Why Is the Electoral College Voting Again
The Electoral College Explained
It's the Electoral Higher, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency.
It remains 1 of the almost surprising facts most voting in the U.s.a.: While the popular vote elects members of Congress, mayors, governors, land legislators and even more obscure local officials, it does non decide the winner of the presidency, the highest role in the land.
That important decision ultimately falls to the Electoral College. When Americans cast their ballots, they are actually voting for a slate of electors appointed by their state'due south political parties who are pledged to support that party's candidate. (They don't ever practice so.)
This leads to an intense focus on battleground states, as candidates look to boost their electoral advantage by targeting states that can help them accomplish the needed 270 votes of the 538 upward for grabs. The Electoral College likewise inspires many what-if scenarios, some of them more probable than others.
Where does the 2020 electoral count stand?
On Dec. 14, as electors gathered beyond the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than than needed to win. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. More than 74 meg votes had been counted for Mr. Trump.
The New York Times called the last two states on its map on Nov. 13: Georgia'southward 16 electoral votes for Mr. Biden and North Carolina'due south 15 for Mr. Trump.
Tin can a president lose the popular vote but however win the election?
Aye, and that is what happened in 2016: Although Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by near iii million votes, Donald Trump garnered almost 57 percent of the electoral votes, enough to win the presidency.
The same thing happened in 2000. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush earned more electoral votes after a contested Florida recount and a Supreme Courtroom decision.
And in 1888, Benjamin Harrison defeated the incumbent president, Grover Cleveland, in the Electoral College, despite losing the popular vote. Cleveland ran over again 4 years subsequently and won back the White House.
Other presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency include John Quincy Adams and Rutherford B. Hayes in the elections of 1824 and 1876.
The House of Representatives picked Adams over Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but just a plurality of the Electoral College. A special commission named by the House chose Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden, afterwards xx electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina were disputed.
The Electoral Higher has likewise awarded the presidency to candidates with a plurality of the popular vote (nether 50 percent) in a number of cases, notably Abraham Lincoln in 1860, John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Nib Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
What happens in a tie?
Considering there is at present an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. If that happens in the Electoral College, then the decision goes to the newly seated Business firm of Representatives, with each country voting every bit a unit.
Although it's non detailed in the Constitution, each state delegation would vote on which candidate to support as a group, with the plurality carrying the day, said Akhil Reed Amar, a professor of law and political science at Yale University. If there is a tie vote in a country's delegation, the country'due south vote would not count. A presidential candidate needs at least 26 votes to win.
Currently, Republicans command 26 land delegations, while Democrats control 22. Pennsylvania is tied between Republican and Democratic representatives, and Michigan has seven Democrats, six Republicans and one independent. That could change on November. 3 of form, considering all House seats are up for ballot.
The determination on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. Ultimately, whatever disputes nearly the procedure could land everything in the Supreme Court.
What if electors break their pledge?
People call them "faithless electors." In 2016, seven electors — 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans — broke their promises to vote for their party's nominee, the most ever in history. They voted for a variety of candidates not on the election: Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell and Ron Paul, amidst others. It did not change the outcome.
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 past their promise to support a specific candidate.
Some scholars have said they exercise not wholeheartedly concord with the decision, arguing that it endangers an elector's freedom to make decisions they want and that electors are usually picked for their loyalty to a candidate or party.
"They volition do equally promised if the candidates practise a very good job vetting them and picking people who are rock-solid," Professor Amar said.
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require electors to vote for their pledged candidate. Some states replace electors and cancel their votes if they pause their pledge.
Certain penalties exist in other states. In New Mexico, electors can exist charged with a felony if they abandon their pledge, and in Oklahoma a faithless elector could face a misdemeanor charge.
How did this organisation evolve?
The Electoral College was born at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
The nation'due south founders hoped to quell the formation of powerful factions and political parties, and they wanted a mechanism that did not rely solely on popular majorities or Congress. Despite the name, information technology is non a higher in the modern educational sense, but refers to a collegium or group of colleagues.
The system had some unusual results from the start, equally evident in the ballot of 1800, a tie in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes. Congress broke the tie, and Jefferson became president and Burr became vice president. (Until the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, the candidate with the second-highest number of electoral votes became vice president.)
Today, electors meet in their respective states on the first Mon later the second Wed of December — December. 14 this twelvemonth — to bandage split ballots for president and vice president, with the candidates who receive a majority of votes beingness elected.
Electors are chosen every four years in the months leading upwards to Ballot Twenty-four hours by their respective country'due south political parties. Processes vary from state to state, with some choosing electors during state Republican and Democratic conventions. Some states list electors' names on the full general ballot ballot.
The process of choosing electors can be an "insider's game," said Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore and the author of "What You Need to Know Nigh Voting and Why." They are ofttimes state legislators, party leaders or donors, she said.
How many electoral votes does it take to win?
The important number is 270. A full of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The total number of balloter votes assigned to each country varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had iii electors since 1961.
Are all states winner-take-all?
Most are, and it helps to call back of voting on a land-by-state basis, Professor Amar said.
"It'southward just similar in tennis," he said. "It'southward how many sets y'all win and not how many games or points yous win. Y'all have to win the fix, and in our organization, you have to win the state."
Ii exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. The winner of the state'south pop vote gets two electoral votes, and i vote is awarded to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional commune.
There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral Higher, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. In a stark example, sparsely populated Wyoming has three votes and a population of about 580,000, giving its individual voters far more clout in the ballot than their millions of counterparts in densely populated states similar Florida, California and New York. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors.
"When you talk virtually the Electoral College shaping the election, it shapes the election all the time because it puts the focus on sure states and non others," said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard Academy.
Volition the system ever modify?
For years at that place take been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate dorsum to the surface. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
The idea has public support, just faces a partisan divide, since Republicans currently benefit from the balloter clout of less populous, rural states.
Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percentage of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans.
I route would be a constitutional amendment, which would crave two-thirds approval from both the Firm and Senate and ratification by the states, or a constitutional convention called by 2-thirds of the state legislatures.
Some hope to reduce the Balloter College's importance without an subpoena. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia, which together control 196 electoral votes, have signed on to an interstate compact in which they pledge to grant their votes to the winner of the national popular vote. (Voters in ane of those states, Colorado, on Nov. three backed membership in the meaty after opponents of the measure nerveless enough signatures to put the law on the election as a referendum.) The local laws would take result only once the meaty has enough states to total 270 balloter votes.
Lastly, an election-related case could notice its manner to the Supreme Court, which would lend greater importance to the judicial makeup of the court, Professor Wehle said.
"It only takes five people with life tenure to actually amend this Constitution through a judicial opinion," she said.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html
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