cons of the national popular vote plan
Under the electoral college system of voting, the number of representatives a state has in Congress (Senators and Representatives) is the total number of electoral votes it is allowed. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. It happened once, in 1876. 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. Opines that the national popular vote plan is the wrong way to abolith the electoral college. National Popular Vote (NPV) was founded in 2006 by lottery scratch-card inventor John Koza and election lawyer Barry Fadem to lobby for an "interstate compact" for states to deliver their electoral votes for President to the "winner" of the national popular vote. Also the NPV Compact allows states to withdraw from the compact as late as four months before an election. National Popular Vote compact pros and cons. Many Americans are confused about how a win is obtained under these conditions and are on a quest to change this traditional statute. 3. April 8, 2016 National popular vote far better than Electoral College system for choosing presidents, Stanford professors say. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact becomes law it would be an excellent first step to help get a future amendment to the Constitution to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect the president with a national popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. After the 2016 presidential election, political science expert Nate Silver wrote that, since the swing states are not likely to support any plan that might reduce their influence over control of the White House, the National Popular Vote bill will not succeed unless the predominately Republican red states adopt it. 2015. The election is held every four years on the first Tuesday in November and prior to election day, the two candidates endure state-level primaries, caucuses, debates, and conventions. Resource allocation would be focused on paid advertising, which would negate the need for grassroots activities. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. For the popular vote, however, Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes, while Donald Trump received 62.9 million votes. Secondly, it creates a minimalist depiction in the minds of the candidate towards more than 40 states. Just another site cons of the national popular vote plan . That would give the Compact states only 3 days( and two of those days were weekend days) to certify their state votes. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. Weve already seen this issue take place with the GOP primaries in 2016. Part of HuffPost Politics. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. Presidential candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or campaign in states that they cannot possibly win or lose; in 2016, 68% of presidential campaign visits took place in just six states. The states' approval of the compact is a victory for democracy and the principle of "one person, one vote." A popular vote structure would virtually eliminate the idea of a third-party candidate having a chance in an election. Published: Mar. It would be a national mandate to put someone in office, even if that winning candidate received less than 50% of the vote. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Right now, the President of the United States is not elected by a popular vote. Imagine a scenario where a presidential candidate focuses on Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle. (2020, December 16). 3. In the 2020 general election, a ballot proposition attempted to overturn Colorado's membership to the pact, but the measure failed, 52.3% to 47.7% in the referendum. Although faithless electors have not affected the results or outcome of an election yet, in 2016, there were 7 faithless electors. Richard F. Potthoff looks critically at a proposed alternative way of electing the US president, the National Popular Vote plan, where all states in an interstate compact which cover 270 or more electoral votes would cast their electoral votes for the candidate who won the nationwide vote, no matter who wins their state. Thats how politics works in America. The NPVIC is an agreement among states designed to guarantee election of the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. NPV is grounded in two powers delegated to states by the Constitution: the power to design rules for awarding their electoral votes and the power to enter into interstate The lack of competition and campaigning in a majority of states owes itself not to the existence of the Electoral College's indirect method of choosing presidents but rather to the winner-take-all method of choosing electors in all but two states. Though the original, some would say highly undemocratic, purpose. As of December 2020, the bill has been fully adopted predominately by Democratic-majority blue states which delivered the 14 largest vote shares for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We have seen this outcome in the 2016 Presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and in the 2000 election between George H.W. Or states might explore what was recently proposed in Colorado -- that electors be allocated in proportion to each candidate's share of the popular vote above a certain threshold. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. The senators in the U.S. Senate make up two votes in addition to the votes that represent the number of its members in the U.S. House of Representatives (Archives). Over the years, the National Popular Vote bill has been introduced in the legislatures of all 50 states. The popular vote eliminates this issue too. This divide creates natural divisions between groups of people who both support their country, but in different ways. These battleground or swing states receive 7% more federal grants, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions (National Popular Vote). Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. If a popular vote were allowed to declare a winner instead, it wouldnt be through a state-by-state counting of electoral votes. On April 15, 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State quietly signed into law the National Popular Vote, making New York the 10th state -- along with the District of Columbia -- to support this effort, while also boosting the total numbers to 165 of the 270 electoral votes needed to make a true national popular vote a reality. On a close popular vote, often defined as a difference of 0.5% or less in the tabulated results, an automatic recount would likely be triggered. That's almost 1.5 billion . The years-old effort is slowly making its way through state legislatures in hopes of changing the way By adding this new interstate compact to the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect our president we are in fact making this system even more complicated and even harder for the voters to understand. Under the system of proportional representation, any party with a high enough percentage of the vote will receive a seat in the government. Because of the state Winner-Take-All rules, which arent even part of the Constitution, they can lead to presidential elections where the winner of the election doesnt have the most popular votes. The itineraries of presidential candidates in battleground states (and their allocation of other campaign resources) demonstrate what every gubernatorial or senatorial candidate in every state already knows namely that when every vote matters, the campaign must be run in every part of the state. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact 1. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45thPresident of the United States. National Popular Vote values rural and urban voters equally. The National Popular Vote Plan. Under the electoral college system, if a state consistently pulls as leaning to one party, someone who supports the other party may not vote because they feel like there isnt a need to do so. And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. Either would likely produce an electoral vote count closer to the popular vote. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 There are pros and cons to both systems. A close election would trigger the need for a full recount. Our experts will write for you an essay on any topic, with any deadline and requirements from scratch, Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons. It would eliminate superfluous votes. The second advantage is that the all votes would be equally weighed (Richards). Longley, Robert. That view of democracy recognizes the existence and desirability of organized interests and enshrines that principle under the concept of pluralism. As with other powers entrusted to the states, it is an application, not a circumvention, of the Constitution when the states utilize those powers as they see fit. Electoral votes are designated among the states based on Census. In fact, let's tally up all the votes cast for president between 1932 and 2008. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. In U.S. history, the electoral college winner has failed to secure the popular vote 5 times. You can use essay samples to find ideas and inspiration for your paper. The National Popular Vote plan is a bill passed by participating state legislatures agreeing that they will cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote. But with the NPV Compact a change in party control of just one or two states could restore the old system of electing the president and then four years later it could be changed back. For example, if a state used NPV and voted for candidate A, but candidate B received the most votes nationwide, the state would allocate its presidential electors to candidate B. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. Either would provide a reason for both parties to compete in most states because there would be electors to win. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Without the popular vote bill, swing states would continue to get more leverage and attention from candidates to ensure that they would be able to capture their votes. It seeks to be a bulwark against mass hysteria and the hysteria created by mass media. A shift of a relative handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in six of the last 12 presidential elections. The advantage of this system is that it preserves the preferences of. 3. 9. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. [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.]. Under the electoral college system, the candidates which receive the most votes in each state (or district) receive its assigned electoral votes. This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some . This has occurred in only four of the 58 presidential . However, some critics argue that the advantages of a direct popular election including reflecting democratic principals, outweigh the disadvantages. cons of the national popular vote plan. 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. To pass an amendment to change the Constitution the Founding Fathers wisely required approval by 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures instead of a simple majority. The NPV movement seeks to create an unfair and unconstitutional system that diminishes the voting rights of citizens throughout the country and raises the prospect of increased voter fraud and. In contrast, in a direct popular election, each vote matters equally. 7. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. The votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. A faithless elector in the United States is someone who casts an electoral ballot for someone other than the individuals to whom they are pledged. Currently, 48 of the 50 states follow the winner-take-all rule. 8. Evidence as to how a nationwide presidential campaign would be run can be found by examining the way presidential candidates currently campaign inside battleground states. It awards all the bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. During the 2012 elections, 38 states, also known as spectator states, were ignored and forgotten. In addition, the bill has been unanimously approved at the committee level in the states of Georgia and Missouri, controlling a combined 27 electoral votes. Battleground states would disappear in U.S. elections. Instead, each state and Washington D.C. is assigned a certain number of electoral votes based on its population. The National Bonus Plan maintains the Electoral College voting system but adds 102 bonus electoral votes to the existing 538 votes. This was the intent of the Founding Fathers. