cons of the national popular vote plan

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. Where the National Popular Vote Plan Stands. The discussion around using the popular vote for elections has increased since the results of the 2016 election. 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 votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. During the 2012 elections, 38 states, also known as spectator states, were ignored and forgotten. That, in turn, would likely diminish voter turnout. When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. It could help to reduce partisanship. Of the 538 Electoral College votes available, Donald J. Trump received 304 votes, Hillary Clinton received 227 votes, and seven votes went to others: three for Colin Powell, one for Faith Spotted Eagle, one for John Kasich, one for Ron Paul, and one for Bernie Sanders). Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. and our All other votes cast for that candidate are therefore superfluous. Nevada passed the legislation in 2019, but Gov. cons of the national popular vote plansuper lemon haze greenhouse. Because there was a difference of less than 1,000 tabulated votes between George W. Bush and Al Gore in one state, Florida, the nation watched as 6 million votes were recounted by machine, several hundred thousand were recounted by hand in counties with differing recount standards, partisan litigators fought each other in state and federal courts, the secretary of state backed by the majority of state legislators (all Republicans) warred with the state's majority Democratic judiciary -- until 37 days after the election the U.S. Supreme Court, in a bitterly controversial 5-4 decision effectively declared Bush the winner. It is also true that no president since 1824 has received the votes of a majority of the eligible voters and 18 presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, John. mike matarazzo last photo. 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. Just another site cons of the national popular vote plan . The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset The electoral college is a tradition of American politics that's fairly controversial. Definition and Examples. 12th Amendment: Fixing the Electoral College, What Is Majoritarianism? The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. The Congressional District method would allocate electoral votes based on the winner of each congressional district. Many Americans are confused about how a win is obtained under these conditions and are on a quest to change this traditional statute. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Proponents of the National Popular Vote fail to understand the most basic facts about the American presidential electoral system. Common Cause The Supreme Court has said in local and state elections voting should be based on the principle of one person one vote. By continuing well assume youre on board with our, https://samploon.com/electoral-college-and-national-popular-vote-pros-and-cons/, Select a writer from a large pool of experts. Lastly, some Americans believe that there would be an increase in voter turn-out if people felt that their vote was viewed as a significant asset to their country. June 7, 2022 . Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost. Security would be improved across the country. A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. How the National Popular Vote Plan Would Work. On average, studies show that falls in line with historical averages showing around 60 percent of eligible voters casting a vote in presidential election years. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of electors who represent each state's votes. Explains kimberling, william c., and dave leip's . 10 Apr. 8. 5. Resource allocation would be focused on paid advertising, which would negate the need for grassroots activities. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. Either would likely produce an electoral vote count closer to the popular vote. It fails to reach the ideal of one-person one-vote. Wyoming had just 3 electoral votes, but only had 255,000 voters as well. The NPVC is a proposed interstate compact in which the signatory states agree that they will appoint their presidential electors in accordance with the national popular vote rather than their own state electorate's vote. The Electoral College was established in the Constitution to protect minority interests and mitigate the possibility of a regional candidate. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 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. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. sale of united methodist church property. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. The states that join the NPV Compact will not be able to certify their Electoral College Votes until all 50 states and DC certify their state popular votes and any mandated/requested recounts since the Compact state ECVs are dependent on the winner of the national popular vote and not just their own state popular votes. Although faithless electors have not affected the results or outcome of an election yet, in 2016, there were 7 faithless electors. The country could become less stable and divided if he or she did not have a vast amount of support (Richards). Yes. It would be a national mandate to put someone in office, even if that winning candidate received less than 50% of the vote. In Maine, both houses of the legislature passed the bill in 2019, but it failed at the final enactment step. It is our national motto and is so for a reason. And in all states but Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in that state is awarded all of its electoral votes, whether the split is 51% to 49% or 99% to 1%. All samples were added by students. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. 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. 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. Or the opposite could be true. Their vote only counts at the local level, not the national level, because of the electoral votes. 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. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. ashburnham school committee; its his baby now political cartoon meaning; softstar primal sawyer The issue raised by the National Popular Vote campaign is fundamental: What kind of a democracy should America be? The appeal of NPV is the simplicity of its message. 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. Inside Ohio or Florida, to pick two examples, the big cities do not receive all the attention, and they certainly do not control the outcome. The electoral requires that an election which does not receive a majority of electoral votes be taken into the U.S. House of Representatives. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. Imagine a scenario where a presidential candidate focuses on Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, OR and Seattle. 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). Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. That effectively means that votes in the the 75% of the country that are in swing states effectively dont count at all. (LogOut/ To date, the bill has passed at least one legislative chamber in 9 states possessing 82 combined electoral votes: AR, AZ, ME, MI, MN, NC, NV, OK, and OR. Because of the Winner-Take-All state laws candidates for president only campaign and spend their money in 12-13 swing states because voters in those few swing states determine who wins the election and presidential candidates totally ignore voters in the rest of the country(except to raise money). 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. After all, is said and done, the candidate who attains the largest number of votes can still lose. 