But that is not what happened. Ensures no candidate wins a seat without garnering more than 50 per cent of the vote. Instead of a direct favourite . Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. Cons Many judges run unopposed. 3. This means California and Wyoming get equal power, despite CA having 50 times the population of WY. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. Among the 24 countries we examined, the difference between youth and general turnout ranged from less than a percentage point to more than 20 points. Thats the way it has been in this country for a long time. It would be wrong to assume that Hillary Clinton or Al Gore would have been president had the electoral college been abolished and elections were to be decided by popular vote. If all the states did this, the distortions in the Electoral College system would be partly smoothed out.. The strong association between youth and overall turnout suggests that measures aimed at increasing voting for everyone will bring out young voters, too and maybe even bring their participation rates closer to the general populations. But the trends are still illustrative. America today is not as divided as it was before the Civil War or after. In the first round, if no candidate gets a majority, then several weeks later a runoff election between the two top finishers is held. That internal habit formation is reinforced externally, too, as Mark N. Franklin of Trinity College described in a book exploring aspects of voter turnout. 5. The aim of the National Popular Vote is to ensure the popular vote dictates the Electoral College results, making "every vote in every state" count. Not much. In 2016, Florida had 29 electoral votes and 9.4 million voters, created a voter value of 0.72. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. A financial advisor can help you understand the advantages and disadvantages of investment properties. Voting for the first or second time may also be harder than voting in subsequent elections. They dont outvote their elders anywhere in the world. Fewer than half of Americans 18 to 29 voted in the 2016 presidential election a gap of more than 15 points compared with the overall . Since electoral votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis, even a significant minority of contrarian votes will not make any impact on the outcome of the election. Before joining The Times in 2013, he worked as a staff writer for The New Republic. The Electoral College is a relic and is no longer functional in our modern democracy, says Dr. Clawson. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn't have to be . Using the NPV system means that every vote counts the same. The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely be frayed and unstable political system characterized by a multitude of political parties and by more radical changes in policies from one administration to the next. By which system do most US states allocate their Electoral College votes? Even though the Electoral College has some inherently anti-democratic tendencies, it is at least reassuring that the tradition of assigning electoral votes based on voter preferences within the state is being upheld.. Cons. And only 14 states have laws able to cancel rouge votes. Here is a list of the number of electoral votes for each state: In all states except Nebraska and Maine, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. Advantage: Encourages Voter Turnout Some critics argue that more people would vote in a direct popular election, according to the University of the Pacific. Moving forward, more and more US citizens are demanding the same thing: let the majority rule, or, in other words, make every vote in every state count. Outgrowing the Electoral College - Purdue Policy - Purdue University In fact, he won seven of the 10 largest states, and Hillary Clinton won seven of the 12 smallest states. Imagine a scenario where a presidential candidate focuses on Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle. Data suggests these trends are especially pronounced among young people. Electoral College's Advantages and Disadvantages - Ivypanda The National Popular Vote has been under consideration for quite some time, says Dr. McCann. A student voter registration event at Brooke Point High School in Stafford, Va., in 2018. The number of electoral votes is equal to that states number of US representatives and senators in Congress. In other words, if the state of California were excluded, Trump would win the popular vote by 1.5 million votes. Of the worlds 125 electoral democracies, the US is the only one in which voters choose electors who then choose the president. I am confident that when we enter the next phase where the popular vote leans Republican that Republicans will change and be adamant that we should elect the president by direct popular vote and Democrats will be arguing why we should keep the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system. The amendment requires that any change to the rate of compensation for members of Congress can only take effect after a subsequent election in the House of Representatives. But sometime in the future the popular vote will change back and lean Republican. 2. "What would be the the disadvantages if we had a popular vote instead of an Electoral College?" I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. That would likely reduce the number of voters who cast a ballot in each election as most people are more concerned about local impacts than national policies. -, Americas electoral system gives the Republicans advantages over Democrats -, American democracys built-in bias towards rural Republicans -, How a single person could decide the election -. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. Electing a president who did not have broad regional support could lead to a fractured and less cohesive country, according to the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. More than the Electoral College may have to change to ensure equal representation across the country. Not created due to lack of need for voting districts. On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. That means a candidate who receives a majority of their votes in a high-delegate state, such as California, could make a dramatic impact on the rest of the election. This is not unique to the United States. Delegates convene and vote. Every state gets a minimum of three electoral votes. Electoral college | Definition, Map, History, Votes, & Facts - Britannica It could help to reduce partisanship. 3. That can plant the seed early that voting is normal and worthwhile, and motivate young voters to overcome the short-term hurdles that might obstruct their participation in any particular election. We need all the things., Alexandria Symonds is a senior staff editor at The Times. The winner-take-all bias that elevates the battleground states overruns all of the other biases. In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won 48.2% of the popular vote compared to Trump's 46.1% but lost the electoral vote by a substantial margin (304 to 227). The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. It even has the potential to worsen the kind of crises it was intended to prevent. The Most and Least Popular Governors in America - 24/7 Wall St. Here's What Critics Say Is Wrong With The Electoral College : NPR George Bush (electoral vote winner) vs. Al Gore in 2000: Al Gore won the popular vote by 543,816 votes, Benjamin Harrison (electoral vote winner) vs. Grover Cleveland in 1888, Rutherford B. Hayes (winner) vs. Samuel J. Tilden in 1876: Tiden won the popular vote by 264,292 votes, John Quincy Adams won the electoral vote in 1824 but lost the popular vote to Andrew Jackson by 44,804 votes in 1824. If some of the 50 states and DC cannot certify their popular votes by the December deadline that could create a constitutional crisis where we would not have all of the state Electoral College votes certified by the time the Electoral College is required to vote according to the Constitution. Or should the popular vote be used instead? But it doesnt appear to be a feasible reform proposal, at least for now. In theory that could happen every four years. There may even be "safe" states in U.S. presidential elections since most states award all electoral votes to the majority candidate. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. per capita, population size, type of government, development status and level of inequality. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. Interestingly, that gap shrinks reliably as voting increases. There would be a reduced need to build coalitions. Reduces the need for strategic voting. 8). May also have government oversight organizations. The country thinks we are going to elect the president using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system tans and then four months before the election we change to the National Popular Vote Compact system and elect the president by whoever gets the most popular votes. Votes are counted. Allocating electoral votes by congressional district has the unintended consequence of making state legislatures even more motivated to gerrymander their districts, says Dr. Clawson. 8. One candidate in each riding will win; everyone else loses. 3. Favors no party size in particular, though greatly improves potential for minority parties e.g., a third political party in the U.S. THE BAD. But if we set politics aside and focus on what is really best for democracy in our country in the long run I believe that the advantages of using the NPV compact to elect our president outweigh the disadvantages and the best way to elect our president in the 21st century is by direct popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. There are logistical issues that are managed at the local level in each election. But the shortcoming of the current election system is that all eligible people do not use their franchise thereby a candidate, w. A close election would trigger the need for a full recount. For example, 94% of 2016 campaign events occurred in just 12 states, while two-thirds of the events took place in just six states. Long term: Reimagine civics education. Does not result in a distribution of seats proportional to each party's share of the popular vote. Prior to the 2016 election, there were four times in US history when a candidate won the presidency despite losing the popular vote: 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson), 1876 (Rutherford . Requires no formation of such groups, nor the election of such groups. Another criticism is that the electoral vote system does not penalize a state for low voter turnout or for disenfranchising its citizens (such as convicted felons, or, historically, slaves and women) The state gets the same number of votes regardless of whether voter turnout is 40% or 60%. Many more states would still have to sign on, which doesnt look likely. Latest answer posted November 30, 2020 at 11:03:44 AM. You might imagine that people in rich, highly democratic countries are more likely to vote. Even factors like compulsory and weekend voting didnt reliably predict turnout in our survey. Under the Electoral College system, voters in states that are overwhelmingly in support of one candidate might feel like their vote is unimportant. The Electoral College creates distortions in political campaigns and voting outcomes most people would find objectionable, says Dr. James McCann, political science professor at Purdue. Raising voter turnout among all cohorts isnt a universal goal among the politically powerful. A look at the pros and cons of the voting system said to be favoured by Justin Trudeau | CBC News Loaded. However, the National Popular Vote isnt the only alternative to the Electoral College. If states chose to, they could devise an electoral system that better reflected the popular vote. the number of representatives in the House plus the number of senators. @Nate_Cohn, A version of this article appears in print on, The Electoral Colleges Real Problem: Its Biased Toward the Big Battlegrounds, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/upshot/electoral-college-votes-states.html. Consider the Senate, where Wyomings 600,000 residents have the same representative power as Californias 39.5 million. Although many supporters of the electoral college argue that a two-party political system is more stable, some critics counter that having more than two parties would give Americans more choice. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact 1. I think that another potential disadvantage of its abolishment would be that smaller states end up losing a voice in the process. His win made him the first President in more than 100 years to attain the White House despite a popular vote loss,2 and it led to renewed . The winner-take-all system has essentially nothing to do with the reasons the founders created the Electoral College, like their concern about investing the masses with the power to pick the president. [Add switching votes of losing party to the other partys voter totals in every state using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system (except for 5 EC votes in Maine and Nebraska that are awarded proportionally instead of by Winner-Take-All.]. If a majority is not achieved by first-preference votes, the weakest candidate is eliminated, and that candidate's votes are redistributed to the other candidates according to the second preference on the ballot. All of the states now award their electoral votes based on the votes of citizens, rather than on the votes of the state legislatures, as many once did. Advantages & Disadvantages of a Direct Popular Election If these trends continue, its possible that the dynamics of the 2016 election could reverse themselves. Is it "Undemocratic?" Under a ranked ballot, it would have to win more than 50 per cent. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. It could encourage voter turnout. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 48% of the popular vote but only 38% of the electoral vote. That continues until one candidate emerges with a majority. Expert Answers John Newell, J.D. Mr. Trumps electoral victory was a product of two factors. The second is that the traditional battlegrounds are whiter and less educated than the country as a whole. One candidate in each . @a_symonds, A version of this article appears in print on. Theres nothing to stop a state from awarding electoral votes at the level of congressional districts, as Maine and Nebraska do, says Dr. McCann. 5. That year, Democrats won the popular vote by disenfranchising Republican black voters and running up the score in the Deep South, where they won by 70 percent to 26 percent. It would eliminate superfluous votes. Wyoming had just 3 electoral votes, but only had 255,000 voters as well. PR is touted to increase voter turnout in that every vote counts and voters are represented in one form or another because of their choices. The popular vote eliminates this issue too. A presidential candidate needs 270 (just over 50%) electoral votes to win. In those days, the blue states represented Republican states and the red ones Democratic states. Going to the popular vote would eliminate this issue altogether. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. The official 2016 election results from the Electoral College gave Donald J. Trump the victory with 306 electoral votes v. Hillary Clinton's 232 votes. Reduces voter participation by creating a "my vote doesn't matter" feeling. -, Trump lost the popular vote. Mayors, governors, and senators are all elected by a simple majority.