- #2012 presidential election popular vote totals registration#
- #2012 presidential election popular vote totals plus#
Then, the fate of the presidency goes to the U.S. McAdam said that another flaw with the Electoral College occurs when none of the candidates wins 270 electoral votes. Still, 17 such amendments have passed since the Constitution was adopted in 1789, the last being in 1992. An amendment, whether proposed by Congress or a national constitutional convention, must be ratified by either the legislatures of three-fourths (at present 38) of the states or state ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states. “No single reform would deliver on this promise more than this one,” McAdam said.īut eliminating the Electoral College would not be easy.
#2012 presidential election popular vote totals registration#
“What about all those citizens who reside in non-competitive states? Consider the loyal Republican who lives in California or the stalwart Mississippi Democrat? Every four years, voting for them is an exercise in political powerlessness, at least when it comes to the presidential race,” he said.Įliminating the Electoral College would empower voters, McAdam said, likely driving up voter registration and voting rates while creating a greater focus on issues (and not states) in presidential races. In a close election, voters in one or more of the battleground states may determine the outcome of the contest, he said. The current system violates this principle, McAdam said, due to its winner-take-all nature.
“No principle is more fundamental to the theory of democratic governance than political equality that is, the idea that every citizen’s voice or views should count as much as anyone else’s,” said McAdam, co-author with Karina Kloos of the 2014 book Deeply Divided : Racial Politics and Social Movements in Postwar America. McAdam suggests abolishing the Electoral College. “Even with such populous states as Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio in the mix, the total population of the 2012 battleground states was barely 20 percent of the country’s total,” he said. McAdam noted that the mean margin of difference in the remaining 44 states was a whopping 19 percent. They were Colorado, 4 percent Florida, 1 percent North Carolina, 3 percent Ohio, 2 percent Pennsylvania, 5 percent and Virginia, 3 percent,” he said. “If we define ‘battleground’ states as those where the final margin of victory was 5 percent or less, only six of the 50 states qualify. Washington, D.C., also has three electors, so the total number of Electoral College members is 538.Īccording to McAdam, four out of five Americans exercised no real electoral voice in the 2012 presidential election due to the winner-take-all Electoral College system, which made campaigns focus on the handful of “battleground” states that were up for grabs heading into the election.
#2012 presidential election popular vote totals plus#
Each state’s number of electors is equal to its number of members of Congress (representatives plus senators). The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) wins the presidency.
president, based on vote totals in each state. Constitution, the Electoral College determines who is the U.S. Otherwise, McAdam said, “The great majority of American voters exercise no real political voice in the outcome of presidential elections.” A single national popular or “constituency” vote would determine the president based on who won the most votes total across the country. The Electoral College is responsible for disenfranchising, in effect, huge swaths of American voters, said Doug McAdam, a professor of sociology who studies American politics. It is time to abolish the Electoral College in favor of a single national popular vote where all votes count equally, Stanford political experts say. Stanford political experts say it is time to abolish the Electoral College in favor of a single national popular vote where all votes count equally.
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