. The rules of the process are dictated by the 12th Amendment. *AP & Advanced Placement Program are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse this site. Senators do not have to run for office as often. How and why? hide caption. The electors meet in their respective states, as well as in D.C., on Dec. 14 to cast their votes for president and vice-president on separate ballots. [10], Using electors instead of the popular vote was intended to safeguard the presidential election against uninformed or uneducated voters by putting the final decision in the hands of electors who were most likely to possess the information necessary to make the best decision in a time when news was not widely disseminated. The length of a president's term in office. Sure, the election may be decided by just a handful of states swing states that can shift red or blue. The measure would not be enacted until states possessing 270 votes approve it. It's therefore possible for a candidate to become president by winning a number of tight races in certain states, despite having fewer votes across the country. You can contact him at benjamin.blum@cbc.ca. [11], This happened with President Nixon in 1968 and President Clinton in 1992, when both men won the most electoral votes while receiving just 43% of the popular vote. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win. Just as in 2000 when George W. Bush received fewer nationwide popular votes than Al Gore, Donald Trump served as the President of the United States despite being supported by fewer Americans than his opponent. We understand that our support of objections in the joint session may not be sustained by a majority of both houses of Congress. at 144. In Nebraska and Maine, the candidate that wins the states overall popular vote receives two electors, and one elector from each congressional district is apportioned to the popular vote winner in that district. Without the Electoral College, it would have been much harder for them to have asked Congress to overturn the will of 7 million voters. [3] [4] [5] [6], The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a compromise between electing the president via a vote in Congress only or via a popular vote only. . They have the votes to pass ballot restrictions, and in some cases they have never held public hearings. Instructions Thus, electors meet in individual state capitals to vote. The official general election results indicate that Trump received 304 Electoral College votes and 46.09% of the popular vote (62,984,825 votes), and Hillary Clinton received 227 Electoral College votes and 48.18% of the popular vote (65,853,516 votes). Generally, states award all their electoral college votes to whoever won the poll of ordinary voters in the state. The Constitution and federal law do not require electors to abide by the results of the popular vote in their states, so occasionally faithless electors go rogue and cast ballots for candidates other than the one to whom they are pledged. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 2. answer choices a. procon@eb.com, 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Comments are welcome while open. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. Repeat previous exercise for the NASDAQ and the S&P 500. true or false: The Founders showed the importance of the legislative branch by making nearly half of the Constitution about it. It already failed in the Senate, the vote . The Electoral College comprises 538 electors; each state is allowed one elector for each Representative and Senator (DC is allowed 3 electors as established by the Twenty-Third Amendment). Question 5 30 seconds Q. Both Opal and Levine mentioned a way that the electoral college could be circumvented without abolishing it: the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. 4. For a candidate to win the presidency, he or she must win at least 270 Electoral College votes. answer choices . PepsiCos financial statements are presented in Appendix B. But just 538 people decide who will be president; thats about 0.000156% of the population deciding the president. Should Election Day Be Made a National Holiday? After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? Christopher Klein is the author of four books, including When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Irelands Freedom and Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. After all, that's how we run every other election in this country, says Jesse Wegman, the author of Let the People Pick the President. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment solely refer to electors. The phrase Electoral College did not appear in federal law until 1845. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The only states that do things differently areNebraska and Maine, where two electors vote based on the results of the state's popular vote, and the others are determined based on the popular results in each congressional district within the state. It works without controversy in most elections. A slight majority of states require electors to cast their votes as pledged, although no faithless elector has ever been prosecuted. Why or why not? "The Electoral College does mean a small number of states have undue weight in the outcome of our elections and that smaller manipulations can have broad national consequences," said Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded ballot access. The election of 2000 was one of the closest in American history. Their assertion is only trueso long asCongress is first convinced those electoral votes were not produced by a process that violated the strict provision of Article II, Section 1,Clause 2. Since the number of electoral votes was determined by the size of a state's population, southern states had more influence in electing a president than a direct public vote would have given them. There are