US Chapter 6 - the Electoral College: weaknesses, possible reforms
- Created by: maddydavey
- Created on: 12-06-21 08:52
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- The Electoral College
- Weaknesses
- small-population states are over-represented
- 2016: CA received one Electoral College vote for every 713,000 people, WY one for every 195,000 people
- winner-take-all system distorts the result
- 1996: Clinton won 70% of the Electoral College votes and only 49% of the popular vote
- 2000: Gore: 48.4% of vote, Bush: 48% of vote, Bush won
- 2016: Clinton: 48% of vote, Trump: 46% of vote, Trump won Electoral College vote comfortably
- unfair to national third parties
- 1992: Perot won 19% of popular vote, but no Electoral College votes
- 2000: Ralph Nader won 3 million votes, no Electoral College votes
- regional third parties tend to do better, where their vote isn't spread as thinly, e.g George Wallace in 1968 - won 45 EC votes in South
- 'Rogue' electors
- where electors cast their ballot for a candidate other than the one who won their state's popular vote
- rarely more than one (if any)
- however in 2016 there were 7, but didn't affect result of election
- President and vice-president from different parties
- Possibilty of it happening in 2000 when the election was very close to deadlock, possible that the House would've picked Bush and the Senate picked the Democratic VP: Lieberman
- Never actually happened
- small-population states are over-represented
- Possible reforms
- Direct election
- would stop candidates with the lower popular vote winning election
- Poll in 2007, 72% of population supported this reform
- no need to gain an absolute majority, may need run-off election between top 2 candidates - more expensive and complicated
- only a constitutional amendment could bring about this reform - success highly unlikely
- Congressional district system
- involves awarding 1 EC vote to a candidate for each congressional district they win and the extra 2 to the candidate who is the state-wide winner
- Maine and Nebraska use this system
- Results would be only marginally different in most of last 7 elections
- In 2000, would've given a less proportional result and 2012 would've made Romney the winner of the election despite having lost by 5 million votes
- wouldn't have helped Perot in 1992 or 1996
- PR system
- would render Electors unnecessary, so no more 'rogue' electors
- fairer to national third parties
- more likely no candidate would win an absolute majority of EC votes, would mean either election ends up in congress or a run-off system needed
- would require constitutional amendment
- National Popular Voter Interstate Compact (NPVIC)
- Agreement among group of US states + DC to award all their EC votes to whichever candidate wins overall popular vote
- 15 states + DC have signed it as of 2020
- Limited: a lot of typically Republican states don't show much interest in signing it
- Direct election
- Weaknesses
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