Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?
With his new book, Alex Keyssar tells the story of how the anachronistic institution that is the Electoral College has managed to survive to this day
Alex Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling, Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy and author of the newly released book “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?,” spoke recently at an Ash Center panel about why the founders settled on such an institution, its persistence over two centuries later, and current efforts to preserve, circumvent, or abolish it. Keyssar describes how the Electoral College has managed to remain in place to this day even though a majority of Americans have long favored its replacement with a national popular vote. Yet attempts to reform or abolish the Electoral College have floundered in the face of regional and partisan opposition.
“There’s no single bullet answer to why we still have the Electoral College.”
“Efforts to adopt a national popular vote were stymied by the segregationist South, the white supremacist South, because they, in fact, wielded a considerable extra influence, a considerable extra weight of power during that period because of the Electoral College.”
“Political parties have blocked reform because they thought that the Electoral College served their interests.”
“We live in one of the most prolonged periods of partisan blockage of reforms that we have had in US history.”
“Some moderate to liberal senators voted against Electoral College reform. One of them, I might note, was a young Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden. Who’s the only person around today who actually voted on Electoral College reform, and he voted against it.”
“I actually think that we are at a more promising moment of Electoral College reform than we have been at any point in the last, certainly in the last 40 years.”
