If that was to take place, America could potentially face the same issues it is facing now. cons of the national popular vote plan - demo.bobbiclayton.com In the case of a tie, there are contingencies in place to determine which person will serve in the elected office. 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. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the way the president is elected should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency, while 35% favor keeping the current Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 27-July 4, 2022. 27 Major Pros & Cons Of The Electoral College - E&C There are alternatives to winner-take-all that do not involve abandoning the positive aspects of the Electoral College. 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. 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. Definition and Examples, Learn How Many Total Electoral Votes There Are. 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. Lincoln Chafee (D) made his state the latest to sign on. Past Event - LWV Webinar on Popular Vote - The Buchanan Chronicle Because a direct election would be, by definition, national and resource allocation would be overwhelmingly dominated by paid television advertising, there would be little impetus for grass-roots activity. 5. For example, if a candidate was very popular in New York City, Los Angeles and other large cities, she might not need to earn votes from other areas of the country. 12th Amendment: Fixing the Electoral College, What Is Majoritarianism? Image the country thinks it is going to elect the president by National Popular Vote and then changing back to using the old Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system just four months before an election. Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. Donald Trump won the presidential election by securing 304 electoral votes, compared to Hillary Clintons 227 electoral votes. Actually the NPV Compact doesnt change one word in he Constitution and in fact only changes state laws. 1. 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. Moving to the popular vote structure would eliminate this potential issue. It would limit the influence of local issues in the 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. Electoral College vs. National Popular Vote - BohatALA The Pros and Cons of the Electoral College - SmartAsset 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). Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. mike matarazzo last photo. It awards all the bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. 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. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. It is not even a liberal or conservative bill. Unless the national popular vote was very close, or there were all lot of recounts outstanding, the Compact states in most cases would effectively know what the outcome would be and could be prepared to certify their state votes very quickly to make the Electoral College meeting date deadline. National Popular Vote compact pros and cons. The popular vote currently gives every citizenCalifornians and Texans, Hawaiians and Mainers, Alabamans and Oregoniansan equal say in choosing the president. cons of the national popular vote plan - vidasproductivas.org 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. In U.S. history, the electoral college winner has failed to secure the popular vote 5 times. Is the Electoral College a Problem? Does It Need to Be Fixed? what connection type is known as "always on"? 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. Under the National Popular Vote plan,the compact would take effect only when enabling legislation has been enacted by states collectively possessing a majority of the electoral votes:270 of 538 total. 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. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. National Popular Vote - Pros and Cons "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. The National Popular Vote compact would have the same effect as a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College but has the benefit of retaining the power to control presidential elections in states hands. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. (LogOut/ Even if states impose fines on faithless electors for their actions, it is not a guarantee that the behavior will stop. Here are the Cons of the Electoral College 1. 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. 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. 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. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. Facts support national popular vote | The Hill Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Make a contribution to support Common Cause today. Or the opposite could be true. Resource allocation would be focused on paid advertising, which would negate the need for grassroots activities. What Is the National Bonus Plan? - Reference.com - What's Your Question? Six Reasons to Reject National Popular Vote - Pelican Policy 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. Pros And Cons Of Popular Vote - 558 Words | Studymode 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. Some critics argue that more people would vote in a direct popular election, according to the University of the Pacific. National Popular Vote will create a single member district (all 50 states and D.C.), where the candidate with the most votes wins and . 4. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement where states in the compact award all their electoral votes to the winner of the . It would be a national mandate to put someone in office, even if that winning candidate received less than 50% of the vote. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it . Past Event: The League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties has announced plans to broadcast a webinar discussing the National Popular Vote (NPV) on Monday, Feb. 27 at 7:00 p.m. National Popular Vote has been leading the campaign to fix the electoral college and elect the president by national popular vote since its founding in 2006 . and our 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. That created a voter value of 2.85. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. cons of the national popular vote plan Over the long run the countrys popular vote in presidential elections has roughly been equally split between Republican and Democratic.*. 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. The National Popular Vote proposal is doomed if even only - LSE Blogs 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. A popular vote structure would virtually eliminate the idea of a third-party candidate having a chance in an election. A candidate may not have to concentrate anymore, but they may have to move their attention to states such as Texas, New York, California, and Alaska. 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. It happened once, in 1876. The candidate who placed second in the popular vote was elected in 2016, 2000, 1888, 1876, and 1824. Once enacted, the participating states would cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote, thus ensuring that candidate the required 270 electoral votes. Feb 25, 2023. Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. The horror of a potential national recount is only one of the dangers direct presidential elections poses. The bill has crossed paths with 36 legislative chambers and has been sponsored or voted for by 3,112 state legislators (National Popular Vote). 2015. That would increase the amount of polarization being experienced in politics today because there would be less of a need to compromise. Under the current structure of presidential elections in the U.S., the states become a battleground of red states vs. blue states. every decade states are redistricted could be redrawn to capture house seats and corrupt the Presidential election List of the Cons of Using the Popular Vote 1. Gov Flashcards | Quizlet The Congressional District method would allocate electoral votes based on the winner of each congressional district. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. The National Popular Vote Bill is a bill for Americans interested in both preserving our Electoral College and reforming the shortcomings of our current "winner-take-all" system that awards all the electors of one state to the candidate who wins in that particular state and . Pros & Cons of Selecting Government Officials by Direct Election The National Popular Vote, Explained | Brennan Center for Justice . And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some . 