That could lead to a very bad situation where, instead of the people voting in November to determine who the next president is, one or two states could effectively decide who becomes the next president simply by joining or withdrawing from the NPV Compact and changing the rules on how the votes for president are counted in the next election. Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that are not affected by this approach. Based on Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution granting the states the exclusive power to control how their electoral votes are awarded, the National Popular Vote plan requires the legislature of each participating state to enact a bill agreeing that the state will award all of its electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, regardless of the outcome of the popular vote in that specific state. Its just like in tennis, he said. Despite the name, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, but refers to a collegium or group of colleagues. The Compact ensures that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election. For the 7 presidential elections between 1992-2016, the Republican candidate has won the Electoral college 3 times. Due to some states being heavily populated in comparison to others, that may help a candidate quickly obtain a win. lilj512. (The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.). The National Popular Vote, Explained | Brennan Center for Justice This feature is critical to the passionate bipartisan support the compact receives. In theory that could happen every four years. The idea has public support, but faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the electoral clout of less populous, rural states. 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. While it has provided a stable and predictable framework for presidential elections, it has also produced several controversial outcomes. It has been enacted by twelve states, which include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY: Copyright 2023 NewsHour Production LLC. 4. The local laws would take effect only once the compact has enough states to total 270 electoral votes. What Is the National Bonus Plan? - reference.com Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision. Breaking News: Biden Vetoes Congressional Resolution Blocking ESG Rule . Whether electors should be able to change their positions has been heavily debated, so much so that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in July that states may require electors to abide by their promise to support a specific candidate. As of 2020, the state with the largest number of votes is California, with 55 electoral votes. Gives too few states too much electoral power. 2. 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 switch to the popular vote would eliminate the concept of a battleground state because the issue would be more on issues than states. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral College. On a close popular vote, often defined as a difference of 0.5% or less in the tabulated results, an automatic recount would likely be triggered. When the Constitution was set in place in 1789, the U.S. elected its first president. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election (Archives). The first advantage allows for electoral votes to be fairer than the Electoral College (Richards). And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors. https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. Today the Democrats want to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system with a direct popular vote and the Republicans adamantly want to keep it. For example: States already have the power to award their electors to the winner of the national popular vote, although this would be disadvantageous to the state that did so unless it was joined simultaneously by other states that represent a majority of electoral votes. Because its so hard to get an amendment to the Constitution passed that means that once it becomes law it will probably remain so for a long time because the bar to change it back is so high. (Voters in one of those states, Colorado, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact after opponents of the measure collected enough signatures to put the law on the ballot as a referendum.) On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. If the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact becomes law it would be an excellent first step to help get a future amendment to the Constitution to replace the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system to elect the president with a national popular vote using Ranked Choice Voting. Following U.S. election results on a TV in a restaurant in Shanghai on Nov. 4. does not determine the winner of the presidency, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia, it is not a college in the modern educational sense, Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, on Nov. 3 backed membership in the compact. 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. Weve already seen this issue take place with the GOP primaries in 2016. Each vote would affect each candidate instead of being overlooked due to which state those votes would be coming from. Join the thousands across the country who instantly rally when there is a threat to our democracy. on Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Follow All U.S. Citizens Should Vote. The popular vote eliminates this issue too. NCSL conducts policy research in areas ranging from agriculture and budget and tax issues to education and health care to immigration and transportation. Their vote only counts at the local level, not the national level, because of the electoral votes. With the polarization in global politics today, especially in the United States, a switch to the popular vote would likely increase costs even further. As with other powers entrusted to the states, it is an application, not a circumvention, of the Constitution when the states utilize those powers as they see fit. Selected students then present to the class as a whole. 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. Advantages and Disadvantages of the National Popular Vote Interstate Inside Ohio or Florida, to pick two examples, the big cities do not receive all the attention, and they certainly do not control the outcome. 7. And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. It has also happened four times out of the 56 presidential elections. 48 Vitosha Boulevard, ground floor, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria, Samploon, Inc. 2023. More people live in urban regions, which means they would have a constant sway over the election. Under the current structure of presidential elections in the U.S., the states become a battleground of red states vs. blue states. Elections Webinar 1 2 3 . The only election in the United States which is not governed by the popular vote is the presidential election. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.). Policy Research - National Conference of State Legislatures America is known to have the costliest, prolonged, and complicated structure when electing a head of state. 15 states and Washington, D.C. have joined the National Popular Vote compact. While we look further into the National Popular Vote, lets investigate some of its pro and cons for the American democracy. The Electoral College has also awarded the presidency to candidates with a plurality of the popular vote (under 50 percent) in a number of cases, notably Abraham Lincoln in 1860, John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. 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. National Popular Vote is a constitutional and practical way to implement nationwide popular election of the President a goal traditionally supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. 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. Although this may limit the amount of diversity that occurs in office, and may generate extra financial costs, the argument could be made that these risks outweigh the results of an election where a majority of states, not a majority of people, put someone into office. Under the electoral college, the majority votes of states assign electoral votes to a candidate, which then creates a majority total required for a victory. Each state is allowed one elector for each of its Representatives and Senators in Congress. Security would be improved across the country. 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. What can they conclude from these elections? Consequently, they decided that using the proxy votes of the well-informed electors would lessen the risk of tyranny of the majority, in which the voices of the minority are drowned out by those of the masses. Americans are still bent up and flustered on how an individual could lose the popular vote, but still, be given the upper hand in Electoral College votes. 2. 5 terms. A candidate may not have to concentrate anymore, but they may have to move their attention to states such as Texas, New York, California, and Alaska. Electoral College and National Popular Vote Pros and Cons Even the minority party wouldnt be encouraged to negotiate because they could simply stall until the next election. Thats how the framers of the Constitution set it up. If the election is based off a popular vote, each of these areas would need to be closely examined in real-time, which would enhance the security of each vote that is cast. Another movement is attempting to convince states to split their electoral vote based on the percentage of the states popular vote for each candidate. When Americans cast their ballots, they are actually voting for a slate of electors appointed by their states political parties who are pledged to support that partys candidate. The National Association of Plan Advisors is a non-profit professional society.