. National . NEW: Jan 6 committee has split behind the scenes over what actions to take after public hearings: Some members want big changes on voting rights incl to abolish the Electoral College while others are resisting proposals to overhaul the election system. The winner take all system makes it possible for candidates who lose popular vote can win the electoral college. Original question: What would happen if electoral college was abolished? Advocates for eliminating electoral votes also point to potential benefits in terms of civic engagement and vote integrity. Yes, the arguments for and against the Electoral College took some unusual turns in the '70s. Today that system is threatened by a proposal called the National. The Electoral College is uniquely suited for a nation as large and diverse as ours. Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President? There are few steps to get rid of electoral college and replace it with a nationwide popular vote to select the president. Abolish the electoral college. Electoral College: The first acts of a new Congress usually hold great significance. decides winner. On September 18, 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 338 to 70 to send a constitutional amendment to the Senate that would have dismantled the . Why it matters: Televised hearings begin . I'll briefly give a primer on what each of these approaches would look like, their strengths and weaknesses, and their relative likelihood of success in the coming years. They set a tenor, a tone, for what is to come. This splintering may also lead to extremism, hurting the moderation and compromise that he believes the electoral college system encourages. If states with another 74 total electoral votes adopt the plan, then. That ultimately translated into an even greater share of the votes in the Electoral College, but - for the second straight election - the outcome in the Electoral . Polls. The primary benefit of the electoral college is that it works to protect the best interests of the minority in every election. Step 1: The Electoral College is enshrined in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and therefore requires a constitutional amendment, outlined in Article 5. Proposals to abolish the Electoral College, though frequently put forward, have failed largely because the alternatives to it appear more problematic than is the College itself. So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have agreed, meaning 196 electoral votes are pledged to the popular vote winner. In 2000, a tiny fraction of votes in a battleground state clinched the election for George W. Bush. therefore the electoral college should be abolished. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation on Tuesday to get rid of the Electoral College, after Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election despite leading in the popular vote. The House's Jan. 6 committee has split behind the scenes over what actions to take after the public hearings: Some members want big changes on voting rights and even to abolish the Electoral College while others are resisting proposals to overhaul the U.S. election system, Axios has learned. Support for Electoral College reform didn't just disappear after the defeat in 1970. Third party can win enough electoral votes to prevent either major part from winning. By Ryan Teague Beckwith. "The House's Jan. 6 committee has split behind the scenes over what actions to take after the public hearings: Some members want big changes on voting rights and even to abolish the Electoral College while others are resisting proposals to overhaul the U.S. election system, Axios has learned," the report said. Dr. William Barber II, founder of Moral Mondays and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, has often . It also ensures that a candidate runs a national, rather than a regional, campaign. As previously stated, the Electoral College is a winner take all system. John G. Wells - October 28, 2011. But the Constitution and the courts have allowed the states some leeway to make changes to how their Electoral College representatives are chosen. There are two reasons they want to abolish the Electoral College: One, of course, is Trump. If we abolish The Electoral College the election would be decided by Florida, the East Coast and the West Coast. Click the links below for answers to these frequently asked questions. Will says that the electoral vote produces a result that looks like "national decisiveness." The current Democratic presidential frontrunners, with their war cries of Electoral College abolition and reduction of the voting age, signify another crossing the Rubicon moment.That's because . In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 65,845,063 votes while Donald Trump won 62,980,160 votes - a difference of nearly three million votes and a 2.1 percentage point lead in the popular vote. It is the formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. "You don't have to convince the public that the system is fair. that few states could cause a person to win the election which shows the few ruling the many oligarchy. November 17, 2016 11:42 AM EST. 1. The National Popular Vote would finally eliminate the false premise that the Electoral College was meant to protect small states. Local Sports Things To Do Business E-Edition . Splintering This splintering could divide the vote so that no one would have a clear majority. (John . If so, Americans should be very worried about the new Democrat . Also this should not depend on the government, for the president is serving us, not the government. View the full answer. The fact that the Electoral College was originally designed to solve one set of problems but today serves to solve an entirely different set of problems is a tribute to . It was a catchy line, oft-repeatedbut it was also a joke. When voters go to the polls in a Presidential . what does arthur schlesinger, Jr. say would happen if the electoral college were abolished? Match Direct Elections at Local and State Level. These votes are based off of each state's number of senators and representatives. Likewise, people ask, can the Electoral College be eliminated? Why it matters: Televised hearings begin . Abolish the electoral College. As far as the 2016 election is concerned, Hillary Clinton would still be the likely winner if the Electoral College didn't exist. Iowa is a purple state. The Electoral College is outlined in Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution. And the most recent major occasion took place in 1969, 1970, when there was a strong bipartisan effort to abolish the electoral college and have us utilize a national popular vote. Click to see full answer. The House's Jan. 6 committee has split behind the scenes over what actions to take after the public hearings. A presidential candidate wins the Electoral College vote by getting at least 270 out of 538 total electoral votes. He points out that nearly two dozen elections were so closely . Regardless of how much wisdom exists in the idea to abolish the Electoral College and decide presidential elections on, you know, which candidate receives the most votes, the move would require a . Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States. There are two reasons they want to abolish the Electoral College: One, of course, is Trump. By Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and a professor of political science. Coloradans on Nov. 3. approved the measure 52.1% to 47.8%, according to preliminary results. Joe Biden won the popular vote by a margin of about 7 million votes and 4.5 percentage points overall (51.4% of all votes cast across the country were for Biden, 46.9% for Trump). President Donald Trump won the election in 2016 through the . But its logic, its distortion of the democratic process and its underlying . The Electoral College was designed specifically to prevent the tyranny of big states over small states, as was the U.S. Senate, which affords all states, large and small, equal representation. The American Founders didn't think so. An additional argument is made by George C. Edwards in Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America (Yale University Press, 2004). Twelve states and Washington, D.C. have entered into the National Popular Interstate Compact, which would abolish the Electoral College if states with a collective 270 electoral votes join in . There are few steps to get rid of electoral college and replace it with a nationwide popular vote to select the president. Corbis/Getty Images. View the full answer. The power this unsanctioned committee gives itself is stunning. Abolish the electoral . It is impossible for a politician to gain the 270 votes needed to win the election by just concentrating on the states with the largest population or just one region. Step one: The Electoral College is enshrined in the 12t . . The interests of the minority would no longer receive protection. Someone Can Be President With Just 21.8% of the Vote. In modern elections, the first candidate to get 270 of the 538 total electoral votes wins the White House. What does arthur schlesinger, jr. say would happen if the electoral college was abolished? Well everyone else knows it now, too, after an Axios report spilled the beans. Source: "Gaming t. This would take the vote away from the rest of America. When neither person wins votes H.O.R. Harvard's Mukunda said. Step one: The Electoral College is enshrined in the 12t . List of the Cons of Abolishing the Electoral College 1. Answers: 1 Show answers Another question on History. 6. Preserving the Electoral College is not about protecting one party over the other. Jackson that the President elect would still be constitutionally the President, but would not enjoy the confidence of the majority "necessary to the successful discharge of his duties". A supporter of President-elect Joe Biden holds up his cellphone to display the electoral college map, outside the Philadelphia Convention Center on Nov. 7. Most democracies in the world today are multi party. For years, a majority of Americans have opposed the Electoral College. While . If . What would it take to abolish the electoral college and replace it with a nationwide popular vote for the president? In part, that is because the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, and abolishing it would require a constitutional amendment. While the District of Columbia is not recognized as a state, it is still allocated three electoral votes. This pattern is a quirk of the Electoral College, a winner-take-all system that grants every one of a state's electoral votes to the candidate who wins that state. It would prevent the election of a candidate who received fewer votes than another candidate. The 2016 election is one of those instances. President Trump once supported abolishing the Electoral College he previously felt it was a "total disaster for democracy" but since his 2016 presidential victory over Hillary Clinton, in . How convenient. What happens when a candidate is elected by the electoral college or House of Representatives without winning the majority vote? After a long battle in Florida Bush won the state narrowly, giving him an Electoral College victory of 271 to 266 over Al Gore. It happened in 2000 with President George W. Bush and again in 2016 with President. Transcribed image text: 5. If the electoral college were abolished, it would allow for the president of the United States to be democratically elected. It referenced Maine's long-standing reputation at the time for accurately predicting presidential elections based on its own governor . could happen in 2016, he said. The following five reasons to abolish the Electoral College are offered by supporters of using a different approach to presidential elections. This topic landed in the Verify inbox as well, with many wondering what it would . The . If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. . And this was an effort that was supported by the AFL-CIO, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, and progressive and liberal groups outside. In fact, our system reduces a presidential election to a few . For example, in 1967, 58 percent favored its abolition, while in 1981, 75 percent of . Unlike the Democratic Party push to abolish the Electoral College, which would take a constitutional amendment, the Newt Gingrich-endorsed compact preserves it, but lessens its power. Back in 1787, when the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were trying to figure out how the President should be chosen, some wanted the Congress to choose, and . What would happen if the Electoral College was eliminated? President Donald Trump won the election in 2016 through the . It forces candidates to wage national campaigns with a coalition of diverse peoples and interests instead of . We voted for Trump in '16, Obama in '12, Obama in '08, Bush in '04, and Gore in 2000. The Electoral College was never intended to be the "perfect" system for picking the . The House's Jan. 6 committee has split behind the scenes over what actions to take after the public hearings: Some members want big changes on voting rights and even to abolish the Electoral College while others are resisting proposals to overhaul the U.S. election system, Axios has learned. In this extraordinarily strange election year, debating the Electoral College might seem an odd pastime when so many other issues concern us. If the Electoral Vote in 2016 had been allocated according the result of the popular vote in each state, then Trump would have received 267 votes, Clinton 265, and third-party candidates 6 votes. The Electoral College ensures that all the states have a voice in the national election. His big idea: amend the Constitution to abolish the . Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment, since the process is laid out in Article II of the Constitution.Raskin's office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller's request for comment on whether or not he believes amending the Constitution is currently feasible and how eliminating the Electoral College would prevent a future president from . If the Electoral College was eliminated, the power to elect the President would rest solely in the hands of a few of our largest states and cities, greatly diminishing the voice of smaller. They are trying to use a riot to destroy our electoral system. What happens if a candidate with electoral votes dies or becomes The Electoral College was created to count slaves as three-fifths human. A constitutional amendment that eliminates the Electoral College; An interstate compact of states pledging their electoral votes to the winners of the popular vote. Yes, because this country is a democracy and the popular vote should count not the electoral votes. 3) A Person Can Become President By Winning Only 21.8% of the Popular Vote. The idea of abolishing the Electoral College has been around for decades, but the current proposal . The electoral college and the winner-take-all system made one person's vote in a swing state matter more than other votes elsewhere; all votes counting equally would encourage more people to .