what would happen if the electoral college was abolished

Whether youre Republican or Democrat, your vote probably doesnt count the way it should. The U.S. Census creates the allocations of electoral votes that each state receives. This is the heart of the problem with the Electoral College. By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. That same view will doubtless color the 2016 election as well. Abolishing the Electoral College stops swing states from having sway in the election. As we all know only too well, in practice this archaic system means that the person who wins the most votes may not win the election. 3. "There's no realistic chance of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College," said Jacob Levy, a professor of political theory at McGill University. It said that the Colorado secretary of state erred in removing an elector who cast his vote for then-Ohio Gov. That could have happened even though Biden won the popular vote by 7,060,087 (and counting)a margin even larger than the margins won by George W Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012. If, say, environmental sustainability or abortion or the Second Amendment is your dominant concern, it does not matter whether you live in Wyoming or California, Pennsylvania or Delaware. Thats not true either. In a polarized political environment, such an institutional structure remains entrenched. Does the Electoral College need to be reformed? Thats when the Founding Fathers crafted a compromise between those who argued for the election of the president by a vote of Congress and the election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Two of those elections have occurred since 2000. Turkey general election 2023 guide: what you need to know | CNN Nebraska and Maine already award some of their electors to the winners of the congressional districts. 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. In 2016, Donald Trump won the White House by earning a majority of electoral votes, even though almost three million more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton. 14 Pros and Cons of Abolishing the Electoral College It was replaced by party conventions, which eventually were replaced (almost) with strings of single or multiple state primaries and caucuses. They disagreed so strongly that the final system wasnt adopted until the last minute, thrown together by a few delegates in a side room. Under the current plan, states that join will not activate the compact until enough states have joined to total 270 electoral votes. Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President? And the most recent major occasion took place in 1969, 1970, when there was a strong bipartisan effort to abolish the electoral college and have us utilize a national popular vote. Take the Electoral College, Americas system for picking the president. The voices of small states, like Rhode Island and Wyoming, would be drowned out. In 1892, the court upheld inMcPherson v. Blackerthat Congress can set the date nationally for the Electoral College to meet, but it also said that the states could determine how electors were apportioned and chosen. US election 2020: What is the electoral college? - BBC News In most cases this should prevent the popular vote loser from becoming president. This reflects how uncommon it is to reach the Oval Office without winning the popular vote; it has only happened four times in United States history. It took time for people to learn what was happening in the nations capital. It is not simply Republican elected officials who want to maintain the Electoral College system; Republican voters support it as well. A number of states have signed onto a pact that guarantees their Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote, no matter the outcome in their individual states. Having the states play an autonomous role in presidential elections, it is said, reinforces the division of governing authority between the nation and the states. Maintaining the Electoral College may seem like the most politically expedient position for the Republican Party in the short term, but it may cause significant damage in the long term. Presidential electors are not more qualified than other citizens to determine who should head the government. The truth is . Its how we run every election in the country, except the most important one of all. Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center In the first instance, states could decide to award 2 Electoral College votes (EVs) to the winner of the national popular vote (NPV) and the remainder to the winner of the state. But as people moved and the economy changed so did that ratio. Now is the time for sober and spirited citizens from both parties to devise a new system for 2020. All parts of the country would not be involved in the selection of the president. Having this structure go away would encourage more third-party development. 5. That means there must be a majority of states that agree with a specific candidate instead of allowing the people to decide who they want to have as president. As American leadership falters, scholars say, autocrats are on the rise. Enslaved people couldnt vote, but they were still counted toward the slave states representation in Congress. 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. The winner-take-all method is nowhere in the Constitution. Third, defenders of the Electoral College also claim that it supports the underlying value of federalism. During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had 90% of their campaign stops in only 11 states.

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