The Electoral College: A Balanced Perspective on its Pros and Cons

The Electoral College is a deeply debated topic in American politics. Some consider it a necessary safeguard, while others view it as an outdated and undemocratic institution. This article explores the pros and cons of the Electoral College, examining its historical context and its impact on modern elections.

Introduction: Understanding the Electoral College

The Electoral College is not a physical place; it's a process outlined in the U.S. Constitution for electing the president and vice president. Instead of directly electing the president through a popular vote, citizens vote for a slate of electors who then cast the actual votes for president. This system has been a source of controversy since its inception by the Founding Fathers. The debate over its continued use resurfaced during the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than one million votes but won 30 states and the Electoral College and therefore the presidency.

How the Electoral College Works

Each state is allocated a number of electors equal to its total number of members in Congress (House and Senate). Including Washington, D.C.’s three electors, there are currently 538 electors in all. State political parties choose their own potential electors. The rare elector who votes for someone else may be fined, disqualified, replaced by a substitute elector, or prosecuted by their state.

In most states, a "winner-take-all" method is used, where the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state receives all of its electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska use a district system, awarding two electors to the statewide winner and one elector to the winner of each congressional district.

The electors meet in their respective states on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December following the presidential election. They then cast their votes for president and vice president on separate ballots.

Arguments in Favor of the Electoral College

Proponents of the Electoral College argue that it serves several important purposes:

Protecting Minority Voices

The Electoral College was created to protect minority voices from being overwhelmed by the majority. It was also intended to prevent states with larger populations from having undue influence and to compromise between electing the president by popular vote and letting Congress choose the president.

Ensuring Broad Representation

The Electoral College ensures that all parts of the country are involved in selecting the President of the United States. If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then presidential candidates could limit campaigning to heavily populated areas or specific regions. To win the election, presidential candidates need electoral votes from multiple regions. Therefore they build campaign platforms with a national focus. The winner will be serving the needs of the entire country. Without the Electoral College, rural areas and small towns would not be represented.

One reason that some analysts support the electoral college is that it encourages candidates to pay attention to small states and not just get out the vote in big, populous states and cities. The electoral college gives small states more weight in the political process than their population would otherwise confer.

Promoting Certainty and Stability

The Electoral College guarantees certainty to the outcome of the presidential election. If the election were based on popular vote, it would be possible for a candidate to receive the highest number of popular votes without actually getting 50 percent of the vote. The existence of the Electoral College eliminates demands for run-off elections.

There’s no need for a national recount when you have an electoral college. If one state has voting issues, you can just do a recount in that state rather than creating national upheaval. And to win, a candidate must garner the support of voters in a variety of regions. That means whoever wins the presidency must build a truly national coalition. This, in turn, helps promote national cohesion and the peaceful transfer of power between presidents and helps keep the nation’s political system stable.

Encouraging National Unity

The Electoral College makes elections more stable, and less likely to trigger contentious recounts. Every state has different procedural rules for the administration of elections, including how recounts are triggered and conducted and how provisional ballots are counted. The 2000 presidential election saw an unprecedented vote recount in Florida that was a belabored, emotional, and costly process, even though it was limited to only one state. With a national popular vote, every additional vote a presidential candidate could obtain anywhere in the country could make the difference between winning or losing a national election.

Minimizing Voter Fraud

While no system can completely eliminate the risk of individuals trying to cheat the system, the Electoral College minimizes the incentives for voter fraud because the system isolates the impact of stolen votes. Under the current system, stolen votes only affect the outcome of one state rather than the national outcome.

Preserving Federalism

The Electoral College preserves the principles of federalism that are essential to our constitutional republic. The U.S. is a large country made up of people from very different regions and cultures, and federalism is an important way of preserving the differences that make us unique while uniting us behind one common federal government. The Electoral College prevents presidential candidates from winning an election by focusing solely on high-population urban centers and dense media markets, forcing them to seek the support of a larger cross-section of the American electorate. Large cities like New York City and Los Angeles should not get to unilaterally dictate policies that affect more rural states, like North Dakota and Indiana, which have very different needs. These states may be smaller, but their values still matter-they should have a say in who becomes President.

Arguments Against the Electoral College

Critics of the Electoral College contend that it is undemocratic and leads to several negative consequences:

Disregarding the Popular Vote

The Electoral College ignores the will of the people. There are over 300 million people in the United States, but just 538 people decide who will be president. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, yet still lost the election in the Electoral College. This occurrence-whereby a candidate wins the Electoral College and therefore the presidency while losing the popular vote-has happened four other times in American history: in 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland), and 2000 (George W. Bush over Al Gore).

The United States is the only democratic country in the world in which a presidential candidate can win the most popular votes and lose the election.

Giving Disproportionate Power to Swing States

The Electoral College gives too much power to “swing states” and allows the presidential election to be decided by a handful of states. The two main political parties can usually count on winning the electoral votes in certain states without worrying about the actual popular vote totals. Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates only need to campaign in a limited number of states that can swing the election one way or the other.

If you don’t live in a swing state like Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and more, you probably won’t see as many ads, have as many canvassers come to your door or get polled as frequently. The electoral college means that swing states - which aren’t necessarily the most representative of the country as a whole - get most of the attention. And even within swing states, certain counties are more competitive than others. That means voters in those counties are courted particularly hard.

Undermining Representative Democracy

The Electoral College undermines representative democracy and the notion of one person, one vote. There are some 335 million people in the United States. But just 538 people decide who will be president. In 2016 Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, and yet she still lost the election on the basis of electoral votes.

Historical Roots in Slavery and Racism

The Electoral College is rooted in slavery and racism. The “minority” interests the Founding Fathers intended the Electoral College to protect were those of enslavers and states with legal slavery. James Madison stated, “There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes."

The populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president.…With about 93 percent of the country’s slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the South’s congressional delegation by 42 percent. The racism at the root of the Electoral College persists, suppressing the votes of people of color in favor of voters from largely homogeneously white states.

Potential for Rogue Electors

Many states have no law requiring electors to vote the way their state has voted. Electors in these states are “unbound.” Therefore, the electoral college is based on a set of traditions that electors vote the way their state votes. However, there’s always the possibility of “rogue” or “faithless” electors who could give a vote to a candidate who didn’t win the elector’s state.

The Electoral College in the Public Debate

The debate over the Electoral College remains a prominent issue in American politics. On one side of the argument, critics say that the Electoral College can lead to outcomes where the presidency is secured without winning the popular vote. This is the case for many Democrats and their supporters. According to the Pew Research Center, 80% “favor replacing the Electoral College with a popular vote system.” This concern stems from the 2000 and 2016 elections, where Democratic candidates won the popular vote but lost the presidency due to the Electoral College system. As a result, critics say that this mechanism disproportionately amplifies the influence of less populous states and swing states, and effectively sidelines the majority’s choice.

Those in favor of the Electoral College say that it ensures all regions of the country are involved in selecting the president. And it prevents candidates from focusing solely on populous urban areas. Additionally, they argue that this system encourages presidential hopefuls to campaign nationwide, addressing diverse interests across states.

The Future of the Electoral College

Love it or hate it, the Electoral College is here to stay because changing it would require “constitutional surgery,” says DeRosa. “You would need three-fourths of the states to ratify any change, and too many states that are intent on suppressing votes benefit from the Electoral College.”

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