During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had 90% of their campaign stops in only 11 states. The crisis of 1824 then, represented really the collapse of the old system, and an effort to re-institute it in other terms. That means more people can feel like their government accurately represents their needs. There are also circumstances where a majority of electors might not be available, which would throw the results of the election into the House of Representatives. 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. [1] Only when they sign the certificate of ascertainment and the votes are tallied in the United States Congress is the presidential race officially over. Under these laws, which states adopted to gain political advantage in the nations early years, even though it was never raised by the framers states award all their electors to the candidate with the most popular votes in their state. hide caption. This has happened five times in American history. However, it is possible to win the presidency without winning the popular vote. Myth No. 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. And so each Electoral College vote in a small state like Delaware or Wyoming is worth more than an Electoral College vote in a big state like California. There were two additional votes for Sanders that were invalidated in Minnesota and one for Kasich in Colorado. That is not to say the Electoral College is without its advantages. So far, 15 states plus the District of Columbia have joined in for a total of 196 electoral votes, just 74 more. The Electoral College consists of an elector selection, a group of people who will meet and vote for President and Vice President based on the results of their states election. So, let me make the case for its abolition and its replacement by a simple national popular vote, to be held in an entity we will call (what the heck) the United States of America. Map. What happens if the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration? It said that the Colorado secretary of state erred in removing an elector who cast his vote for then-Ohio Gov. This shift would likely benefit that party for more than a generation. Technically, it is . And even though it is widely acknowledged that the Electoral College is a ticking time bomb that could seriously erode American democracy, none of these attempts has been successful. This is the result of an amazing technological revolution, but what does it have to do with the Electoral College? That means the major party that can maintain its base could win elections without a clear majority. That means that the national winner would start out with 102 Electoral College votes. As a result, Republicans and Republican state governments are incentivized to maintain the current system. A few states provide criminal penalties if an elector violates the requirement. ** Adjusted Maine to act as one state rather than separate EV districts. Even when it is against the law for these folks to vote for someone other than what the electoral results in their state indicate, there is always an option to become a faithless elector under the American structure. Thanks to the Internet, telephones, email, social media, and every other form of communication that we have today, people can choose for themselves whether a new story has an underlying sinister bias. Maine and Nebraska, however, have enacted the congressional district method, which allocates one electoral vote to the winner of the popular vote in each state-drawn district. For one thing, slavery. However, in the five presidential elections of the 21st century, two ended up with the winner of the popular vote losing the Electoral College. The basis for the Electoral College is found inArticle II, Section 1of the Constitution, which spells out how the president shall be chosen. I think it would make more sense to split the electoral votes based on the state-wide vote so if a state has 10 electoral votes and the election goes 60% to 40%, the candidates gets 6 votes and 4 votes respectively. They do not matter because they have any special civic characteristics. In fact, lets tally up all the votes cast for president between 1932 and 2008. Abolishing the Electoral College: Since the year 2000, there have been five presidential elections. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, even by a single vote, they get all of that states electoral votes. The only states that matter to either party are the battleground states especially bigger ones like Florida and Pennsylvania, where a swing of a few thousand or even a few hundred votes can shift the entire pot of electors from one candidate to the other. Could Washington administer a national recount in the event of a close result? Although there are some advantages to this system, the disadvantages have been highlighted in recent elections. Plenty. The only difference is that in this unique structure, the voice of the minority can actually shout down the desires of the majority. In recent years, a new scheme has emerged that claims it can bypass the seemingly insurmountable impediment of a constitutional amendment process but have the same result of nullifying the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Compact (NPV). Were already letting women, former slaves, and 18-year-olds vote, changing the structure of the election since the countrys founding. Abolishing the Electoral College seems to be the next logical step in that process. There are three basic arguments in favor of the system the framers of the Constitution gave us, with little sense of how it would actually work. The way it gets implemented is the result of dozens of state laws, which evolved over time as the country settled into a two-party system. Redirecting to https://m.startribune.com/one-clear-result-of-the-2020-election-at-last-let-s-abolish-the-electoral-college/. Having this structure go away would encourage more third-party development. That system worked well until the two-party system briefly died with the Federalist Party. The pros and cons of abolishing the Electoral College must go beyond the 65% of people who want it gone. In the 20th century there were 25 presidential elections and none of them resulted in an Electoral College winner who lost the popular vote. Or is it working the way it is supposed to? Seventy percent of Americans between the ages of 18-29 said that the president should be chosen through a popular vote model, while just 56 percent of those over the age of 65 agreed. Paul Krugman, my Opinion colleague, wrote Thursday that "the idea that the economy is going to pose a huge problem for Democrats next year isn't backed by the available data.". 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. 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Why? But dont forget, Bush won the popular vote four years later by three million votes. Ive spent the past few years obsessively analyzing the Electoral College, trying to understand the concerns of the founding fathers, doing the math from different elections. Thats because, regardless of its overall merits, change is always rooted in the politics of the day. NPV would reshape our political landscape by concentrating power in our largest states and cities. Under the current structure of the United States, there are 50 unique presidential contests instead of one nationwide affair to elect a President. Tell us about it. Learn more about how to use our free daily writing prompts for remote learning. Out of those visits, almost 70% of them happened in only four states: North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Now, Trump feels the Electoral College is "far better for the U.S.A." as he wrote Tuesday on Twitter. Currently, 15 states and DC have approved the NPVIC. "And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting and that means get rid of the Electoral College.". It doesnt. Why, or why not? Why did President Obama spend so much money bailing out the auto industry? And, as our colleague Bill Galston has written, the Electoral College continues to be a ticking time bomb. In the 2020 presidential election a shift of just 45,000 votes in three states, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona could have shattered Americans belief in the legitimacy of their political system by creating a tie in the Electoral College and sending the election to the House of Representatives. Thats not true either. The Constitution originally stipulated that the top vote-getter chosen by these electors would become president and the individual with the second-most votes would be vice president. But experts say reforming this practice isn't likely anytime soon for a number of reasons. But there is something called the National Popular Vote Compact. And this was an effort that was supported by the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, and progressive and liberal groups outside. These Americans, chosen for loyalty to their political party, will vote for the presidential candidate who won their states popular vote. Because the Electoral College is based on the structure of state populations and representation in the House, some people have a vote that carries more weight per delegate than others. Voting By Mail Is On The Rise, But Could Alleged N.C. Election Fraud Change That? This is because the president is not . Sixty years later inRay v. Blair, the court ruled the Constitution, including the 12th Amendment, does not bar a political party from requiring electors to sign a pledge to support the nominees of the national convention. Why? Even if all 25 of the states that Mr. Biden won in 2020 were to ratify such an amendment, nine additional states that President Trump won would need to ratify it as well. The only point in this election where the possibility of either of the candidates losing the popular vote but still claiming an electoral victory was on July 30, when a FiveThirtyEight model showed Clinton clinching the popular vote by less than 1 percent, but still losing to Trump by two electoral votes. They are simply party loyalists who do not deliberate about anything more than where to eat lunch. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2,868,686 and yet lost the Electoral College vote: 304 for Trump and 227 for Clinton. TheNational Archives reportsthat over the past 200 years more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College without any becoming law. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. In his video, Mr. Wegman offers counterarguments to what he calls myths about the Electoral College. 1. It is extremely difficult to amend the Constitution. Most Americans, by a wide margin, believe the Electoral College should be abolished. The threat is the effort to create a so-called .