How Did The Rise Of Political Parties Changed The Way Electoral College Functions
the rise of political parties affected the electoral college as it led to a Federalist president when John Adams got the most votes and a Democratic-Republican vice-president in Jefferson. There were also incidences of ties whereby the contestants got the same number of electoral votes
The correct answer is A) the electoral college now reflects each state’s popular vote.
The other options of the question were B) the electoral college now selects members of Congress. C) the electoral college now determines who is qualified to vote. D) the electoral college now determines how candidates are nominated.
The rise of political parties changed the way electoral college functions in that the electoral college reflects the popular vote in each state.
In the United States political system, the process call Electoral College selects the electors, how they meet when there is a presidential election and the count of votes by US Congress. There are 538 electors. Of those 538, the first candidate that gets 270 votes is declared the winner of the election.
Slavery And The Electoral College
The number of representatives is decided based on the state’s population. In the South, around 40% of the population was enslaved and didn’t have the right to vote or be represented in Congress. But Southern states still wanted them to be counted in their population so that they would be allotted more representatives in Congress. However, Northern delegates felt it would give the South an unfair advantage. They settled on the infamous three-fifths compromise, which said that enslaved people would count as three-fifths of a person for purposes of counting the population.
As history would show, the compromise did lend tremendous power to the South, both in Congress and in selecting the president. The legacy continues today. For example, the contested 1876 election was settled by the House giving Rutherford B Hayes the presidency with the agreement that he would pull federal military forces out of the South. This move signaled the end of the Reconstruction and allowed Jim Crow laws, which codified racism, to take hold.
Allocation Of Electors And Electoral Votes
The Constitution gives each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of its Senate membership and House of Representatives delegation . The 23rd Amendment provides an additional three electors to the District of Columbia. The number of electoral votes per state thus currently ranges from three to 55 for California, the most populous state.
The total number of electors each state gets are adjusted following each decennial census in a process called reapportionment, which reallocates the number of Members of the House of Representatives to reflect changing rates of population growth among the states. Thus, a state may gain or lose electors following reapportionment, but it always retains its two senatorial electors, and at least one more reflecting its House delegation. Popular Election of Electors
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Has The Electoral College Ever Been Challenged
Objections to the Electoral College votes were recorded in 1969 and 2005. In both cases, the House and Senate rejected the objections and the votes in question were counted.
What is the most popular proposal for replacing the Electoral College?
The three most popular reform proposals include the automatic plan, which would award electoral votes automatically and on the current winner-take-all basis in each state the district plan, as currently adopted in Maine and Nebraska, which would award one electoral vote to the winning ticket in each
State Level Reform Efforts
Since 1979, advocates for Electoral College reform have shifted their efforts from Congress to the states. This shift was fueled by the difficulty in getting two-thirds of both congressional chambers and three-quarters of state legislatures to agree on an amendment. State laws and constitutions present opportunities to reform how electoral votes are allocated without dealing with the U.S. Constitution.
In 2004, Coloradans voted on an amendment that would have enshrined proportional allocation of electoral votes in the state constitution. Amendment 36 supporters argued that proportional allocation would motivate voters who feel disconnected from the presidential election. Opponents prevailed with 65% of the vote by countering that the states influence in national politics would decline by splitting electoral votes.
In the 21st century, state legislatures have taken up electoral vote proposals that have not advanced. Michigan legislators did not approve vote allocation by congressional district, while the Virginia legislature rejected a plan to award electoral votes based on the ticket that won the majority of congressional districts. Legislators in Nebraska have rejected proposals to switch from by-district allocation to a winner-takes-all plan.
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Electoral Vote Changes Between United States Presidential Elections
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The following is a summary of the electoral vote changes between United States presidential elections. It summarizes the changes in the Electoral College vote by comparing United States presidential election results for a given year with those from the immediate preceding election. It tracks those states which changed their support between parties as well as changes resulting from other factors, such as reapportionment.