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. Why National Popular Vote Is a Bad Idea | HuffPost Latest News Just another site cons of the national popular vote plan . In 2016, Gary Johnson received 4.48 million votes and 0 electoral votes, but the potential is always there for this to happen. It gives more voting power to individual voters in smaller states. The National Popular Vote bill will take effect when enacted into law by states possessing 270 electoral votes a majority of the current 538 electoral votes. How Many Electoral Votes Does a Candidate Need to Win? How the National Popular Vote Plan Would Work. 3. The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. Their vote only counts at the local level, not the national level, because of the electoral votes. The first problem it creates is the opportunity for the loser of the popular vote to win the electoral vote. A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. America is known to have the costliest, prolonged, and complicated structure when electing a head of state. University of Colorado Boulder You can use essay samples to find ideas and inspiration for your paper. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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). This brings us to 196 of the 270 (73%) electoral votes needed to activate the pact just 74 votes away. a plan for a national popular vote could undermine the . 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. It has its pros and cons though, many of which critics debate over. The framers enacted the provisions relating to the Electoral College to allow for state innovation. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had more than 10 million of these votes, while Donald Trump had more than 8.3 million, even though Trump won 30 states and Clinton won 20 and the District of Columbia. It's time to abolish the Electoral College - Brookings A candidate could be elected without the popular vote. (LogOut/ Oklahoma voters weigh pros, cons of legalizing recreational marijuana The Electoral College system - the way we really elect our president - has always had its detractors and lost even more public support after the 2016 election, when it became apparent that President-ElectDonald Trump might have lost the nationwide popular vote to Sec. District Plan CONS Technically still possible, but A LOT hard to do so District 1 = Romney 57% District 2 = Romney 52% District 3 = Romney 70% Gerrymandering. Voters in spectator states, including five of the nations 10 most populous states (California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey), and 12 of the 13 least populous states (all but New Hampshire) have no real incentive to go to the polls as their votes do not affect the outcome of the election. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 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. national popular vote plan pros and cons - shipoom.com Mayors, governors, and senators are all elected by a simple majority. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. 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. 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. Ken Bickers. During the 2012 elections, 38 states, also known as spectator states, were ignored and forgotten. 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. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 (2020, December 16). 4. Under the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system votes in small states, like Wyoming or Delaware count double what votes in large states like California or Texas. In a direct popular election, a candidate could theoretically win without having broad support throughout the country. The alternative view of democracy is more complex; it is one that includes but is not limited to the pursuit of equality. The winner would receive all of the compact states electoral votes, giving them at least the necessary 270 to win the White House. (2021, Jun 14). 622 By John Samples The National Popular Vote plan (NPV), introduced in more than 40 states, and adopted. cons of the national popular vote planchicago religious demographics. Advantage: Encourages Voter Turnout 2. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45thPresident of the United States. Although it is sometimes conjectured that a national popular election would focus only on big cities, it is clear that this would not be the case. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. Congressional Digest The National Popular Vote I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. Louisiana voters should decide who receives Louisiana's electoral votes. Due to some states being heavily populated in comparison to others, that may help a candidate quickly obtain a win. 3. 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. All other elections in the U.S. are through the popular vote. Disadvantages of the NPV Interstate Compact. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. Not only it already happened five times, but in theory, a candidate could win the presidency with only 22% of the popular vote in a two-candidates race. Then, election officials in all participating states would choose the electors sworn to support thepresidential candidate who received the largest number of popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Congressional District Method by Riley Dimmock - Prezi 7. Going to the popular vote would eliminate this issue altogether. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. 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. The bill has passed one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes. 15 states and Washington, D.C. have joined the National Popular Vote compact. The Supreme Court has said in local and state elections voting should be based on the principle of one person one vote. Bosque de Palabras Electoral College Alternatives: What Are the Other Options? - The Daily Dot One of the biggest reasons why voters dont vote is because they feel like their vote doesnt count. 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. Because every vote is equal inside Ohio or Florida, presidential candidates avidly seek out voters in small, medium, and large towns. 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. 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. cons of the national popular vote plan Though the original, some would say highly undemocratic, purpose. Cookie Notice OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahomans will head to the polls March 7 to decide if the state will become the 22nd in the country to legalize recreational marijuana for use by anyone 21 and older. An electoral college would solve . Either would provide a reason for both parties to compete in most states because there would be electors to win. (LogOut/ The appeal of NPV is the simplicity of its message. Advantages & Disadvantages of a Direct Popular Election 1. National Popular Vote This has occurred in 5 of the nation's 56 presidential elections, most recently in 2016. Pros & Cons of a National Popular Vote Buy Complete Issue $19.95 Login or Subscribe The National Popular Vote How would the interstate compact work? But the much greater danger to American democracy is that direct elections may make it possible for a president to be elected by no more than 30 percent of the vote, regardless of his or her suitability for office, so long as there is sufficient money and a clever media advisor behind the effort. Watch out! Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate 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. In the 2016 election, only 58 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. Pros and cons of district elections | Columnists | smdailyjournal.com It is not at all clear that it would similarly prosper under the direct election regime being pushed by NPV. It is perhaps the most simplistic form of an election. However that presumably rare exception happened in the 2000 election when Florida could not complete their statewide recount in time for the Electoral College deadline and the Supreme Court forced Florida to use their first vote count without a statewide recount. 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. 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. A Critique of the National Popular Vote | Cato Institute Would you like to get a custom essay?