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement where states in the compact award all their electoral votes to the winner of the . That could lead to a very bad situation where, instead of the people voting in November to determine who the next president is, one or two states could effectively decide who becomes the next president simply by joining or withdrawing from the NPV Compact and changing the rules on how the votes for president are counted in the next election. Due to some states being heavily populated in comparison to others, that may help a candidate quickly obtain a win. This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. The National Popular Vote effort, explained The National Popular Vote effort is now halfway to its goal of electing future presidents via the popular vote, after Rhode Island Gov. Watch out! Although moving to a popular vote election would balance the weight of each vote, it would also create more sway in larger population states. Using a popular vote system, candidates could campaign regionally, targeting major areas of support, to secure enough votes to win an election. Because every vote is equal inside Ohio or Florida, presidential candidates avidly seek out voters in small, medium, and large towns. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. pros and cons." dave leip's atlas of u.s. presidential elections. Although this may limit the amount of diversity that occurs in office, and may generate extra financial costs, the argument could be made that these risks outweigh the results of an election where a majority of states, not a majority of people, put someone into office. Under the electoral college system (and other voting systems not based on popular voting), it only takes one extra vote more than the other candidate to create the needed results for the election. What would happen during a switch to the popular vote would be unknown. Cons: Smaller states don't get as much of a say and people would demand a national recount National Bonus Plan Winner of popular vote gets extra 102 electoral votes Pros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. In a closely contested direct popular election, every precinct across the country might require close examination, rather than a handful of states or precincts. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost. The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). Candidates get one vote for every congressional district they win, and then two votes for winning the state-wide vote. Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to. 4. However, many people believe that a direct popular election is more democratic and fair than the Electoral College. According to the Constitution, the Electoral College is a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens (National Archives). However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. And finally, the Electoral College doesnt work today anywhere near how the Founding Fathers intended it to work when they created it back in 1787. There are alternatives to winner-take-all that do not involve abandoning the positive aspects of the Electoral College. It sees a healthy and vibrant democracy needing the underpinnings of civil society that rests on the sustained and active engagement of the citizenry and promotes approaches that seek to maximize that involvement. Inicio; Nota Biografica; Obra; Blogs. Even though pre-election polls made conspicuous predictions of Hilary Clinton winning the presidency and . Longley, Robert. The popular vote currently gives every citizenCalifornians and Texans, Hawaiians and Mainers, Alabamans and Oregoniansan equal say in choosing the president. 7. 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. Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of electors who represent each state's votes. The electoral requires that an election which does not receive a majority of electoral votes be taken into the U.S. House of Representatives. In the 2016 election, "swing states" that might vote Republican or Democrat like Wisconsin were targets of candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton. 1. June 7, 2022 . When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. Every state is allocated several votes according to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation. Second, some believe itll intensify election problems, such as illegally extended voting hours or irregularly high voter turnout (Richards). Lastly, it may cause a third-party candidate to prevail and win, which would allow Americans to be given more choices besides the two primary parties (Richards). It has been enacted by twelve states, which include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California. Thats a bank of about 14 million potential voters that reliably vote as a majority for Democratic candidates. If the presidential election were switched to the popular vote, then it would only take about 35% of the vote for a candidate to win. Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. Hence, the National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact a type of state law authorized by the U.S. Constitution that enables states to enter into a legally enforceable, contractual obligation to undertake agreed joint actions, which may be delayed in implementation until a requisite number of states join in. All in all, the Electoral College causes many problems that seem unfair to American voters during such an important election. The National Popular Vote plan would eliminate what critics of the Electoral College system point to as the "winner-take-all" rule - the awarding all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state. This advance is referred to as the winner-take-all approach. 1. That means every state is allowed a minimum of 3 electoral votes. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were elected with less than a majority of the votes cast. This brings us to 196 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the pact. In each instance the republic has survived, and democracy has prospered despite the challenges presented. http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/. Many cities and school districts, under threat of a lawsuit by a Malibu attorney, have already adopted or are in the process of changing to district elections rather than remaining citywide or . Home| Government| Elections| Electoral College| Electoral College Pros And Cons. 48 Vitosha Boulevard, ground floor, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria, Samploon, Inc. 2022. Here are the Cons of the Electoral College 1. All other votes cast for that candidate are therefore superfluous. The states would implement this plan once enough states controlling 270 electoral votes have signed on, guaranteeing that the national popular vote winner will win the presidency.. 41 States (with 80% of U.S. population) will be Ignored in the 2024 Presidential Election. The United States does not have direct election of its president, yet most national, state and local offices are filled by the candidate with the most votes.
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