The Electoral College In The Us Constitution
The original purpose of the Electoral College was to reconcile differing state and federal interests, provide a degree of popular participation in the election, give the less populous states some additional leverage in the process by providing senatorial electors, preserve the presidency as independent of Congress and generally insulate the election process from political manipulation.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered several methods of electing the President, including selection by Congress, by the governors of the states, by the state legislatures, by a special group of Members of Congress chosen by lot and by direct popular election. Late in the convention, the matter was referred to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters, which devised the Electoral College system in its original form. This plan, which met with widespread approval by the delegates, was incorporated into the final document with only minor changes.
The Constitution gave each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of its membership in the Senate and its delegation in the House of Representatives . The electors are chosen by the states in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct .
Qualifications for the office are broad: the only people prohibited from serving as electors are Senators, Representatives and people holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States.
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The Electoral College And Problems Of Democracy
That early compromise allowing the small states great influence over executive and legislative powers and privileges is today at the center of a crisis in American democracy. The Electoral College and its composition are depriving this democracy of its basic principle in presidential elections: majority rule. Whatever the justification for this injusticerepresentation, rights, and interests of small statesit is making a mockery of what the world sees as a model of representative government and should not stand. Indeed, the United States in the 21st Century should not be made to double down on the fears of ideologues, politicians, and monied interests controlling the small states of the 18th.
Indeed, four American presidents since the establishment of the independent republic have won their office without winning the popular vote: Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, George W. Bush in 2000, and Donald J. Trump in 2016.15 In 2000, Bush received more than half a million votes less than the Democratic contender, Al Gore, but edged the latter by two electoral votes in the Electoral College .16 That election hung on the outcome of the popular vote in the State of Florida which at the time had 25 electoral votes. After a tense battle in the courts, the US Supreme Court decided to stop a recount of votes in Florida just as Bush had 537 votes more than his Democratic rival.
Electoral Votes Trump The Popular Vote
More often than not, the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins the Electoral College vote. But it is possible for a candidate to win via Electoral votes alone. This has happened 5 times:
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes versus Samuel J. Tilden1888 Benjamin Harrison versus Grover Cleveland2000 George W. Bush versus Al Gore2016 Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton
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How Did Slavery Shape The Electoral College
At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the northern states and southern states had roughly equal populations. However, nonvoting enslaved people made up about one-third of the southern states population. As a result, delegates from the South objected to a direct popular vote in presidential elections, which would have given their states less electoral representation.
The debate contributed to the conventions eventual decision to establish the Electoral College, which applied the three-fifths compromise that had already been devised for apportioning seats in the House of Representatives. Three out of five enslaved people were counted as part of a states total population, though they were nonetheless prohibited from voting.
Wilfred U. Codrington III, an assistant professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and a Brennan Center fellow, writes that the Souths electoral advantage contributed to an almost uninterrupted trend of presidential election wins by southern slaveholders and their northern sympathizers throughout the first half of the 19th century. After the Civil War, in 1876, a contested Electoral College outcome was settled by a compromise in which the House awarded Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency with the understanding that he would withdraw military forces from the Southern states. This led to the end of Reconstruction and paved the way for racial segregation under Jim Crow laws.
Reform Efforts By Advocacy Groups
The U.S. Constitutions silence on state allocations of electoral votes creates an avenue for electoral reformers. National Popular Vote Inc. advocates an interstate compact that leverages state legislative interest in electoral vote reforms. The compact requires participating states to allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
National Popular Vote Inc. argues that the Electoral College allows presidential candidates to avoid small states and provides openings for a popular vote loser to win the presidency. As of December 2018, 12 state legislatures representing 172 electoral votes joined the compact. The compact language only holds participating states to this agreement once states representing 270 electoral votes a majority of the Electoral College have joined.
Equal Citizens is seeking electoral reform via the court system. In February 2018, the organization worked with Democratic voters to file suit against state officials in South Carolina and Texas. Equal Citizens also worked with Republican voters to sue state officials in California and Massachusetts. These lawsuits argue that voters in traditionally Democratic or Republican voters have been disenfranchised by the Electoral College.
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Which States Have Laws Against Faithless Electors What Does The Supreme Court Say
The Constitution and federal law are silent on the matter, but some states have passed laws that require their electors to vote as pledged. In July, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of these laws.
“The Constitutions text and the nations history both support allowing a state to enforce an electors pledge to support his partys nominee and the state voters choice for president,” Associate Justice Elena Kagan wrote in an opinion.
