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Surprisingly enough, the National Popular Vote bill could possibly bring forth some problems. Thats how politics works in America. Under the current structure of the electoral college, the focus of a presidential campaign is on the so-called battleground states. 4. How Many Electoral Votes Does a Candidate Need to Win? 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. N.p., n.d. 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. Advantage: Encourages Voter Turnout That view of democracy recognizes the existence and desirability of organized interests and enshrines that principle under the concept of pluralism. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Currently, 48 of the 50 states follow the winner-take-all rule. 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. It would reduce diversity in the election structures. 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). Removing this system could encourage more people to come out to support their candidate. To become president of the United States of America, you must be at least 35 years old, have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years and be a natural-born citizen. Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee the Right to Vote for All U.S. Citizens. ThoughtCo, Dec. 16, 2020, thoughtco.com/the-national-popular-vote-plan-3322047. It would eliminate the Congressional provisions for a non-majority election. This brings us to 196 of the 270 (73%) electoral votes needed to activate the pact just 74 votes away. Start and finish your paper with ease. The country thinks we are going to elect the president using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system tans and then four months before the election we change to the National Popular Vote Compact system and elect the president by whoever gets the most popular votes. 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. It happened once, in 1876. 5. The United States has a representative democracy rather than a direct democracy: Citizens elect representatives rather than voting on each bill. 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. It is not at all clear that it would similarly prosper under the direct election regime being pushed by NPV. National Popular Vote compact pros and cons. Is the National Popular Vote Plan Constitutional? Maryland and New Jersey passed this bill in 2007, Hawaii and Illinois in 2008, Washington in 2009, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in 2010, California and Vermont in 2011, Rhode Island in 2013, New York in 2014 and Connecticut in 2018. Yet, by May 2021, 15 states and Washington, D.C., had signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 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. Others may struggle to meet higher than expected voter turnout levels. Longley, Robert. Is this a solution to first past the post or is it merely reinforcing our current two party system? In theory that could happen every four years. (2020, December 16). (LogOut/ 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. That means the cost of counting all the votes would be duplicated. How the National Popular Vote Plan Would Work. The states' approval of the compact is a victory for democracy and the principle of "one person, one vote." 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 For under its plan, the next time the U.S. has very close national vote, a recount would not be of six million votes in one state but of more than 130 million votes in all states and the District of Columbia, all with their own rules for conducting a recount. Only Nebraska and Maine do not. cons of the national popular vote plan. 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. 7. 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. Common Cause And thats not how it should be in a democracy. 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.. The winner would receive one vote per congressional district won with the winner of the state popular vote gaining a two electoral votes. That nightmare may seem like a pleasant dream if NPV has its way. The country could become less stable and divided if he or she did not have a vast amount of support (Richards). April 8, 2016 National popular vote far better than Electoral College system for choosing presidents, Stanford professors say. Many cities and school districts, under threat of a lawsuit by a Malibu attorney, have already adopted or are in the process of changing to district elections rather than remaining citywide or . 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. If the National Popular Vote bill was secured within the American government, it would protect every vote and would allow those votes to equally matter in the presidential election. 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. When you cast your ballot, you're not actually voting directly for your favored presidential candidate. The principal flaw in the plan is its assumption that under the plan there will still be only two major parties competing for the presidency in 2020. . To determine the National Popular Vote winner, state election officials simply would tally the nationwide vote for president based on each states official results. In states with large population centers, individual voters have less power than voters in smaller states. 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. This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. All in all, the Electoral College causes many problems that seem unfair to American voters during such an important election. 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. 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 . (See: Electoral Votes by State). This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. Although faithless electors have not affected the results or outcome of an election yet, in 2016, there were 7 faithless electors. The framers enacted the provisions relating to the Electoral College to allow for state innovation. In U.S. history, there has been one vice-presidential candidate who died after being nominated and one that withdrew from their partys ticket. 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). 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. Less would get done, which would affect the needs of households at the local level. Among the others: By its very size and scope, a national direct election will lead to nothing more than a national media campaign, which would propel the parties' media consultants to inflict upon the entire nation what has been heretofore limited to the so-called battleground states: an ever-escalating, distorted arms race of tit-for-tat unanswerable attack advertising polluting the airwaves, denigrating every candidate and eroding citizen faith in their leaders and the political process as a whole. Con:not Eliminate possibility that loser of the popular vote can still win the electoral vote The Proportional Plan A proposed reform where each presidential candidate would receive the percent of electoral votes that they win from each state Proportional Plan Pro:Possible for loser of popular vote to win presidency. 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 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. Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. It gives each vote an equal amount of power. The Congressional District method would allocate electoral votes based on the winner of each congressional district. 9. This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. 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. The National Popular Vote (NPV) refers to the concept of allocating a state's presidential electors to the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide regardless of the state results in a presidential election.