the People Pick the President. So lets put the power to select the president where it actually belongs, in the hands of all the people. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. And yet we have generally accepted it for centuries on the assumption it serves an important purpose. As we all know only too well, in practice this archaic system means that the person who wins the most votes may not win the election. We conducted this experiment in large part because reforming the way presidents are selected does not technically require amending the Constitution. Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Jan. 27, 2021, written by Bradley Jones, a former senior researcher at the Center. It doesnt have to be this way. Why curly hair was an evolutionary advantage. When voters select their presidential and vice-presidential candidates on Election Day, theyre actually choosing the members of this body who will cast votes on their behalf in the days and weeks after the election. Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, for example, theoretically could accomplish the same end without the need for a constitutional amendment. The problem is that twice since 2000, the person with the most votes didn't win. In his video, Mr. Wegman offers counterarguments to what he calls myths about the Electoral College. And thats it. Proponents of the Electoral College argue that the system allows states to check the power of the national government and averts the possibility of nationwide recounts that could throw elections into chaos. 6. The electoral college and the system built around it have delivered a President and Vice President in 53 of 54 elections since the Twelfth Amendment was ratified in 1804. For instance, if a hotly contested state like Wisconsin broke for the candidate who lost the popular vote, eight of its ten electoral votes would be added to their tally. The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) is a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and, on behalf of the Archivist of the United States, coordinates certain functions of the Electoral College between the States and Congress. The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. From Michelin-starred menus to gilded historic sites, these restaurants are worth a visitwhether or not youre a tourist. The outcome of every U.S. presidential election hinges on a few key swing states, whose electoral votes are awarded in a winner-take-all system. 4. How younger voters will impact elections: What is happening to the white evangelical vote? The Senate (and the Electoral College) deviate from one person, one vote in order to protect small states who would otherwise be neglected. And sure, the last two times the Electoral College has awarded the White House to the popular-vote loser, its been to the Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and George W. Bush in 2000. Members of Congress can object to individual electors returns or states overall returns. It incentivizes presidential campaigns to focus on a relatively small number of "swing states.". Myth No. Victoria Bassetti December 9, 2016 Advance Constitutional Change Electoral College Reform Is the Electoral College a Problem? But the fact is that we are now one country, whereas in 1789 we were 13 colonies desperately trying to hold onto some semblance of their independencehence a political deal was struck that now threatens the very democracy for which they were trying to create a lasting framework. The Electoral College Will Destroy America, The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, free daily writing prompts for remote learning. That means that the national winner would start out with 102 Electoral College votes. After Election Day, which takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, states use the remainder of November and December to gather, certify, and send their electors formal votes for president and vice president to the National Archives and Records Administration, which administers the Electoral College. Yes. Its how we run every election in the country, except the most important one of all. Faithless electors. This is the result of an amazing technological revolution, but what does it have to do with the Electoral College? Hillary Clinton won . Maintaining the Electoral College may seem like the most politically expedient position for the Republican Party in the short term, but it may cause significant damage in the long term. Wildfire season is getting longer. 5801 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 120, Chicago, IL 60637, James S. Crown, longtime University of Chicago Trustee and former Board chair, 1953-2023, UChicago Medicine research challenges notion that heavy drinkers more tolerant of effects than others, Timothy P. Harrison appointed director of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, UChicago partners with CIC to create shared lab, office space in Hyde Park, Helping Booth students connect by challenging biases, embracing differences, Digital artwork blooms endlessly on campus, Tempest in a teacup: UChicago physicists make breakthrough in creating turbulence, Argonne, PME scientists create low-cost way to make clean hydrogen fuel, UChicago, French science agency launch partnership to tackle world problems, University of Chicago mathematician Vladimir Drinfeld wins prestigious Shaw Prize, Theater as a living art form means that anything should be fresh., Caring for the community: UChicago Medicine trauma center marks five years. "Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years," it stated. In 2019, Maine became the only state to adopt a ranked-choice system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. That said, the United States has been authoritarian with respect to significant portions of its population throughout its historymost notably African Americans. Did you know that when Americans vote in the 2020 presidential election, theyre not actually voting for the next president? But the reality is, right now neither the small states nor the big ones have the voice they should. And this year, who knows? Right now, those circumstances tend to benefit Republicans in the Electoral College, while disadvantaging Democrats who have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections. Our Experts Why It Matters Americans have never fully embraced the Electoral College. In 2016, Donald Trump won the White House by earning a majority of electoral votes, even though almost three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. 