During the last oral argument of the court’s term in May, justices on both sides of the ideological aisle expressed concern that electors could be bribed, particularly by the losing party in a close election.
“The Supreme Court made it clear that the elector is not there to vote his or her conscience. The elector is there to vote how the state dictates,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Berkeley Law School. “Most states now forbid faithless electors.”
Supreme Court rules:Presidential electors can be forced to uphold popular vote
At least 32 states and the District of Columbia have laws that attempt to bind the votes of electors. Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Can We Change The Electoral College
The only way to change our presidential election process is through a constitutional amendment which is difficult to do. This is why some opponents of the Electoral College system have come up with a workaround the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. When a state joins the compact, it agrees to cast its electoral votes for whichever candidate wins the national popular vote, thus undercutting the Electoral College. Fifteen states have joined the compact a 16th, Colorado, voted on whether to join the compact on the 2020 ballot, but the results werent in at publication time.
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Vice Presidency And The 12th Amendment
Article II Section I also goes on to say:
In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
If you’ve followed any presidential elections before, you know that that’s not how the United States chooses a Vice President today! During the Constitutional Convention, the framers thought it would be fairest if the person who won the most votes won the presidency while the person with the second-most votes won the vice presidency.
Political factions quickly made presidential campaigns into a fierce battle. In 1796, John Adams won the presidency, while Thomas Jefferson won the vice presidency. Tensions between the two parties heated up in the months leading up to the 1800 election for Adams’ and Jefferson’s next showdown. Because electors didn’t vote separately for vice president or president, they ended up in a tie, which meant that the House got to choose the next president. They chose Jefferson, but the intense controversy led to some updates to the electoral process.
Awarding Delegates From The Primaries And Caucuses
At stake in each primary or caucus is a certain number of delegates. These are individuals who represent their state at national party conventions. The candidate who receives a majority of the partys delegates wins the nomination. The parties have different numbers of delegates due to the rules involved in awarding them. Each party also has some unpledged delegates or superdelegates. These delegates are not bound to a specific candidate heading into the national convention.
When the primaries and caucuses are over, most political parties hold a national convention. This is when the winning candidates receive their nomination.
For information about your stateâs presidential primaries or caucuses, contact your state election office or the political party of your choice.
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House Passes Bill To Reform Electoral Count Act
The House on Wednesday passed a bill to reform the Electoral Count Act, an effort by Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and others to prevent another , when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in an effort to disrupt the counting of electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election. The final vote was 229 to 203, with nine Republicans joining Democrats to support the bill.
Those nine Republicans were Cheney and Reps. Tom Rice, Adam Kinzinger, Peter Meijer, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Fred Upton, John Katko, Anthony Gonzales and Chris Jacobs.
The Presidential Election Reform Act, sponsored by Cheney and fellow House Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, ensures that Congress receives an electoral certificate from each state that accurately reflects the will of the voters, requires Congress to count electoral votes as the Constitution stipulates, and reaffirms that the vice president’s role in approving electoral votes is merely ministerial, after Trump publicly urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to to “reject fraudulently chosen electors.” Pence refused, saying he had no authority to do so.
The bill also increases the threshold for any objection made in the House or Senate to a state’s electoral votes, from one member of each chamber to one-third member of each chamber.
The measure will still need to pass the Senate before it can be signed by President Biden.
Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report
Heres Why The Electoral College Existsand How It Could Be Reformed
Controversial since its creation, this U.S. institution has elected five presidents who didnt win a majority of votes and has even resulted in one tie.
Why the Electoral College exists
Born of compromise and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College isnt a place. Its a temporary voting body that elects the president of the United States. When voters select their presidential and vice-presidential candidates on Election Day, theyre actually choosing the members of this body who will cast votes on their behalf in the days and weeks after the election.
For the past 233 years, this confusing and contentious institution has split opinions and overseen some truly rocky presidential elections. It has elected five presidents who didnt win a majority of American votes and resulted in one tie. And though most electors vote for their pledged candidates, some have historically gone back on their promises.
Every four years, debate revives over the efficacy, equality, and even necessity of this electoral system. Heres what you need to know about how it came about, how it works, and the proposals for Electoral College reform.
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