Overall, the Electoral College is a patchwork Frankensteins monster of a system, which in the best of times merely ensures millions of Americans votes are irrelevant to the outcome because they dont live in competitive states, and in the worst of times could be vulnerable to a major crisis. Here are four of the most common arguments Ive noticed and why theyre wrong. But if California, Texas, New York, and other large states can handle recounts for governors' races, a national recount should likewise be manageable, especially with new technology that will make counting and recounting easier in the future. Opinion | The Impossible Task of Defending Donald Trump Arguments for and Against the Electoral College (Pros (Its. It could have been a lot worse, said Joshua Douglas, a University of Kentucky election law professor. US Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Give Lawmakers Unchecked Other electoral college fans are haunted by the specter of recounts:"If you thought the recount in Florida was a disaster, can you imagine the nightmare of a national recount?". The popular opinion on the electoral college for a very long time has been to get rid of it. https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention, The Electoral College Top 3 Pro and Cons (ProCon.org) Its the reason why people say votes in more populated states count less. And we are not a majority-rule country right now, partly because of the electoral college, but for other reasons as well. the current presidential campaign season has seemingly lasted forever. What is the Electoral College? Andrew Tallman played the role of devil's advocate for this specific debate. November, 2000) it was about #20 on the list of complaints, far below hanging chads. If Congress elected the president then Congress would have way too much power and be vulnerable to corruption. Individuals who support the candidate that lost the Electoral College election generally are against the Electoral College system. the Electoral College In general, most pro-electoral college arguments (both those listed below, and other, more minor arguments we have not listed) unwittingly but unavoidably condemn direct popular election of governors, a deeply established American practice. 100% (2 ratings) The main arguments to keep the electoral college are as follows: Electoral colleges help to keep smaller States relevant in national politics Electrical colleges provide a clean and widely accepted conclusion to You can listen to the podcast here: We have to grapple with the cases in which one candidate has won the popular vote, sometimes by quite large margins, and lost the Electoral College. Supreme Court Rejects Theory That Would Have Transformed First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. ), The act says explicitly that the federal government shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession and control of presidential records.. Kelley Tells Black Working Class History Through Family, Review: J.T. [5] Thus, a president who did not win the national popular vote [6] may get elected, as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Finally, under direct election, presidential candidates would continue to wage broad national campaigns appealing to voters in different states and regions: one simply cannot reach 50% without getting lots of votes in lots of places. There are a total of 538 electors. C-SPAN Classroom Deliberations: Should the Electoral College Be Reformed? The worst scenario was averted, Hasen said. Any defection by an elector would, essentially, be a random act that could hold our system hostage, in an election that truly hinged on a handful of electoral votes. But to ditch the Electoral College entirely, the US would have to pass a constitutional amendment (passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate and approved by 38 states) or convene a constitutional convention (which has never been done but would have to be called for by 34 states). Theres no ambiguity in the law, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. The justices expressed skepticism of the independent state legislature theory during oral arguments in December. Support our mission by making a gift today. Opinion | Does Justice Alito Hear Himself? - The New York Times Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Heis the author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College., A version of this article appears in print on, The Impossible Task of Defending Donald Trump, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/opinion/donald-trump-indictment.html, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College.. A separate defense of Mr. Trumps actions has been offered up by the former presidents lawyers for months, and lately it has been appearing with more frequency in right-wing media: He is not guilty, the argument goes, because of a law called the Presidential Records Act. In what ways does the electoral college help presidents have national support? It also proves too much, calling into question our standard mode of picking state governors. argument is how quickly it has become a talking point among Mr. Trumps defenders. The Electoral College is an electiontopic that inspires confusion, controversy and conflict. https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation, Fuzzy Math: Wrong Way Reforms for