A Critique of the National Popular Vote October 13, 2008 Policy Analysis No. Since 2008, 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to adopt the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an multi-state agreement to commit electors to. I am confident that when we enter the next phase where the popular vote leans Republican that Republicans will change and be adamant that we should elect the president by direct popular vote and Democrats will be arguing why we should keep the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system. 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. This National Popular Vote Compact wouldn't take effect until states with 270 electors a majority joined in. Under the plan, Michigan's 15 Electoral . Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. Lawmakers discuss plan to enact National Popular Vote in Michigan. Only Nebraska and Maine do not. In contrast, other issues related to the federal government are not exclusively entrusted to the states, and therefore the states lack the power to alter them. Watch out! However that presumably rare exception happened in the 2000 election when Florida could not complete their statewide recount in time for the Electoral College deadline and the Supreme Court forced Florida to use their first vote count without a statewide recount. HuffPost's top politics stories, straight to your inbox. A direct popular election also ensures that citizens' votes have equal weight. Constitutional Amendment to Guarantee the Right to Vote for All U.S. Citizens. ThoughtCo. This type of system would give the individual voter a much more significant influence. Home| Government| Elections| Electoral College| Electoral College Pros And Cons. After the 2016 presidential election, political science expert Nate Silver wrote that, since the swing states are not likely to support any plan that might reduce their influence over control of the White House, the National Popular Vote bill will not succeed unless the predominately Republican red states adopt it. Opines that the national popular vote plan is the wrong way to abolith the electoral college. 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 800 And that would undermine the legitimacy of the NPV among those people. The National Popular Vote plan is a bill passed by participating state legislatures agreeing that they will cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote. [Add switching votes of losing party to the other partys voter totals in every state using the Electoral College/Winner-Take-All system (except for 5 EC votes in Maine and Nebraska that are awarded proportionally instead of by Winner-Take-All.]. Colorado is on the verge of joining a nationwide movement that could eventually change how we choose the next president of the United States. . 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. Is the National Popular Vote Plan Constitutional? A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had more than 10 million of these votes, while Donald Trump had more than 8.3 million, even though Trump won 30 states and Clinton won 20 and the District of Columbia. The senators in the U.S. Senate make up two votes in addition to the votes that represent the number of its members in the U.S. House of Representatives (Archives). The horror of a potential national recount is only one of the dangers direct presidential elections poses. It makes things easier for extreme parties to gain representation. 1. Also the NPV Compact allows states to withdraw from the compact as late as four months before an election. 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. More attention is given to the swing states, such as Florida and Iowa, which causes the third problem the Electoral College can cause. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. These battleground or swing states receive 7% more federal grants, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions (National Popular Vote). . Cons: Smaller states don't get as much of a say and people would demand a national recount National Bonus Plan Winner of popular vote gets extra 102 electoral votes Pros: No winner of popular vote losing overall Cons: Basically exactly like the Direct plan District Plan Win popular vote in each district, you get one electoral vote. How the US Electoral College System Works, Biography of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States, What Is Statutory Law? The Supreme Court has said in local and state elections voting should be based on the principle of one person one vote. In the 2020 general election, a ballot proposition attempted to overturn Colorado's membership to the pact, but the measure failed, 52.3% to 47.7% in the referendum. However, in the popular vote, Trump only received 62,984,825 votes against Hillary Clinton's 65,853,516 popular votes. OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahomans will head to the polls March 7 to decide if the state will become the 22nd in the country to legalize recreational marijuana for use by anyone 21 and older. Some states, such as California and Hawaii, both had their bills vetoed by their governors before it was overridden and enacted by state legislators. That means some voters, like Republicans in California or Democrats in Mississippi, are voting without power and without attention from their preferred candidates each year. Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. 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. Definition and Examples, How Political Party Convention Delegates are Chosen, What Is a Caucus? But with the NPV Compact a change in party control of just one or two states could restore the old system of electing the president and then four years later it could be changed back. 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. 3. 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. And thats not how it should be in a democracy. All in all, the Electoral College causes many problems that seem unfair to American voters during such an important election. The Electoral College system, however imperfect, serves this broader view of democracy. 7. 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. Longley, Robert. 4. But the national popular vote plan doesn't require a . Electoral college reform proposals include (1) the district plan, awarding each state's two at-large electoral votes to the statewide popular vote winners, and one electoral vote to the winning candidates in each congressional district; (2) the proportional plan, awarding electoral votes in states in direct proportion to the popular vote gained http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/. Once effective, states could withdraw from the compact at any time except during the six-month window between July 20 of an election year and Inauguration Day (January 20). At the moment, 98 more electoral votes are needed to pass this bill in all 50 states (National Conference of State Legislators). Bosque de Palabras Two-thirds of the campaign events were in four states, Florida, Iowa, Virginia, and Ohio, that year. But in practice it could happen every 10 or 20 years when the Electoral College votes change because the congressional boundaries change with the new population census. 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. The winner would receive all of the compact states electoral votes, giving them at least the necessary 270 to win the White House. Electing a president who did not have broad regional support could lead to a fractured and less cohesive country, according to the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. sale of united methodist church property. In the U.S., that means people who lean Democratic live in urban areas, while people who lean Republican live in rural areas. 13 Early College High School Pros and Cons, 18 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of the Payback Period, 20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Leasing a Car, 19 Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing, 24 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of a C Corporation, 16 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Mediation, 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Gated Community, 17 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Focus Groups, 17 Key Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Bonds, 19 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Annuities, 17 Biggest Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising. Proponents of the National Popular Vote fail to understand the most basic facts about the American presidential electoral system. To date, the bill has passed at least one legislative chamber in 9 states possessing 82 combined electoral votes: AR, AZ, ME, MI, MN, NC, NV, OK, and OR. Candidates get one vote for every congressional district they win, and then two votes for winning the state-wide vote. 3. This was the intent of the Founding Fathers. It would reduce the influence of third parties on the U.S. presidential election. The cost of a presidential election in the United States is already several billion dollars. 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. The NPVIC is an agreement among states designed to guarantee election of the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. NPV is grounded in two powers delegated to states by the Constitution: the power to design rules for awarding their electoral votes and the power to enter into interstate In states with large population centers, individual voters have less power than voters in smaller states. 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.

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