Wallison concluded that the Electoral College is an elegant solution to the legitimacy issue that doesn’t require constitutional amendments and partisan sparring. Electoral College and the current debate surrounding the outcome of the 2016 election. According to experts, it is the Electoral College that actually decides who will secure the office, not the voters in the United States. Since most states tend to dependably support either Democrats or Republicans, opponents say the current system also confines most campaigning to a handful of “swing” states. The Electoral College is not a safety valve meant to … The Electoral College is not perfect—no election system is. Electoral College POLICY BIG IDEAS ... to favor Congress, ... oral arguments from candidates. Number 3: The Media Argument. Electoral college defenders argue that without the electoral college, candidates will spend all their time trying to rack up big victories in big cities with big media, ignoring the rest of the voters. Nobody would be in favor of that, and nobody should be in favor of the electoral college. Here's a video looking at every common argument in favor of it and shows why they are wrong. By abolishing the electoral college, we would be improving our democracy. Proponents of the system argue that it forces candidates to appeal to the nation as a whole. 5. Calls to scrap the Electoral College have mounted since the 2016 election became the second in 16 years to see a presidential candidate elected without winning the popular vote. In the Electoral College, Trump was granted 306 votes to Clinton's 232. On Dec. 14, electoral votes for the president of the United States will officially be cast in all 50 states. Here is a list of every argument for against electing presidents by national popular vote – and why all of them are wrong. If you think you have one, what is it? The Electoral College system, long a source of controversy, came under especially heavy criticism after the 2016 presidential election when Republican Donald Trump lost the nationwide popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes but won the Electoral College—and thus the presidency—by 74 electoral votes. It is sometimes reported that Richard M. Nixon received more popular votes in the 1960 election than winner John F. Kennedy , but official results showed Kennedy with 34,227,096 popular votes to Nixon's 34,107,646. However, we do not vote for president. But there are also staunch defenders of the Electoral College who, though perhaps less vocal than its critics, offer very powerful arguments in its favor. 5 Arguments for the Electoral College. Some people think this system is unfair. With the rise of the two-party system, the modern Electoral College continued to evolve. The candidate who wins a state wins its electors, and those people—called the Electoral College—actually vote for the president.. Note: A version of this post with more recent data can be found here.. A majority of U.S. adults (58%) say the Constitution should be amended so the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins, while 40% prefer to keep the current system in which the candidate who receives the most Electoral College votes wins the election. It doesn’t matter if 12 points come from 1 inning if you outscore your opponent, you earned the victory. A month after the 2016 election, and on the day the members of the Electoral College met to cast their official votes, the New York Times editorial board published a scathing attack of this sort, calling the Electoral College an "antiquated mechanism" that "overwhelming majorities" of Americans would prefer to eliminate in favor of a direct, national popular vote. Arguments in Favor of the Electoral College. So far I've yet to see a single compelling argument for the electoral college's legitimacy as a democratic system. Elizabeth Warren wants to abolish the Electoral College. Pitfalls of Popular Vote. The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers of the United States to uphold democracy, but for many years, this system has come under criticism. Why or why not? If we abandoned the Electoral College, and adopted a system in which a person could win the presidency with only a plurality of the popular votes we would be swamped with candidates. The electoral college, proponents say, makes U.S. presidential elections less contentious by providing a clear ending. For example, Nixon in 1968 and Clinton in 1992 both had only a 43 percent plurality of the popular votes, while winning a majority in the Electoral College (301 and 370 electoral votes, respectively). In the electoral college there is a discrepancy in equality this creates negative … Opponents of the Electoral College are further concerned about its possible role in depressing voter turnout . Proposals to eliminate the Electoral College, or to do an “end run” with the popular vote compact, would eliminate these checks and balances in favor of a simple majority. 1. Arguments in Favor of the Electoral College. The electoral college needs to go. Their argument is that, since each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes regardless of its voter turnout, there is no incentive in the States to encourage voter participation. The electoral college gives small states more weight in the political process than their population would otherwise confer. Do you favor replacing the Electoral College with direct popular election of the president? Indeed, there may even be an incentive to Arguments Against the Electoral College Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct … Federal office holders cannot be electors. But it has stood the test of time. Today, in every state except Nebraska and Maine, whichever candidate wins the most votes in a state wins all the electors from that state, no matter what the margin of victory. ( Note: If students already have a strong foundation in this topic, start the lesson at Part 2.) Many arguments for keeping the Electoral College in place poke holes in arguments made for popular vote elections. Every four years, Americans participate in a presidential election. The Electoral College was first conceived in 1787, at the Constitutional Convention. The Founders who sat in the 1787 Constitutional Convention lavished an extraordinary amount of argument on the electoral college, and it was by no means one-sided. On the other hand, many people do still believe the Electoral College is the best system for electing the president. The very same thing might be said of the California governor's election. These arguments may seem plausible. The Electoral College is widely regarded as an anachronism, a nondemocratic method of selecting a president that ought to be superseded by declaring … In normal years, the Electoral College is often considered a formality in the election process for the office of president. Electoral College in favor of a nationwide popular election for president would strike at . By the 1820s, most states began to pass laws allowing voters, not state legislatures, to choose electors on a winner-take-all basis. Without it, people would have a … Electoral College that presidential nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other than their own. But this objection also proves too much. Many have complained that the Electoral College is outdated, undemocratic and fails to represent the will of the people. I’ll get back to them below. The electoral college limits voter fraud. Pro #2: It provides a clean, widely accepted ending to the election (most of the time). This article seeks to The process rewards coalition-building and prevents nationwide recounts. The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president.Each state appoints electors according to its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation (senators and representatives). Rather, we vote for electors who represent our state in a second round of voting. The electoral college is far broken than repair, and by replacing it we’ll achieve the benefits of direct popular vote. If you don't, state whatever case you want regarding the electoral college. But in reality, they are specious, ahistorical, and counterproductive. The 2016 election ought to put an end to this argument forever. On December 10, in a landmark 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court You’ll hear these 4 arguments in defense of the Electoral College – here’s why they’re wrong March 27, 2019 6.33am EDT • Updated August 16, 2019 11.37am EDT Robert Speel , Penn State Now the Electoral College benefits the Republican Party almost ... and they vote about 60/40 in favor of the Republicans. The debate over the continued use of the Electoral College resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the general election to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million votes and won the Electoral College by 74 votes. I’ve heard all the arguments in favor of the Electoral College, and in my humble opinion they are lame, bordering on laughable.