Allocating Electoral Votes (FairVote) https://www.fairvote.org/fuzzy-math. In 2020, nearly two-thirds of Republicans reported wanting to keep the current system. On Monday, for example, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was asked whether he was concerned that Mr. Trump kept highly classified national security documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom. Most every power a president has disappears when they leave office. Allowing runoffs would encourage third party spoilers.". But more broadly, the way this question is generally measured is by comparing the margin for the winning candidate in the popular vote to that candidates margin in the tipping point Electoral College state. But the premise of this argument is wrong. Supporters of this institution say that it is a fundamental part of Americas checks and balances on government power. as of now it still works in this regard, albeit rural states are slowly becoming slaves to their own urban areas. Voting rights advocates welcomed the ruling, saying it reduces while not eliminating the opportunities for losing candidates to inject confusion into the 2024 election by appealing to state legislatures, judges or Congress for help overturning the results. Therefore, the candidate who gets more than half (270 electoral votes) wins the Presidential election. Second, theres swing state privilege. In a continental republic of equal citizens, why shouldn't every voter's ballot count equally in a single nationwide vote for president? It has become an article of faith among Republicans, both the Lock her up crowd and the supposedly more serious ones, that Mrs. Clinton committed a major crime by using a personal email server to conduct government business while she was secretary of state. Its decided by whether you get more votes in the right states. A recent paper by Michael Geruso and Dean Spears looked at this question, and found that it was 40 times more likely that a small number of potentially disputed ballots would determine the outcome under the Electoral College system, compared to a national popular vote. Electoral Opinion | Does Justice Alito Hear Himself? - The New York Times But theres one big obstacle: All the states that have adopted it are solidly Democratic, with zero being Republican or swing states. This is a court that is not friendly to voting rights, but its also a court that is not going to adopt the most radical theories that would subvert democracy.. Mr. Trump created this mess entirely by himself. The very fact that we all thought they would demonstrates both how under-protective the Supreme Court has been when it comes to the right to vote and how totally extreme these theories were.. Arguments for keeping the Electoral College Often they sweep too broadly and"prove too much," with unattractive logical implications. contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president enhances the status of minority interests contributes to the political The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a number of important rulings during its current term that began last October and is expected to decide its remaining cases by the end of June The tennis trope is a silly analogy, not a serious argument. Had this case come out the other way, the elected legislatures could have tried to take away from the people the power to pick electors to the electoral college, he said. And this is how the Trump team interprets the records act: The president can take whatever he wants when he leaves office, said Kash Patel, a lawyer who served as a high-ranking national security adviser in the Trump administration. with the advent of the internet and other means of instant media, a major step towards balancing "the process" would be to significantly decrease the time allocated to political campaigns during the campaign season. The Constitution remained silent on just how these elite electors would be chosen, saying only that each state legislature would decide how to appoint them. Under the current system, if it seems clear that one candidate is likely to win a particular state, there is no reason for the other candidate to campaign in that state and try to capture any votes. Given that, historically, the electoral college leader has also tended to be the popular vote leader, the strategy for winning shouldn't change dramatically if we switch from one measure to the other. Here, then, are the top ten and the reasons they do not persuade: Number 1: The Argument From Political Interest. This winner-take-all electoral system makes it possible for one candidate to get more votes nationwide, but a different candidate to win in the Electoral College and ultimately, win the Presidency. Table Talk: Family Conversations about Current Events. Moreover, the electoral college does not avoid, and at times can worsen, the recount nightmare: a razor-thin electoral college margin may require recounts in a number of closely contested states even if there is a clear national popular winner. After all, why doesnt any state elect its governor with an Electoral College of various counties? The point of all this was to try to make the presidential election function like ordinary statewide elections for governor or senator, at least within each state. Lesson Plan: Electoral College Map Virtual Scavenger Hunt. TEACHERS: Guide your students to practice civil