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Apr 3, 2024

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1 The Electoral College: A Relic of the Past Thomas Edison State University ENC-102: English Composition II Professor Miriam Garrant May 29, 2022

2 The Electoral College: A Relic of the Past It may come as no surprise that those in government have not always agreed on everything. As the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the Constitution, there were a multitude of issues that were up for debate. One of the most important issues was how our nation would select the president. The end result of this particular debate was the Electoral College. This method of choosing our nation’s president has become increasingly divisive, as it has led to two out of the last five presidents winning the election without winning the popular vote. While it has been stated that the Electoral College more fairly represents smaller states in Presidential elections, the United States should abolish the Electoral College due to its unequal representation of the American people as well and its direct ties to slavery at its inception. There were some Founders that believed that Congress should choose the president. Others believed is a direct election by those citizens qualified to vote (National Archives and Records Administration, 2019). Like the Great Compromise, which lead to our bicameral legislature, the Electoral College was essentially a combination of the two ideas. It has changed over time, but today it is a group of 538 electors that come from the states and Washington, DC. The number of Electoral College votes that a state receives is equal to the total number of people that the state has in Congress, or the number of representatives plus two senators. There are also three votes for Washington, DC (Krutz, 2020, p. 266). Once the public has finished voting, the votes are tallied and the electors go to their respective state capitols and generally cast their vote for the winner of their state’s popular vote. 48 of the states go by the “winner-take-all” method, where all the states’ electors go to the winner of the popular vote. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, distribute their electors proportionally to the popular vote in their respective states. The electors’ votes are tallied and the election is certified by Congress.

3 There is still a commonly held belief that the Electoral College still plays a vital role in choosing our nation’s president. A principal argument of those that believe this is that by providing greater representation to the smaller states, the Electoral College ensures that the United States maintains a federalist system of government. According to McCollester (2007), it is “the desire of Americans to maintain a balanced government, where no one source of power reigns above any other, calls for such systems as the bicameral legislature and the Electoral College” (p. 183). Another argument is that the Electoral College promotes political stability via the two-party system. McCollester (2007) points out that multi-party systems have divided nations throughout history. The Electoral College has caused the United States to evolve into a two-party system, which although divisive, is stable and functional (p. 183). Perhaps the biggest argument by those in favor of the Electoral College is that its existence ensures that small states are not ignored in the presidential election. Glenn (2003) writes that the presidential hopeful must seek the support of a broader electorate due to the power that is given to small states. On the face of these arguments, the Electoral College seems to be the logical choice, but as one digs deeper into these arguments they begin to falter. Despite the claim that the Electoral College provides equal representation for smaller states, the reality is that most smaller states are still largely ignored. Due to the fact that all but two states are winner-take-all, the majority of states are just not worth visiting. The majority of states are seen in a binary manner, either “red” or “blue”. The states that get the most attention are swing states, or states that could vote for either a Democrat or Republican. This means that a large majority of states still get ignored by presidential candidates. In his piece in the Washington Post, Adrian Blanco (2020) tracks the campaign stops that Biden and Trump made in the leadup to the 2020 election. Of the over 200 campaign stops between August and

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4 November, 12 states accounted for over 95% of the visits, with two-thirds of those visits taking place in just six states. The case was similar in 2016, as reported by ABC News (2016). At face value the average voter may not see anything wrong with this, but it leads to candidates focusing on issues that are important to those six states, vice issues that are important to the plurality of voters in the United States. The reality is that each state is purple, or a mix or Democrats and Republicans. For example, a famously liberal state like California had over 6 million Republican voters out of the over 17.5 million voters in the 2020 election (“ 2020: The American presidency project ,” 2021). The state effectively received no campaign stops from either candidate, meaning Trump made no attempt at winning over additional voters in that state. The same could be said for Biden in states like Kentucky or Louisiana. Because of this, it is fair to argue that the Electoral College’s end result is not equal representation, but greater division. The Electoral College is often framed as a result of the desire of the Founders to have a federalist system of government (McCollester, 2007, p. 183). What is often not included in that argument is that slavery was at the forefront of reasons that the presidential selection process is the way it is in the United States. Clayton (2007) points out that some Founders, such as James Madison, were concerned that a direct election would lead to disproportionate representation between the northern states and southern states since the slave population did not presently count towards the population (29). The disparity in population between the northern states and southern states eventually led to the Three-fifths Compromise, which stated that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted towards overall state population. This meant that the South received many more seats in the House of Representatives and ultimately the Electoral College (Clayton, 2007, p.29). Even as slavery ended with the 13th Amendment and the Three-fifths

5 Compromise was officially ended with the 14th Amendment, the Electoral College and its ability to over-represent smaller states persisted. Although the Electoral College has been the way the United States has selected since its inception, it is time for a change. The goals of the Electoral College were to provide greater representation to smaller states and to promote a balanced federalism. It has missed the mark on in its goals. The Electoral College should be abolished because of its unequal representation of the American people and its direct ties to slavery at its origin.

6 References 2020: The American presidency project . The American Presidency Project. (2021, March 3). Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/2020 Blanco, A. (2020, November 2). Amid the pandemic, Trump and Biden traveled most often to Pennsylvania and Florida . The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/11/02/campaign-rallies-covid/ Bolinger, B. (2007). Point: Abolishing the Electoral College. International Social Science Review , 82 (3/4), 179–182. Clayton, D. M. (2007). The Electoral College: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone. Black Scholar , 37 (3), 28–41. https://doi-org.fir.tesu.edu/10.1080/00064246.2007.11413406 Glenn, G. (2003). The Electoral College and the Development of American Democracy. Perspectives on Political Science , 32 (1), 4. https://doi-org.fir.tesu.edu/10.1080/10457090309604829 Krutz, G. S. (2020). American Government 2E . OpenStax, Rice University. McCollester, M. (2007). Counterpoint: Preserving the Electoral College. International Social Science Review , 82 (3/4), 182–186. National Archives and Records Administration. (2019, December 17). Electoral College history . National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/history#whyec

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7 Smith, C., & Kreutz, L. (2016, November 7). Hillary Clinton's and Donald Trump's Campaigns by the Numbers . ABC News. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trumps-campaigns-numbers/story? id=43356783

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