policy implications associated with that, he added. Harvard's Mukunda said. (PA-13), Doug Lamborn (CO-05), Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), Markwayne Mullin (OK-02), Gregory F. Murphy, M.D. As the Supreme Court has previously affirmed, in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, [t]he appointment of these electors is thus placed absolutely and wholly with the legislatures of the several States. The peculiar system that emerged was the Electoral College. [29], The racism at the root of the Electoral College persists, suppressing the votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely homogenously white states. "Even looking at it from a narrow partisan lens, this process or that objection was potentially imperiling the Electoral College," said Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the Republicans who signed the letter. Updated: November 4, 2020 | Original: December 17, 2012. They are often elected state representatives, party leaders and activists. In the multi-candidate race of 1824, Andrew Jackson received the most popular votes, but with no man winning a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams to be president. Then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preside over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol earlier that day. "The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy," he said. "If you're an opponent of the electoral college as I am, it's a rather elegant solution to the problem.". Each state is equally represented in the electoral college. [2], The Electoral College was established in 1788 by Article II of the US Constitution, which also established the executive branch of the US government, and was revised by the Twelfth Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804), the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 1868), and the Twenty-Third Amendment (ratified Mar. c. It should be replaced with popular elections. To minimize the chances of corruption, bribery and backroom deals, electors are prohibited from gathering in one central location to cast their ballots. On election day, voters choosing a presidential candidate are actually casting a vote for an elector. 68 (The Mode of Electing the President)," congress.gov, Mar. ), and are invalid on their face. The two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which give two electoral votes to the candidate who wins a plurality of the statewide vote, and one vote to the winner of each of the state's congressional districts. The proposal requires enough states to join in order to secure the 270 electors needed to win the presidency. [23] [26]. Its about one person, one vote everybodys vote counting equally. Why might a seat in the Senate be more attractive to a candidate than a seat in the House? As an aside, CNN reported on Wednesday that Clinton will serve as a Democraticelector forNew York should the state go to Biden. Each presidential candidate has a slate of electors chosen by the candidate's party in each state. "Republicans aren't getting enough votes, and that's why they're losing most presidential elections. Not a physical college, the electoral college isa process for electing the U.S. president. (E) Senators and representatives are prohibited from the electoral college by the Constitution. And that would be a bad thing for Republicans, because they depend on the Electoral College. 5. Smith says this is something fellow Republicans should consider. The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy. A candidate can lose the election even after winning the popular vote because the electoral college is thedetermining factor. How Are Electoral College Electors Chosen? Republicans say their goal is to fight future election fraud. As the statement said: "We will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024.". Nebraska and Maine are the only states that do not automatically award all of their electors to the winner of the state popular vote. In 2000, George W. Bush captured more electoral votes while earning 500,000 fewer popular votes than Al Gore. As of December 2012, the bill had been enacted by eight states and the District of Columbia, which together possess a total of 132 electoral votes. Read about our approach to external linking. Opponents say kids arent mature enough to vote. annual reports of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, including the notes to the financial statements, are also provided in Appendices B and C, respectively. What other voting reforms would you make? See answers Advertisement anthougo If approved, challenges could proceed through the courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Maine has a similar proportional distribution, with two votes awarded to the statewide winner and its other two votes given to the winners in each of its two congressional districts. 29, 1961). In previous presidential elections, our House Democrat colleagues have often agreed. WEBSTER &36 REPUBLICAN MEMBERS RELEASE STATEMENT AHEAD OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE. James Madison stated, There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. ", ProCon.org. It was unusual because the winner of the popular vote lost the election in the electoral college. Here's a look at how the electoral college process works, how it came to be engrained in U.S. presidential elections and its influence on the future of politics in the country. An earlier version of this story included a misspoken quote that said people in Wyoming have 44 times the power of people in California in presidential elections. It needs to be updated for modern times. Votes to pass ballot restrictions, and that 's why they 're losing most presidential.. On Wednesday that Clinton will serve as a Democraticelector forNew York should the state popular Interstate. 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