5. Throughout history there have been over 700 attempts to reform or abolish the Electoral College, according to the Congressional Research Service. A plan to scrap the Electoral College via constitutional amendment would not pass in the current environment. In 1804, the 12th Amendment was passed to create separate votes for presidents and vice presidents in the Electoral College. Republican state lawmakers in places like Georgia and Texas have advanced bills that would give new powers to legislatures to fire election officials and overturn elections. Jesse Wegman, a member of the New York Times editorial board and author of the book Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College, explains: American democracy isnt just quirky its also unfair. Because of winner-takes-all, all 29 of Florida's electoral votes went to Trump. Both objections failed and the election results were unchanged. In 2000 G H W Bush achieved 271 electoral college votes againt Al Gore's 266. If Democrats again win the popular vote but lose the election this year, they probably will not have swept governorships and state legislatures, so the status quo could persist. These arent small states. In each case, the number of faithless electors who exercised that behavior would not have had a meaningful impact on the outcome. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Liberal Democrats are especially likely to say they would prefer changing the system to be based on the popular vote (87% say this). While the size of the House of Representatives would be based on populationas determined by the U.S. Censuseach state received two senators to give a small bump in power to less populous states. [ 1] Sometimes one party does better for a few election cycles. "Republicans aren't getting enough votes, and that's why they're losing most presidential elections. But as people moved and the economy changed so did that ratio. This Student Opinion prompt and a related Lesson of the Day will prepare students to participate in our live panel discussion about the Electoral College, on Oct. 22 at 1 p.m. Eastern. Delegates quibbled over, and discarded, a variety of ways to elect a. "This is the essence of the minority-rule position, right?" In January 2020, Pew Research Center ran a survey experiment in which this question was asked in two slightly different ways. Think about it. James Madison, known as the father of the Constitution, was very disturbed by the state winner-take-all rule, which he considered one of the central flaws of the Electoral College as it took shape in the early 19th century. On the campaign trail, alum breaks big stories, What Russian election interference might look like in 2020. It can be fixed. Places like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan. Maine and Nebraska assign electoral votes by congressional district, a system that has resulted in one split election in each state. While the system's defenders point to this as a considerable achievement, the . This isnt rocket science. It was devised by the framers of the United States Constitution to provide a method of election that was feasible, desirable, and consistent with a republican form of government. If one candidate receives 270 or more electoral votes, the vice president announces the resultsincluding, sometimes, their own win or loss. Thats either because one party fears ceding power, or because incumbents in the majority party benefit from the status quo. If the Electoral College system begins to prevent, on a regular basis, the popular vote winner from becoming president, it will create systemic challenges. Thats almost 1.5 billion votes. electoral college, the system by which the president and vice president of the United States are chosen. The compact requires states to pass laws that would award their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationally. One reform proposal is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement among states to award all of their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide. The Electoral College helps give rural states with lower populations an equal voice. Alternative 2: Two electoral votes to national popular vote winner; remainder apportioned by congressional district, *Each of these races included faithless electors, such that the total of electoral votes, as shown, does not equal 538. Suddenly, every voter will count, no matter where they live. 2) However, due to this system, it prevents any third-parties from having a voice or chance in US elections. The votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6. This means that every election, 80 percent of American voters, roughly 100 million people, get ignored. How does it work? No amount of campaigning will change that. Turn out is discouraged in safe states. As a result, most are considered safe, that is, comfortably in hand for one party or the other. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. These imbalances effectively ensure that some votes in presidential elections are worth more than others, and as that imbalance scales up across the entire Electoral College, it can (under the right circumstances) provide the recipes for popular vote winners losing the Electoral College. 2: The founders wanted it this way. On the other hand, Republicans don't have to convince the public. Nonetheless, it is likely the most viable alternative to the current Electoral College system. