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. This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. 1. More attention is given to the swing states, such as Florida and Iowa, which causes the third problem the Electoral College can cause. 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. This brings us to 196 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the pact. 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. In contrast, other issues related to the federal government are not exclusively entrusted to the states, and therefore the states lack the power to alter them. 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 . It understands that while the nation is one union, it is also an amalgam of varying experiences and perspectives arrived at via the settings and unique problems surrounding those who live in different places, and that these differences fall within the broad rubric of federalism. That effectively means that votes in the the 75% of the country that are in swing states effectively dont count at all. This text is available online and is used for gudiance and inspiration, We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were elected with less than a majority of the votes cast. 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. There are logistical issues that are managed at the local level in each election. The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals Donald Trump won the presidential election by securing 304 electoral votes, compared to Hillary Clintons 227 electoral votes. Over the years, the National Popular Vote bill has been introduced in the legislatures of all 50 states. That means every state is allowed a minimum of 3 electoral votes. Many of these states dont participate in campaign visits or get televised ads. That offers the possibility that someone unwilling or unable to hold the office could be elected. The selection of presidential electors is specifically entrusted to the states by the Constitution. 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. cons of the national popular vote plan Is this a solution to first past the post or is it merely reinforcing our current two party system? However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 1. 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 After the process, the President of the Senate reveals who has officially been voted in as President and Vice President of the United States. 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. 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. 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. The electoral college encourages a two-party system and rewards candidates who have broad appeal. Either would likely produce an electoral vote count closer to the popular vote. Proponents of the National Popular Vote fail to understand the most basic facts about the American presidential electoral system. Past Event - LWV Webinar on Popular Vote - The Buchanan Chronicle In fact, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which has now been adopted by 15 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 196 electoral votes, is an actionable and realistic . 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. 9. National Popular Vote: A Status Update - FairVote A close election would trigger the need for a full recount. Richards earned a master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. Should that happen, then the final decision of who gets to serve as President of the United States is taken away from individual voters. Is It Time to Implement a National Popular Vote in Presidential 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. 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. In fact, let's tally up all the votes cast for president between 1932 and 2008. 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. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. Electoral College pros and cons: is popular vote better? - netivist 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. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. An electoral college would solve . Many people may feel that any major change in how we elect the president should be in the Constitution and not in a legal loop hole even if its legal and technically constitutional. According to Article II, Section 1, "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress." 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.. There would be fewer opportunities to illegally alter the results of an election. 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. The Electoral College was established in the Constitution to protect minority interests and mitigate the possibility of a regional candidate. 3. The danger of NPV is that it will undermine the complex and vital underpinnings of American democracy. It is perhaps the most simplistic form of an election. 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. As the National Popular Vote (NPV) movement steps up its effort to impose a direct election for president, attempting to enlist states with a sufficient number of electors to constitute a majority (268) and to bind them to the winner of the national popular vote, those states considering the proposal might first reflect on the nightmare aftermath of the 2000 presidential election. Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. 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. I fear that most, if not all, of the states signing onto the NPV Compact will be just blue states. 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. N.p., n.d. Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee the Right to Vote for All U.S. Citizens. 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. Bush and Al Gore (Black). On Dec. 22, 2016, the results were certified in all 50 states. Note: Today we are in a phase where the popular vote in presidential elections leans Democratic. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact In the 2016 Presidential Election if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been in effect the winner of the national popular vote, Hillary Clinton, would have become president instead of Donald Trump. A switch to the popular vote would eliminate the concept of a battleground state because the issue would be more on issues than states. Definition and Examples, How Political Party Convention Delegates are Chosen, What Is a Caucus? cons of the national popular vote plan [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.]. That would give the Compact states only 3 days( and two of those days were weekend days) to certify their state votes. 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. That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. 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%. 6. Ken Bickers. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. 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. 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. 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. Yes. Probably the NPV Compact would be enacted into law with as little as a simple majority of the states and possibly even less. Candidates feel they either cant win or lose with the votes from these states. The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. To take effect, the National Popular Vote bill must be enacted by the state legislatures of states controlling a total of 270 electoral votes - a majority of the overall 538 electoral votes and the number currently required to elect a president. 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. 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. And that would lead to chaos in how political parties campaign for president and could also undermine the legitimacy of the process. 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.