discourse about current topics and get practice writing CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) responses. In this account, the deep state has always had it in for Mr. Trump, targeting him for things that other officials, especially Democrats, get away with. That would mean the Electoral College is giving Trump a 3.8 percent edge. There have been five times in U.S. history where the person who became president lost the popular vote, but won the electoral vote. In other words, people who behave like responsible adults are more likely to get the benefit of the doubt. Learn more about the voting and election laws. Note that the special counsel assigned to Mr. Trumps case, Jack Smith, did not charge him regarding any of the documents he returned in early 2022, when he and his lawyers voluntarily sent back 15 boxes in response to a National Archives request. What is surprising? you don't address the rural-urban divide, and using the electoral college as a tool to provide balance between the two. When we get down to brass tacks, the most serious objections to reforming the Electoral College come from rural and small-state elites who fear that under a national popular vote system, theyd be ignored and elections would be decided by people who live in cities. Consider the records act a red light. They came up with this middle ground that satisfied nobody but didn't make anyone overly angry. Number 4: The Geographic Concentration Argument. In 2012, Obama won the popular vote by 3.9 percentage points but won Colorado (again the tipping point state) by 5.4 percentage points (a 1.5 percentage point edge for Democrats). Why Was the Electoral College Created? | HISTORY https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html, https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention, https://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005330, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/opinion/electoral-college-warren-trump.html?module=inline, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/opinion/electoral-college.html?module=inline, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/america-isnt-really-set-up-for-third-party-presidential-bids/, https://www.270towin.com/news/2017/01/24/if-electoral-votes-were-weighted-by-state-population-alone-trump-303-clinton-235_442.html#.XZudTudKgUF, https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation. What are the best arguments for and against the Electoral College today? For example, Bush might have tried to rack up even more votes in his home state, while Gore might have avoided badmouthing the state (aka"messing with Texas"). There have been five times in U.S. history when the candidate who won the Electoral College (and ultimately won the election) did not get the most popular votes. This is really important in 2024 when you think about states like Arizona or Wisconsin that went for Biden but have Republican state legislatures.. this is of no use to me at alljust spent all that time reading it..and for what? the Electoral College The Electoral College met in one place, so the people voting to elect the president could get up-to-date information. How important do you think it is to vote in elections? Jason Snead, the executive director of the conservative Honest Elections Project, said he had hoped the Supreme Court would embrace the independent state legislature theory but saw Tuesdays ruling in a positive light. Supreme Court Rejects Theory That Would Have Transformed Chief Justice Roberts rejected that position. Direct national election would thus encourage states to innovate and compete to increase turnout and improve democracy. You can also contribute via. Analytically, the electoral college privileges small states by giving every state three electoral votes at the start. Please enter a valid email and try again. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. These policies include voter accessibility laws like early voting, mail-in voting, same-day registration voting, and voter ID laws. But the very same thing is true for states, which manage to elect governors just fine. Granted, a few arguments for the electoral college do have the right logical shape-explaining why presidential elections should differ from gubernatorial ones - and thus do not have the flaw of proving too much. Jesse Wegman is a member of the editorial board, where he has written about the Supreme Court and national legal affairs since 2013. Factbox: A look at the US Supreme Court's major rulings this year. US Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Give Lawmakers Unchecked Reporting from Washington. Perhaps the worst argument of all is that it is somehow dangerous to prosecute a former president. Mr. Wegman is a member of the editorial board. Others try to fearmonger about the prospect of a contested nationwide recount which, sure, would be ugly, but if youll recall, the Florida recount was also extremely ugly. Supreme Court denies state legislatures the unchecked power to These votes cannot simply be added together. Explore lesson supports. Unless it turns out, for example, that Bin Laden, along with Enron, was a major contributor to what John McCain referred to as the "dirty money" gathered in Texas -or, in other words, that the 2000 presidential election anomaly really matters in some very dramatic way- it is doubtful whether occasional laments about the antiquated method of choosing the U.S. president will do anything to alter the indifferent ignorance of most Americans (including some laughably clueless TV commentators last year) about the electoral college system, its quaint quirks and its minor deficiencies. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Americas upper middle-class gets a reality check, Sign up for the Taking the argument back to the origins, maybe we could still find a better compromise. Help to organize a forum (in-person or virtual) at school to discuss elections, voting and the Electoral College. Going back to the 1950s, the majority of Americans thought we should dump it. But the court majority left the option for federal courts to review decisions from state courts in certain circumstances when it comes to election policies. Public opinion polls have shown Americans favored abolishing it by majorities of 58 percent in 1967; 81 percent in 1968; and 75 percent in 1981. For decades, polls have shown that large majorities of Americans would prefer a popular vote system instead of the Electoral College. Id be very surprised if the Supreme Court in 2024 takes a case to repudiate what a state court is doing. In April, it overruled its 2022 decision, concluding that state courts do not have the power to rein in electoral map drawing by politicians to entrench one party in power. Contrary to Justice Alitos cosseted worldview, the real reason no such person would doubt his impartiality is that no such person exists. Now, political coalitions shift over time, and in 2004, 2008, and 2012 it was Democrats who had a slight edge in the tipping point state compared to the popular vote. There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. Your safe state vote might be wasted, or it might even be subverted by rogue electors. Each week, we explore unique solutions to some of the world's biggest problems. Get Rid of the Electoral College, at Last? - The New York Times Naturally, then, when the general election comes around, candidates ignore every non-competitive state meaning the vast majority of the country and pour their resources into the few that tend to swing back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. But there have been a few rogue, faithless, or just plain incompetent electors over the years and their votes have all been counted as cast. Women and young adults are more likely to support amending the Constitution to end the Electoral College. Moreover, if geographic spread is a good argument for a continental electoral college, why isn't it an equally good argument for an intrastate electoral college for vast and populous states like California and Texas? More on all that in our next column. Opinions on the viability of the Electoral College system may be affected by attitudes toward third parties. The Electoral College Is At The Heart Of Debate Over Vote Now, you can argue that the Electoral Colleges seeming distortions of the popular will arent as bad as they seem for instance, by pointing out that swing states tend to swing along with the nation rather than overriding its will, or that the popular vote winner almost always wins. And Pete du Pont, a former governor of Delaware (three electoral votes), has made a similar case, calling proposals for a national popular vote an urban power grab.. Not only can someone win the presidency without winning the popular vote, another consequence is that it influences how and where candidates campaign. And five Hillary Clinton electors defected three voted for Colin Powell, one for Bernie Sanders, and one for Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own. And in election 2000, it again ended up working against women, blacks, and the poor, who voted overwhelmingly for Gore. Get the latest updates on our free resources for educators and studentsacross all grades and subjectssent bi-monthly. Their big compromise? Advertisement. There are two additional critical reasons beyond those Jesse Wegman cites that the Electoral College should be abandoned: First, by eliminating battleground states, which the So he had nearly a 2.9 percentage point Electoral College edge significantly bigger than Kerry, Obama, or even Bush in 2000 managed. The Democratic and Republican parties have each developed solid bases in a series of states that are all but certain to vote for them in a presidential year. This is the witch hunt narrative that has animated the Republican Party for years. This issue hasnt been a big deal in the past because, almost always, the parties do a good enough job of vetting their respective electoral slates to ensure that they will indeed loyally back their partys presidential nominee. The lawsuit was brought by North Carolina voters backed by voting rights Arguments Against the Electoral College Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct popular election of the president generally do so on four grounds: the possibility Updated: 06/27/2023 10:41 AM EDT. From the moment Donald Trump was indicted last week, top Republican lawmakers and media figures have found themselves in the humiliating position of trying to defend the indefensible. US election 2020: What is the electoral college? - BBC News ET. David Becker, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Election Innovation and Research, called Tuesdays decision important because it ensures state courts have the power to prevent attempts to improperly interfere with elections. By submitting your email, you agree to our, The Supreme Court decides not to destroy democracy in the United States. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won an even bigger popular vote victory by 2.1 percentage points but she lost Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, each by a less than 1 percentage point margin, and so she lost the presidency. Pro and Con: Electoral College | Britannica 2) Travel and information-gathering was hard in the 1700s. The 6-3 majority rejected that argument, finding that state courts have a role to play in election disputes. One of the most hotly contested topics was how we elect our president. WebThe Electoral College plays a crucial role in US presidential elections. His reply: A bathroom door locks.. But it's just as easy to imagine an alternative election 2000 scenario in which Gore won the electoral vote while losing the national popular vote. Robert Barnes in Washington contributed to this report. And yet, for the foreseeable future, its the system were stuck with. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/opinion/electoral-college.html?module=inline, America Isnt Really Set Up For Third-Party Presidential Bids (FiveThirtyEight) https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/america-isnt-really-set-up-for-third-party-presidential-bids/, If Electoral Votes Were Weighted by State Population Alone: Trump 303, Clinton 235 (270towin) The indictment charges him with multiple acts of obstruction, including instructing his personal aide Walt Nauta to move boxes around in order to hide them from his own lawyers, and later suggesting to one of his lawyers that the lawyer pluck out any documents that might get Mr. Trump in trouble. Had he done so, as Mr. Biden and Mr. Pence did, he very likely would not have faced any legal consequences. We Absolutely Need to Know Where COVID Came From, Five Impending Supreme Court Rulings That Could Change Your Life, Kevin McCarthy Doesn't Know if Trump Is 'Strongest' GOP Candidate, Couple Drop Stockton Rush Lawsuit Over Their Delayed $200K Titanic Dive, Samuel Alito Breaks With Majority in Ex-Clerk's Supreme Court Election Case, DeSantis Issues Warning to Republicans About 2024 Election. Thats the state that would get the candidate 270 Electoral Votes if they lost every other state where their margin is smaller. Others argued that it should be a democratic vote by the people. Please explain. In any event, even assuming it could be shown that the electoral college systemically helps some interest group, this is hardly a principled argument in its favor. And two of those times were just in the last 20 years. Ron DeSantis, who is running against Mr. Trump in the Republican primaries while echoing his claims against prosecution. Voters indirectly choose the president by selecting electors who pledge to vote for a specific candidate. Number 7: The Third Party and Plurality Winner Problem, Another argument often raised is this one:"Direct election could either lead to a low plurality winner (say, 35%) in a three- or four-way race, or would require a high cutoff (say, 45%) that would require a runoff. Presidency: 10 Arguments in Favor of Keeping the Electoral On Monday, it cited that decision in lifting a hold on a Louisiana redistricting case, raising the prospect that the state would have to draw another congressional district where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The lawsuit was brought by North Carolina voters backed by voting rights groups against Republicans who control the legislature. Sure, candidates might end up spending less time stumping in the rural areas that currently happen to be lucky enough to fall within the borders of swing states, and more time in urban centers. Had this case come out the other way, the elected legislatures could have tried to take away from the people the power to pick electors to the electoral college, he said. Millions of votes in safe states end up being wasted, at least in terms of the presidential race, because it makes no difference whether Clinton wins California by 4 million votes, 400,000 votes, or 40 votes in any scenario, she gets its 55 electors. Not only can someone win the WebThe argument that the Electoral College is undemocratic is correct, the system is undemocratic due to the fact, that it is the electors who elect the president, not individuals. Do you think the Electoral College is fair and equitable? The Electoral College is composed of electors who each cast one electoral vote following the voting that takes place in the general election. The Electoral College ignores the will Why does pretty much every other country that elects a president use a simple popular vote, or a vote accompanied with a runoff? If Biden wins Vermont, hell get its three electoral votes. Thats the simplified version. When the president takes a document, he went on, it transitions from being U.S. government property to the personal, private property of the past president. This is about as wrong as it is possible to be; it is literally the opposite of what the law says, especially when you are talking about the sort of highly sensitive documents nuclear secrets, military strategies and so forth that Mr. Trump is charged with illegally keeping in his possession.