Preserving the Electoral College
Outlined in the Constitution, the Electoral College voting system is a compromise for the election of the United States President by a vote in Congress and by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, of which a majority of 270 are required to elect the President. A state’s number of electors is composed of the number of members in its congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives, as well as two for senators. Therefore, the number 538 is the sum of the nation’s 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 senators, as well as three electoral votes allotted to the District of Columbia. The Constitution gives few provisions for the qualifications of electors: they cannot hold a government position, and they must be a loyal United States citizen. Electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected, in addition to what their responsibilities are. No federal law requires electors to match their vote to the popular vote of their state, but certain state laws and political parties demand that their electors vote according to their party.
Most states have a winner-take-all system, in which winners receive all the electoral votes within a given state. Certain states, including Maine and Nebraska, each have a variation of “proportional representation.” That is, even if a candidate does not win a popular vote within either of the two states, they still have the opportunity to gain votes if they win in certain congressional districts. If neither candidate of a given election gains a majority, the choice for president is given to the House of Representatives, in which each state casts one vote; the candidate who then wins the majority in the House wins the election. The process is the same for the vice presidency, with the exception that the Senate makes that decision. For over 200 years, the Electoral College has had several critics and proposed reforms — most of them trying to eliminate it. However, the current system has had many vocal defenders with powerful arguments.
The Electoral College voting system reinforces the cohesiveness of the United States. Due to the careful organization of the Electoral College, no sole region of the country contains a majority of the necessary votes needed to elect a president. That is, a certain candidate must have support throughout the entire country. By requiring a national distribution of popular support, the Electoral College prevents one region of the country from politically dominating another. As a result, the Electoral College functions as a unifying mechanism, since the winning candidate is the nationwide choice. In addition, the system fairly acknowledges minority interests: voters of minorities within certain states may constitute the difference between winning or losing a state’s electoral votes. By enhancing minority interests, as well as promoting the will of the nationwide majority, the Electoral College provides a balanced, comprehensive process to elect the President.
Proponents further argue that the Electoral College encourages a politically stable environment by maintaining a two party system. The current process forces third party movements to find their place within one of the two major political parties; likewise, major parties are motivated to absorb third party interests in their continual attempt to win the popular state vote. This assimilation approach allows any radical third party movements to compromise with major party interests into generally accepted principles. As a result, Americans end up with two major political parties, rather than several small groups that pursue singular radical objectives. Thus, the Electoral College allows factions to emerge within political parties, rather than the government, so a stable federal system is maintained.
To abolish the Electoral College voting system would fundamentally alter the design of the United States government to the disadvantage of the states. The original nature of the voting system was carefully and thoroughly debated by the framers of the Constitution; they contended that within the federal system, power should be reserved for the States. As a result of this precise balance of power, the Electoral College has, for over 200 years, ensured that the President of the United States has sufficient popular support, and that his support is distributed throughout the country in order to govern effectively.