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like YES- popular vote losers, YES- the 2016 presidential election, YES- voter apathy and 'faithless electors' and more. Democrats don't have the votes in the states or in Congress to stop these laws, so Democrats are trying to build public pressure against them. If no candidate receives a majority, the votes are then tabulated in rounds, and the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated until only two are left. This has happened five times in American history. Do you agree? To win the election, a candidate must win a majority270 electoral votes. The Constitution originally provided only that electors couldnt be members of Congress or federal employees and left it up to the states to decide who they would choose and how. Although there hasnt been a tie in the Electoral College since Jefferson and his running mate Burr split the votes in 1800, the U.S. House of Representatives was called in to decide the vote for a second and last time in 1824. But the system can be fixed,. The following table shows how this would have changed the outcome in the two contested elections of the 21st century and includes 2004 for comparison. Harvard's Mukunda said. This polling reflects why a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Electoral College will not pass the U.S. Congress any time soon, nor would it have anywhere near the necessary support in state legislatures. Instead, popular voting would favor regions with high voter density and large states . Yes. A lot of people dont even want to talk about changing the Electoral College because of this idea. Please be respectful of copyright. There has been a modest increase in the share of Americans who favor changing the way presidents are elected: In January 2021, the last time the Center asked this question, 55% said the system should be changed, while 43% supported maintaining the existing system. Many of them were unhappy with the results. Swing states dont necessarily need to joinall that needs to happen is that enough states join to control 270 electoral votes. Using this information, students will develop and argue their position on the question: Should the Electoral College Be Reformed? And even when that doesn't happen, Wegman sees another problem with the Electoral College system. If the popular vote alone decided elections, the presidential candidates would rarely visit those states or consider the needs of rural residents in their policy platforms. Finally, the framers hit on a solution that balanced all of these factors. In most cases this should prevent the popular vote loser from becoming president. Get more with UChicago News delivered to your inbox. In his recent Op-Ed The Electoral College Will Destroy America, Mr. Wegman provides further evidence to support his claim that the Electoral College is unfair: The Electoral College as it functions today is the most glaring reminder of many that our democracy is not fair, not equal and not representative. In addition to the NPVIC discussed above, there are two variations on this theme that could reduce the odds that someone could win the presidency without winning the national popular vote. They disagreed so strongly that the final system wasnt adopted until the last minute, thrown together by a few delegates in a side room. By contrast, conservative Republicans are particularly likely to prefer keeping the current system where the winner of the Electoral College vote takes office (66% say this). But he lost the Electoral College to Republican candidate George W. Bush 271 to 266 after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots in Florida, where Bush had only a narrow lead and voting irregularities had been recorded. As the graph below illustrates, over the course of the 20th century the distance between the biggest state by population and the median state increased. Now, political parties select a slate of people in each state who will stand as electors for the partys candidate. For the results of U.S. presidential elections, see the table. Several states, including many western states like Arizona and Colorado, have independent redistricting commissions that work well. It also means the road to any kind of reform is fraught with political potholes, particularly when the removal of such a system clearly benefits one party at the expense of another. This is the heart of the problem with the Electoral College. When enough states join in this interstate compact, itll mean that the popular-vote winner will always become president. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won the electoral vote in the Nebraska congressional district that covers Omaha and its suburbs, while Republican John McCain won the rest of the state. By guaranteeing every state at least two electoral votes to match its senatorial representation, the system gives small states more electoral votes per capita. First, it is important to recognize that the Electoral College process leads candidates to ignore a majority of states across the country. But get this, the way the Electoral College actually functions today isnt even enshrined in the Constitution. In 1969, two members of Congress objected to a vote that had been cast by a faithless elector, an elector who was expected to vote in favor of Republican Richard Nixon but instead cast it for Democrat George Wallace. However, in the five presidential elections of the 21st century, two ended up with the winner of the popular vote losing the Electoral College. Such an effort would likely receive little or no Republican support. If a written objection is signed by at least one senator and one member of the House of Representatives, it bumps the session to a recess. Why are so many dead whales washing up on the East Coast? Without an electoral college, each citizen's vote would be worth more and everyone could help determine a new president instead of the select few who are living in "swing states." All of these reasons help to make it clear that the electoral college is a corrupt Get Access The Electoral College Should Be Abolished Essay Do you agree with Mr. Wegman that we should change how the Electoral College works to ensure that the popular vote chooses the president? By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. [2] The compact would then be 43 Electoral College votes short of going into effect. As we can see from questions posed in two respectable polls, Pew and Gallup, in spite of the fact that majorities support change it is Democrats who support it and Republicans who oppose it. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won the electoral vote in the less populous district that covers most of Maine, and Democrat Hillary Clinton won the other district and the states popular vote. Do you think this means the system is broken? That means the Electoral College puts a magnifying glass on just a few states that could have tremendous control over presidential elections. So far, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have joined in for a total of 196 electoral votes, just 74 more. Everyone who took part is a member of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. But heres the important part. Dionne, Jr., William A. Galston. One must defend the Electoral College not as perfect, but as a better solution than the alternative, i.e., direct popular election of the president. Where do breakthrough discoveries and ideas come from? One used the language that had been used in 2000 and in subsequent years, with the reform option asking about amending the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins the election. The other modified the reform option to changing the system so the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins the election. The January 2020 survey revealed no substantive differences between asking about amending the Constitution and changing the system.. Its also worth noting that, until recently, this wasnt an issue that voters found very important, so it hasnt necessarily been a top priority for legislatures. The official count comes later, when the electors cast their official votes. Take the Electoral College, Americas system for picking the president. As discussed above, the only practical way of ending the Electoral College is by changing the ways in which states use the popular vote to award electors to the presidential candidates. Heres how you can help. The 2020 election was declared the most secure ever, but Trump continues to push the lie that the election was stolen from him. He makes the case that both Republicans and Democrats should support a change. Critics also deride the winner-take-all approach to allocating votes as undemocratic for the way it overrides the preferences of wide swaths of a states voters. This is just one way the legacy of slavery still taints our politics today. All rights reserved. While there are two different means to amend the founding document, this country has always used the same route: a 2/3rds vote in both houses of Congress, followed by the ratification of 3/4ths of the states. In the winner-take-all system, which is in effect in 48 states and the District of Columbia, all of the states electoral votes are allocated to the slate of electors chosen by the political party of the candidate who won the states popular vote. Theres also a state-level push for ranked-choice voting, which is seen as a way to force candidates to court not just their tried-and-true supporters, but voters across the political spectrum. I say that because we see it in all kinds of institutional domainsthe rule of law, voter suppression, the Supreme Court and the Senate. The two houses then debate the objections and vote on whether to accept or reject them. Do you think any of these arguments, or others, are convincing reasons for preserving the Electoral College as it stands now? In the 2020 election, there will be 538 electors. Younger adults are somewhat more supportive of changing the system than older adults: Seven-in-ten Americans ages 18 to 29 support changing the system, compared with 56% of those 65 or older. As Madison wrote in an 1823 letter, states using the winner-take-all rule are a string of beads and fail to reflect the true political diversity of their citizens. But its worth taking a closer look at arguments in favor of keeping the status quo. But under this system, those Republican votes might as well not exist. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/learning/is-the-electoral-college-a-problem-does-it-need-to-be-fixed.html. Smith says this is something fellow Republicans should consider. "I mean, the fact that you could have the entire outcome of the election ride on 45,000 votes in three random states is, you know, just a huge, glaring vulnerability for any republic.". The point is, even accounting for demographic changes, neither party has a built-in advantage under a popular-vote system. Wildfire smoke affects birds too. After reading the article and watching the video, what questions do you have for Mr. Wegman? In July 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can enforce electors pledges by penalizing rogue electors or removing them from the slateto the dismay of Electoral College opponents, who had hoped a Supreme Court ruling affirming electors rights to vote as they wish would have thrown future elections into chaos and galvanized a national movement to eliminate the Electoral College. And why should they? In the interactive diagram The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, you are able to build your own coalition of states to see how either candidate, President Trump or former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., can win the election. This isnt a partisan issue its a fairness issue. Those states do get a boost from their two Senate-based electoral votes, but that benefit pales in comparison to the real culprit: statewide winner-take-all laws. No other advanced democracy in the world uses anything like it, and for good reason. And Smith points out that for most of American history, the Electoral College amplified the popular vote, rather than contradicting it. Delegates from those states insisted that their enslaved residents, who were not considered citizens and would not be allowed to vote, be counted for the purpose of allocating electoral votes. These Americans, chosen for loyalty to their political party, will vote for the presidential candidate who won their states popular vote. In each case, the number of faithless electors who exercised that behavior would not have had a meaningful impact on the outcome. Yet, ratification happens not by popular vote but by state legislature. In the video above, Mr. Wegman argues that the Electoral College is undemocratic. Controversial oil drilling paused in Namibian wilderness, Dolphin moms use 'baby talk' with their calves, Nevada is crawling with swarms of smelly 'Mormon crickets'. Americas auto industry auto industry auto industry At least in part because its located mostly in swing states, like Michigan and Ohio, states whose electoral votes he needed to win. All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. "They keep losing the aggregated popular vote," he said. Mr. Wegman argues that reforming the Electoral College isnt a partisan issue its a fairness issue. Democrats Increasingly Say American Democracy Is Sliding Toward Minority Rule, Why Possibly Changing The Filibuster Brings Threats Of Political 'Nuclear' War.

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