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. A popular vote election would bring the presidential election in line with the rest of the election structures. Get breaking news and updates from Common Cause. Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has 172 electoral votes. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. 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. 4. Candidates get one vote for every congressional district they win, and then two votes for winning the state-wide vote. 1, 2023 at 1:16 PM PST. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. 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. As a result, the percentage of popular votes secured by Donald Trump was just 46.4% in comparison with Hilary Clinton, who secured 48.5% of the votes. But in practice it could happen every 10 or 20 years when the Electoral College votes change because the congressional boundaries change with the new population census. 6. Without any sort of broad support, the politics of the country could become even more fractured than they already are. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among states and the District of Columbia to award their respective electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote of the presidential election. 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. What would happen during a switch to the popular vote would be unknown. As of December 2020, the National Popular Vote bill has been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia, controlling 196 electoral votes: CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NM, NY, OR, RI, VT, and WA. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. 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. 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. The Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns . The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election (Archives). It awards all the bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. 3. 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. 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. Feb 25, 2023. A popular vote election takes all ballots that are cast, counts them, and declares the winner based on who received the most votes. Instead, it modifies the winner-take-all rule in a way its supporters say would assure that every vote will matter in every state in every presidential election. It would reduce the influence of third parties on the U.S. presidential election. It would require an Amendment in the U.S. for presidential elections. ThoughtCo, Dec. 16, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047. Candidates feel these states need a little bit more of their attention and apply pressure to supply these states with solutions to their problems in order to gain their vote. The National Popular Vote stems from the winner-take-all approach that validates the presidential candidate interactions with only 4 out of 50 dates during their campaign. every decade states are redistricted could be redrawn to capture house seats and corrupt the Presidential election Cookie Notice Each states electoral votes are tallied by Congress in the House chamber by House and Senate representatives on the 6th day of January following the Presidential election. Right now, the President of the United States is not elected by a popular vote. a plan for a national popular vote could undermine the . In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. A close election would trigger the need for a full recount. on Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Follow All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. But we're closer to that than you might think 15 states and the District of Columbia have already signed on, providing 196 electoral votes of the needed 270. Here is the entire text of the proposed "Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote." Tweet Email this More on The Electoral College: Honorable Steve Cohen NPV supporters claim, accurately, that a direct election for president would reduce or eliminate the possibility that a fringe candidate (like a Ralph Nader or Ron Paul) winning five percent or less of the vote in a single state could serve to defeat a major party candidate from the same side of the political spectrum. That created a voter value of 2.85. The pros and cons of the popular vote structure of an election allow for the majority to have their say in who they wish to serve. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact collectively apportions votes to the winner of the overall popular vote without a constitutional amendment abolishing the electoral college or the assent of Congress. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. Activating the National Popular Vote compact would reshape our . The National Popular Vote Bill is not a Democrat or Republican bill. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. Would you like to get a custom essay? The Electoral College is very undemocratic and riddled with issues. The one-vote approach does not align with the way the electoral votes operates. That nightmare may seem like a pleasant dream if NPV has its way. 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.. To determine the National Popular Vote winner, state election officials simply would tally the nationwide vote for president based on each states official results. Analyzes how william c. kimberling, the deputy director of the federal election commission, is a credible author over the issue. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. This blog post is a joint effort with Leslie Francis, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Heres how. The candidate who placed second in the popular vote was elected in 2016, 2000, 1888, 1876, and 1824. If the election is based off a popular vote, each of these areas would need to be closely examined in real-time, which would enhance the security of each vote that is cast. The National Bonus Plan maintains the Electoral College voting system but adds 102 bonus electoral votes to the existing 538 votes. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. 4. Today the Democrats want to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system with a direct popular vote and the Republicans adamantly want to keep it. In countries where the concept of popular votes is in place, every vote has an equal weight regarding the election outcome. 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. That means some voters, like Republicans in California or Democrats in Mississippi, are voting without power and without attention from their preferred candidates each year. Under the system of proportional representation, any party with a high enough percentage of the vote will receive a seat in the government. Under the Electoral College system, voters in states that are overwhelmingly in support of one candidate might feel like their vote is unimportant. Under the electoral college system, the candidates which receive the most votes in each state (or district) receive its assigned electoral votes. While we look further into the National Popular Vote, lets investigate some of its pro and cons for the American democracy. Colorado is on the verge of joining a nationwide movement that could eventually change how we choose the next president of the United States. It is not at all clear that it would similarly prosper under the direct election regime being pushed by NPV. The electoral college leads to a heavy emphasis on swing states and also typically over-represents citizens in rural states. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. 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.

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