Since congressional representation is used to calculate the Electoral College votes for each state, the Senate’s malapportionment has implications for the Electoral College. Despite much discussion to abolish the Electoral College, no other idea has been proposed and approved to do so. Why do we keep the Electoral College? If enough states were willing to adopt this popular vote strategy through state law, then an outright abolishment of the Electoral College through constitutional amendment would be an option. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY, left) shakes hands with Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) after the electoral votes … The Electoral College creates voter incentives to vote for one of the major party candidates or else risk “wasting” votes for third party candidates that don’t have a chance at winning a plurality of votes in enough states to win the Electoral College. Abolishing the Electoral College was once an outrageous suggestion. This means Maine could have 4 electoral votes for the same candidate, like in 2012, or 3 and 1 votes, like in 2016 when 3 votes went for Clinton and 1 vote went for Trump. It is sometimes reported that Richard M. Nixon received more popular votes in the 1960 election than winner John F. Kennedy , but official results showed Kennedy with 34,227,096 popular votes to Nixon's 34,107,646. Without a constitutional amendment, states still could choose to match the popular vote with their electors. It wasn’t that they believed the Electoral College was an ideal way to select the president, but believed it was the best option they had available. http://time.com/4597833/electoral-college-donald-trump-challenge/. Match Direct Elections at Local and State Level. The reason why the Electoral College was created was to keep the people safe. Contingent elections both remove the public from the calculus of choosing the president and also violate separation of powers because the legislative branch selects the executive. The Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have transregional … This represents the congressional representation for each state (members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate), plus 3 votes for Washington, D.C. as per the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution. Well, there is at least one practical reason why the system should stay as it is, according to Judge Richard Posner. Avoid run-off elections. When neither candidate gets the 270 votes required, it’s called a contingent election. The CDA method is only one possible variation on the allocation of electoral votes by state. They considered that option and rejected it. There are also concerns that the Electoral College violates the principle of political equality and the notion that each person should have an equal vote. My view is that our electoral system should embody certain key values. (Results here: https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/president). Furthermore, states that are swing states or battleground states have more influence on the election than voters in reliably red or blue states. There have been two contingent elections in U.S. history—1800 and 1824—and another near miss in 2000. As much as progressives hate the Electoral College - and we can argue its flaws all day long - in 2020, the Electoral College is the only game in town. On Nov. 6 President Barack Obama received 61.7 percent of the electoral vote compared to only 51.3 percent of the popular votes cast for him and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. If a national popular vote determined the presidency, each vote would be critical. Opinions differ. The Electoral College is widely regarded as an anachronism, a nondemocratic method of selecting a president that ought to be superseded by declaring the candidate who receives the most popular votes the winner. There have been significant changes in technology and society since that time. Everyone’s President. We should keep in mind the regional conflicts that trouble large and diverse nations like India, China and Russia. Wyoming, with 600,000 people, also gets 2 senators. College students first learning about the Electoral College … The Founders wrote the Constitution in 1787, in a world that looks very different than the one we live in today. Why does the U.S. have the Electoral College? And even then, that was and is the Electoral College’s purpose; the power is vested in the states, not the individual. Voters in presidential elections are people who want to express a political preference rather than people who think that a single vote may decide an election. What are the drawbacks of the Electoral College? Rather it would be set up to protect them. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Maine CDC reports 2 deaths and record-high 427 cases in the state, After 10 years, Caribou's new $54M school finally opens in the middle of a pandemic, It’s Wotton vs. Wolfgram in finale of Maine’s Greatest High School Football Coach of All Time bracket, 2 deer, nose to nose, seems too perfect for a trail cam image, Some Maine Christmas tree farms have already closed for the season, Maine health care workers to get 1st coronavirus vaccines by Wednesday, Oxford County representative leaves GOP, is 1st Libertarian to serve in Maine Legislature, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. But each party selects a slate of electors trusted to vote for the party’s nominee (and that trust is rarely betrayed). What can be done to change the Electoral College? When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they had a difficult time deciding how the president should be selected. Proportional representation may more closely mirror the popular vote total. This again creates a broad base of support for whoever wins. No region (South, Northeast, etc.) This amendment, though, failed to garner enough support to be ratified. Voters in all 50 states cast ballots for local, state, … That "Constitution" thing. Should it be left intact or abolished? A presidential candidate must get at least 270 Electoral College votes to win the office. The title of Wegman’s piece, “The Electoral College … States are allowed to choose the way that they allocate their Electoral College votes. Electors filter the passions of the people. The United States Constitution was made by the states, for the states. By: Dr. Anne Cizmar, associate professor, EKU Department of Government & Economics. Despite winning the popular vote, Clinton lost the election. That means that California, with nearly 40 million residents, gets 2 senators. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. This points to the reason why the Electoral College should remain as an important element of our governmental structure. Switching to the CDA method is not a guarantee, then, that the public’s votes will be more accurately represented. … Why does anyone support the Electoral College today?
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