Another potential drawback of the Electoral College is contingent elections—when no candidate gets the minimum number of electors required to win the election. The result — as we’ve now seen twice in the last two decades — is that a popular vote loser can be an Electoral College winner. They considered that option and rejected it. Counting votes in a country with nearly 327 million people is a daunting task. In recent years, state lawmakers have debated the continued use of the Electoral College. First, candidates must win across the nation to be able to win the presidency. By: Dr. Anne Cizmar, associate professor, EKU Department of Government & Economics. The winner of the Electoral College is president. Despite winning the popular vote, Clinton lost the election. 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. 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College is widely regarded as an anachronism, a nondemocratic method of selecting a president that ought to be superseded by declaring the candidate who receives the most popular votes the winner. When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they had a difficult time deciding how the president should be selected. When you vote for a presidential candidate, you’re actually voting for a slate of electors. The group wasn’t meant to rob the people of their right to choose. This may seem paradoxical, given that electoral votes are weighted in favor of less populous states. But each party selects a slate of electors trusted to vote for the party’s nominee (and that trust is rarely betrayed). Why does anyone support the Electoral College today? Not only would dictatorships be avoided, but also manipulation by foreign countries. 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. Why does the U.S. have the Electoral College? The advocates of this position are correct in arguing that the Electoral College method is not democratic in a modern sense. So a solid regional favorite, such as Romney was in the South, has no incentive to campaign heavily in those states, for he gains no electoral votes by increasing his plurality in states that he knows he will win. With the winner-take-all method of allocating electoral votes, voters in swing states are casting decisive votes that can change the election’s outcome. Even in one-sided states, plenty of voters back the candidate who is sure not to carry the state. If they did, they would lose. College students first learning about the Electoral College … Why does the U.S. have the Electoral College? The Importance Of The Electoral College 1424 Words | 6 Pages. I agree. In Maine, rather than allocating all 4 electoral votes to the statewide winner, they award one electoral vote for the winner of each congressional district, and then two for the statewide winner. Compromise between the States Each state, no … What can be done to change the Electoral College? However, constitutional amendments are incredibly difficult to pass, by design. That’s one of the main reasons why we should keep it. The Electoral College has been a system that the United States of America keeps in use since the constitution has first been in place in 1787. 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. Should it be left intact or abolished? Each state gets a number of electors equal to its number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its two U.S. The United States Constitution was made by the states, for the states. Nebraska follows the same plan. Wyoming, with 600,000 people, also gets 2 senators. Read More. Why We Still Use the Electoral College. Electors filter the passions of the people. By contrast, the electoral system the Founders wisely designed ensures those running for president have to win the most votes from Americans across the country. Proportional representation may more closely mirror the popular vote total. If a national popular vote determined the presidency, each vote would be critical. Another possibility is allocating the state’s electoral votes proportionally to the popular vote total. In the Electoral College, Trump was granted 306 votes to Clinton's 232. Each state gets two senators, regardless of population. 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.
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