Download or read book Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College written by Alexander Keyssar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Statesman Book of the Year “America’s greatest historian of democracy now offers an extraordinary history of the most bizarre aspect of our representative democracy—the electoral college...A brilliant contribution to a critical current debate.” —Lawrence Lessig, author of They Don’t Represent Us Every four years, millions of Americans wonder why they choose their presidents through an arcane institution that permits the loser of the popular vote to become president and narrows campaigns to swing states. Congress has tried on many occasions to alter or scuttle the Electoral College, and in this master class in American political history, a renowned Harvard professor explains its confounding persistence. After tracing the tangled origins of the Electoral College back to the Constitutional Convention, Alexander Keyssar outlines the constant stream of efforts since then to abolish or reform it. Why have they all failed? The complexity of the design and partisan one-upmanship have a lot to do with it, as do the difficulty of passing constitutional amendments and the South’s long history of restrictive voting laws. By revealing the reasons for past failures and showing how close we’ve come to abolishing the Electoral College, Keyssar offers encouragement to those hoping for change. “Conclusively demonstrates the absurdity of preserving an institution that has been so contentious throughout U.S. history and has not infrequently produced results that defied the popular will.” —Michael Kazin, The Nation “Rigorous and highly readable...shows how the electoral college has endured despite being reviled by statesmen from James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson to Edward Kennedy, Bob Dole, and Gerald Ford.” —Lawrence Douglas, Times Literary Supplement

Download or read book Let the People Pick the President written by Jesse Wegman and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with..." —Publishers Weekly The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose? Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question—and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats alike—find that their votes didn't matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president. Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed—now. Isn't it time to let the people pick the president? In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count—and restore belief in our democratic system.

Download or read book The Eve of Election written by John Benedict Howe and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Facts for the Electors written by Liberal Party of Canada and published by . This book was released on 1891 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America written by George C. Edwards III and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of the best-known book critiquing the U.S. electoral college In this third edition of the definitive book on the unique system by which Americans choose a president—and why that system should be changed—George Edwards includes a new chapter focusing on the 2016 election. “As the U.S. hurtles toward yet another election in which the popular vote loser may become president, Edwards’s book is essential reading. It clearly and methodically punctures myths about the Electoral College’s benefits.”—Richard L. Hasen, author of The Voting Wars “Supported by both history and data, George Edwards convincingly argues the Electoral College is anti†‘democratic, anti†‘equality, and anti†‘common sense. We should dismantle it, and soon.”—Kent Greenfield, author of Corporations Are People Too (And They Should Act Like It)

Download or read book The Electoral College written by William C. Kimberling and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Life in Numbers The Electoral College written by Margaret King and published by Teacher Created Materials. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Electoral College is a complex system influenced by various factors in the United States' rich history. Some of the ideas behind the Electoral College--such as ensuring that smaller states were given a vote--still apply today. However, the Electoral College has changed over the years in ways that the framers of the Constitution did not anticipate. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Electoral College with this full-color informational text that explores contemporary issues through high-interest content! Packed with fun facts, fascinating sidebars, and featuring TIME© content and images, this nonfiction book has text features such as a glossary, an index, and a table of contents to engage students in reading as they build their comprehension, vocabulary, and reading skills. The Reader's Guide and extended Try It! activity increase understanding of the material, and develop higher-order thinking. Check It Out! offers print and online resources for additional reading. Keep students reading from cover to cover with this captivating text!

Download or read book Life in Numbers The Electoral College written by Margaret King and published by Teacher Created Materials. This book was released on 2024-02-13 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Electoral College is a complex system influenced by various factors in the United States’ rich history. Some of the ideas behind the Electoral College--such as ensuring that smaller states were given a vote--still apply today. However, the Electoral College has changed over the years in ways that the framers of the Constitution did not anticipate. Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Electoral College with this full-color informational text that explores contemporary issues through high-interest content! Packed with fun facts, fascinating sidebars, and featuring TIME? content and images, this nonfiction book has text features such as a glossary, an index, and a table of contents to engage students in reading as they build their comprehension, vocabulary, and reading skills. The Reader’s Guide and extended Try It! activity increase understanding of the material, and develop higher-order thinking. Check It Out! offers print and online resources for additional reading. Keep students reading from cover to cover with this captivating text!

Download or read book Facts for Electors written by W. K. Dickson and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Facts for the Electors 1886 written by and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Electoral System of the United States written by John Hampden Dougherty and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Electoral College Reform written by Thomas H. Neale and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Competing Approaches: Direct Popular Election v. Electoral College Reform; (3) Direct Popular Election: Pro and Con; (4) Electoral College Reform: Pro and Con; (5) Electoral College Amendments Proposed in the 111th Congress; (6) Contemporary Activity in the States; (7) 2004: Colorado Amendment 36; (8) 2007-2008: The Presidential Reform Act (California Counts); (9) 2006-Present: National Popular Vote -- Direct Popular Election Through an Interstate Compact; Origins; The Plan; National Popular Vote, Inc.; Action in the State Legislatures; States That Have Approved NPV; National Popular Vote; (10) Prospects for Change -- An Analysis; (11) State Action -- A Viable Reform Alternative?; (12) Concluding Observations.

Download or read book Who Will Be the Next President written by Alexander S. Belenky and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the peculiarities of the current presidential election system not yet addressed in other publications. It argues that any rules for electing a President that may have a chance to replace the current ones should provide an equal representation of states as equal members of the Union, and of the nation as a whole. This book analyzes the National Popular Vote plan and shows that this plan may violate the Supreme Court decisions on the equality of votes cast in statewide popular elections held to choose state electors. That is, the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The book proposes a new election system in which the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole are determined by direct popular elections for President and Vice President in the 50 states and in D.C. This system a) would elect President a candidate who is the choice of both the nation as a whole and of the states as equal members of the Union, b) would let the current system elect a President only if the nation as a whole and the states as equal members of the Union fail to agree on a common candidate, and c) would encourage the candidates to campaign nationwide. The second edition has been updated to include a proposal on how to make established non-major party presidential candidates and independent candidates welcome participants in national televised presidential debates with the major-party candidates.

Download or read book Facts for the Electors written by Fédération libérale nationale du Canada. National Liberal Committee and published by . This book was released on 1889* with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Facts for Electors written by Conservative Party and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 2 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Electoral College Primer 2000 written by Lawrence D. Longley and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The president of the United States is not actually elected by a direct vote of the people but indirectly by means of an electoral college. Yet the operations of our archaic electoral college and the extent of its influence in presidential elections are little understood by most Americans. In this complete and authoritative guide to the electoral college, Lawrence D. Longley and Neal R. Peirce provide essential Information on how the electoral system works -- and sometimes misfires. At its best, the authors reveal, the electoral college distorts campaign strategy and poorly represents the popular will. And at its worst, it can create political and constitutional crises.The book includes detailed accounts of recent elections, including that of 1992 when election of the president by the House of Representatives appeared for a while to be the likely outcome. The authors also offer an imaginative version of election year 2000, during which the astonishing results of an electoral deadlock demonstrate the disastrous failings of the electoral college as a means of electing the people's president.

Download or read book Facts for the Electors written by Parti libéral du Canada and published by . This book was released on 1891 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: