One more campaign has been launched this year to abolish the electoral college in favor of a simple majority vote because of the possibility that it could happen again.
But the Elect oral oral college has proved to be resilient, and constitutional rules make it difficult to change or remove it. Here’s why it’s been so polarizing.
Some say that the Elect Oral College ignores the wishes of the people
All two states, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, give the presidential candidate all of their electoral votes that get the popular vote in that state. Whichever candidate wins the most votes across the country – at least 270 – becomes president.
The three-time winner of the popular vote in the 1800s lost the presidency after falling short in the election oral college, leading to complaints that the system ignored the wishes of the people.
The pressure to change it intensified after the bitter 2000 presidential election, when Al Gore won the popular vote by more than half a million votes, but George W. Bush was ousted by the Supreme Court after the Florida state stopped counting. Bush lost the election. .
Opponents of the Electoral College received more ammunition in 2016 when Hillary Clinton received nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump but lost.
Since then, the movement to get rid of the Elect Oral Rally College has gained momentum. But so is the resistance to change it.
Some historians say it is rooted in racism
“Both during and after slavery, in the 20th century, in fact, the southern states stood firm in their opposition to the adoption of the national popular vote,” he said. “During the period of slavery there was a basis of protest in the South, of course, because the slave-owning states received additional electoral votes thanks to Article Three-Five.
“The White Southerners, thus, gained more influence in the Elect Oral Ralph College Ledge, and if they had turned to the national popular vote, they could have lost that influence.”
In this way the southern states used the slave population to increase their political influence without considering slaves as white. Even most slaves had no right to vote.
“The Electoral College Presidential Legge reached the same three-fifty-fold compromise in the presidential election and thus, gave the southern states political power from the beginning in proportion to their white population,” says Kiser.
Keiser said that even now some southern states believe that abolishing the Electoral College Ledge will reduce their influence and harm White Power.
The presence of racism and white supremacy in the South, he said, helps prevent the country from adopting a national popular vote instead of an elected oral college college ledge.
Not everyone agrees to get rid of it
America’s electoral system has long shaken the world. But some experts have defended it, saying the process gives voice to sparsely populated states.
Hans von Spkowski, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former commissioner of the FEC, wrote:
“It prevents candidates from winning elections by focusing only on high-population urban centers (big cities), ignoring smaller states and more rural areas of the country. … College forces candidates to get the support of the big cross. The function of American voters – the series of regional elections. To win. “
While critics of the system have argued that Hillary Clinton lost the election unjustly, Spurskowski says her case is a perfect example of why an electoral college works better than a majority vote.
Framers’ fears of “majority oppression” are still very relevant today. One can see its importance in the fact that despite Hillary Clinton’s nationally popular vote, with her support, she won one-sixth of the counties across the country. Both shores are mostly confined to urban areas, he said.
“Indeed, the White people have nothing to say about what will happen if they do what they say,” LaPage said in a radio interview. “He will only elect the minorities he will elect. It will be California, Texas, Florida. Small states like Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Wyoming, Montana, Rhode Island, you will never see a presidential candidate again.
He added, “You will never see anyone coming into our state at the national level.” “We people will forget. It’s a crazy, crazy process.”
It will be difficult to correct or eliminate
In a 2018 survey, 65% of Americans voted in favor of the president by popular vote, compared to 5% who voted for the Electoral College.
But it is difficult to get rid of the elective oral college system for many reasons.
Changing the constitution takes years and requires a broad majority in Congress or state legislatures. Nana says some of that power will have to be relinquished for the benefit of the Electoral College.
Politics has also played a role in maintaining it, with many Republicans believing that the Elect Oral Rally College Ledge is more beneficial to their party.
“They think it’s in their best interest to have an electorate. And you need two-thirds of the people in Congress to amend the constitution, so if one party opposes it, it makes it difficult to do so.” The current electoral system also divides power between the federal government and the states, making it difficult to reform any part of it, he added.
So for better or worse, American voters won’t like the soon-to-be-elected oral college college ledge.
CNN’s Zachary B. Wolfe contributed to this report
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