When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. In a closely contested direct popular election, every precinct across the country might require close examination, rather than a handful of states or precincts. Every state is allocated several votes according to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation. 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. 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. The popular vote currently gives every citizenCalifornians and Texans, Hawaiians and Mainers, Alabamans and Oregoniansan equal say in choosing the president. It could help to reduce partisanship. Under the electoral college, the majority votes of states assign electoral votes to a candidate, which then creates a majority total required for a victory. 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%. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. 8. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. 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. It has also happened four times out of the 56 presidential elections. The country could become less stable and divided if he or she did not have a vast amount of support (Richards). National Popular Vote values rural and urban voters equally. 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. It would limit the influence of local issues in the election. Cons of Electoral College. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45thPresident of the United States. Most recently, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 4016 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 2818 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 574 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 3721 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House." That's almost 1.5 billion . There are pros and cons to both systems. . 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. The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. Only Nebraska and Maine do not. It gives more voting power to individual voters in smaller states. Or the opposite could be true. That, in turn, would likely diminish voter turnout. Politicians would focus on fewer swing states (Bigger states more potential votes) The National Popular Vote Bill is not a Democrat or Republican bill. Inicio; Nota Biografica; Obra; Blogs. Now, the states are considering the National Popular Vote plan, a system that, while not doing away with the Electoral College system, would modify it to ensure that the candidate winning the national popular vote is ultimately elected president. Regional candidates could secure enough votes to win a national election. The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). As a result, the bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing an additional 74 electoral votes. 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. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. 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 NPV Interstate Compact does not eliminate the very complicated Electoral College system that most voters dont really understand. cons of the national popular vote plansuper lemon haze greenhouse. A direct popular election would make it more possible for third-party candidates to succeed and would also encourage political parties to become more radical and extreme. Would you like to get a custom essay? 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. 4. cons of the national popular vote plan. Secondly, it creates a minimalist depiction in the minds of the candidate towards more than 40 states. 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 would reduce the influence of third parties on the U.S. presidential election. And unlike direct elections, either would provide an incentive for grass-roots activity, coalition building and enhanced citizen participation. Explains kimberling, william c., and dave leip's . Opines that the national popular vote plan is the wrong way to abolith the electoral college. It is not even a liberal or conservative bill. In 6 Elections, 2 Near-Misses (2020, 2004) and 2 Second-Place Presidents (2016, 2000) National Popular Vote Has Been Enacted into Law in 16 Jurisdictions with 195 Electoral Votes. Would it aid a fight to eliminate first past the post or would it further entrench the established party system voters American voters have expressed disdain for. When a popular vote is held for a national office, the election becomes more about platform issues than local issues. Imperfect, because its modern-day blessings -- enhancing coalition building, pluralism, federalism and grass-roots participation -- are enjoyed only by a minority of states (in any given presidential election 18 or 20), where the battle for electoral votes is competitive for both major parties. 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. It would require an Amendment in the U.S. for presidential elections. The years-old effort is slowly making its way through state legislatures in hopes of changing the way Instead of a direct popular election, the United States has the Electoral College, a group of electors who represent each state's votes. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with bachelor's degrees in creative writing, English/American literature and international studies. 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. (LogOut/ 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: States already have the power to award their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, although this would be disadvantageous to the state that did so unless it was joined simultaneously by other states that represent a majority of electoral votes. That nightmare may seem like a pleasant dream if NPV has its way. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. The votes of those who do not live in closely divided battleground states effectively count less. After all, the Electoral College makes it possible that a candidate who wins the majority of the votes could still lose the election. 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. The Constitution specifically leaves details like how the electoral votes are cast up to the states. 1. The candidate who placed second in the popular vote was elected in 2016, 2000, 1888, 1876, and 1824. The horror of a potential national recount is only one of the dangers direct presidential elections poses. The National Popular Vote plan does not do away with the Electoral College system, an action that would require a constitutional amendment. 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. amazon web services address herndon va custom airbrush spray tan near me custom airbrush spray tan near me 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. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. Similarly, because a national campaign mandates a national message, there would also be a smaller incentive for coalition-building or taking into account the characteristics, needs and desires of citizens in differing states and regions. At the moment, 98 more electoral votes are needed to pass this bill in all 50 states (National Conference of State Legislators). https://www.thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047 (accessed March 4, 2023). 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. What would happen during a switch to the popular vote would be unknown. A simple change in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could fix the flaw and still provide the benefits of a popular election. 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 . 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. The last amendment, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, was ratified nearly 200 years after it was originally proposed. Even though we will be able to elect the president by national popular vote using the The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, eventually the rules for how we elect the president should be an official part of the Constitution. 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. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. Because every vote is equal inside Ohio or Florida, presidential candidates avidly seek out voters in small, medium, and large towns. 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. However, this also means that regions with a quite low population density will almost have no influence on the election outcome at all since they only have far too few votes to make a real difference. 6. 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. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan. After all, is said and done, the candidate who attains the largest number of votes can still lose. It awards all the bonus votes to the winner of the popular vote. Today, the fact that Nebraska and Maine do not use the winner-take-all system serves as proof that modifying the Electoral College system, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan is constitutional and does not require a constitutional amendment. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. Currently, candidates focus more on swing and battleground states to help them gain those electoral votes. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. Before the 2016 election, the largest vote deficit in the popular vote was Al Gore securing over 500,000 votes more than George W. Bush. In the 2020 election California did not certify their votes until Friday, December 11, only 3 days before the Electoral College met on Monday, December, 14. NCSL's experts are here to answer your questions and give you unbiased, comprehensive information as soon as you need it on issues facing state legislatures. on Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Follow All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. Under the electoral college system, the candidates which receive the most votes in each state (or district) receive its assigned electoral votes. A popular vote election takes all ballots that are cast, counts them, and declares the winner based on who received the most votes. Here are the essential pros and cons of popular vote elections to examine. 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. It is perhaps the most simplistic form of an election. 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. 10 Apr. As of July 2020, a National Popular Vote bill has been signed into law in 16 states controlling a total of 196 electoral votes, including 4 small states, 8 medium-sized states, 3 big states (California, Illinois, and New York), and the District of Columbia. Common Cause 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. Menu burger Close thin Facebook Twitter Google plus Linked in Reddit Email arrow-right-sm arrow-right Loading Home Buying Calculators The appeal of NPV is the simplicity of its message. Rebekah Richards is a professional writer with work published in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "Brandeis University Law Journal" and online at tolerance.org. In the U.S., that means people who lean Democratic live in urban areas, while people who lean Republican live in rural areas. 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 is hardly a mandate for governing, though it would be taken as such. Thats a bank of about 14 million potential voters that reliably vote as a majority for Democratic candidates. 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. After the process, the President of the Senate reveals who has officially been voted in as President and Vice President of the United States. 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 The Electoral College system, however imperfect, serves this broader view of democracy. 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. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. pros and cons." dave leip's atlas of u.s. presidential elections. 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.. In 2016, Florida had 29 electoral votes and 9.4 million voters, created a voter value of 0.72. Get breaking news and updates from Common Cause. In theory we could change how we elect our president every four years. Advantages of the NPV Interstate Compact 1. 9. That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. The plan would not get rid of the Electoral College. 5. The electoral college leads to a heavy emphasis on swing states and also typically over-represents citizens in rural states. 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 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. People are moving to live in like-minded communities more than ever before. 6. Since the Constitution and the Bill of Rights became governing documents in the United States, there have only been 17 amendments made to it. It makes things easier for extreme parties to gain representation. Is the National Popular Vote Plan Constitutional? Bosque de Palabras This would happen in the extremely unlikely situation where this candidate would win just for one vote in some . ThoughtCo. The time to stop its momentum is now. List of the Cons of Using the Popular Vote 1. It would eliminate the threat of a faithless elector. There are logistical issues that are managed at the local level in each election. Candidates get one vote for every congressional district they win, and then two votes for winning the state-wide vote. Thats how politics works in America. This brings us to 196 of the 270 (73%) electoral votes needed to activate the pact just 74 votes away. Though the original, some would say highly undemocratic, purpose. I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. This has occurred in 5 of the nation's 56 presidential elections, most recently in 2016. An individuals vote doesnt make a difference when it is counted against the votes of the delegates in the House of Representatives and Senate. Even the minority party wouldnt be encouraged to negotiate because they could simply stall until the next election. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Instead, each state and Washington D.C. is assigned a certain number of electoral votes based on its population. 1, 2023 at 1:16 PM PST. But NPV could force our electors to disregard the wishes of the . Over the long run the countrys popular vote in presidential elections has roughly been equally split between Republican and Democratic.*. It is our national motto and is so for a reason. As a result, an agreement between a group of states to cast all of their electoral votes in a similar manner, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan passes constitutional muster. When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a majority of 270 electoral votes is mandatory to nominate the President. However, some critics argue that the advantages of a direct popular election including reflecting democratic principals, outweigh the disadvantages. It isnt impossible to pass a Constitutional amendment, though history shows that it is not an easy process to complete. Learn more about how the National Popular Vote compact works and the ways it could make our elections better for everyone. 5. 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. Just 12 Closely Divided Battleground States Got 96% of 2020 Campaign Events. Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. Do you have information you want to share with HuffPost? Privacy Policy. State Question 820 lays out a statutory framework for a recreational industry that would begin about 90 days after election results are certified. There would be fewer opportunities to illegally alter the results of an election. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 3. Just another site cons of the national popular vote plan . ashburnham school committee; its his baby now political cartoon meaning; softstar primal sawyer Even if states impose fines on faithless electors for their actions, it is not a guarantee that the behavior will stop. Analyzes how william c. kimberling, the deputy director of the federal election commission, is a credible author over the issue. In theory that could happen every four years. sale of united methodist church property. In 2004, for example, candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry campaigned heavily in states such as Nevada while ignoring political issues in New York, a state that Kerry was sure to win, according to the University of the Pacific. The National Popular Vote Plan. 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. ThoughtCo, Dec. 16, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz often split about 60% of the GOP vote, which allowed Donald Trump to win early primaries with 35% of the vote. The advantage of this system is that it preserves the preferences of. Louisiana voters should decide who receives Louisiana's electoral votes. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. National Popular Vote proponents argue that the United States has had four presidential elections in which the plurality winner of the popular vote was not chosen as president. 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. Definition and Examples. If a popular vote were allowed to declare a winner instead, it wouldnt be through a state-by-state counting of electoral votes. It would reduce the threshold necessary to win the office. Change). 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 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. 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. 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. Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. Activating the National Popular Vote compact would reshape our . Here are the Cons of the Electoral College 1. 7. 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. 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. This advance is referred to as the winner-take-all approach. 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. 3. While we look further into the National Popular Vote, lets investigate some of its pro and cons for the American democracy. 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. 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). "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. How the National Popular Vote Plan Would Work. Also the NPV Compact allows states to withdraw from the compact as late as four months before an election. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it . The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. Thats the way it has been in this country for a long time. A plan to enact the National Popular Vote was introduced in the Michigan Legislature on Wednesday. Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. Copyright 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Education, Explore state by state cost analysis of US colleges in an interactive article, Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections: The Electoral College, University of the Pacific: Electoral College Reform, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School: The Electoral College. 5. Moving to the popular vote structure would eliminate this potential issue. 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. More attention is given to the swing states, such as Florida and Iowa, which causes the third problem the Electoral College can cause. National Popular Vote will create a single member district (all 50 states and D.C.), where the candidate with the most votes wins and . 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. Retrieved from https://samploon.com/electoral-college-and-national-popular-vote-pros-and-cons/, Should the Electoral College Be Abolished, Pros for The Electoral College in the United States, Electoral College is Undemocratic but We Have no Better System, The Electoral College Should Be Terminated, The Electoral College Annotated Bibliography. All samples were added by students. 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. A popular vote system would significantly impact voters and turnout. I will explain that in another blog post. All states could adopt the system that now exists in Maine and Nebraska, where all but two electors are chosen by congressional district, and the other two go to the statewide winner. There are a number of pros for this method. 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.