The election is over, and America has made their choice. Many people did not exercise their right to vote. As sad as giving up one of our most basic rights is, not voting is also a choice. After the 2000 election, many non-voters site that the electoral college is one of the main factors in their decision to stay away from the polls on November 2.
Its voting time again, and that means a few things. For one, there are all of those annoying commercials put on supporting or opposing one candidate or the other. It also means that some potential voters are wondering weather or not they are going to vote in this year’s presidential election. Those who are wondering weather or not to vote cite many reasons for their doubt, and one of them is the Electoral College. This is not a new debate, but it has gained significance in the past few elections. If you don’t think you know what it is, you probably do, and you just didn’t know it had a name. The Electoral College refers to the fact that under our current system, the President is not elected by a direct popular vote, but by a popular vote in each state, which wins the votes of that state.
The Electoral College is a little bit more complicated than that basic description. It operates under a specific set of rules that have evolved with the country. When it was originally created, the Electoral College solved several problems that the founding fathers perceived.
One of the problems the founding fathers saw with the election of the president was the voters themselves. By having the president elected by a group of electors chosen by each state to represent it, the founding fathers sought to have the president and vice president elected by the most educated people on that matter in the country.
The Electoral currently operates in a fairly straightforward way. In most states, the vote cannot be split between two candidates- that is, the state’s entire allocation of electoral votes goes towards one candidate. Only two states split their votes, Maine and Idaho. Each State has a total number of electoral votes equal to its total representation in both houses of Congress (both the Senate and House of Representatives). Every state has at least three votes in the Electoral College. On Election Day, voters are not actually voting for President, they are voting for electors who will vote for their choice for President (and Vice President). The results of the vote are turned into Congress (the house) and the winner is the one who has an absolute majority (greater than 50 percent) of the vote. In the event that no Presidential ticket is able to get an absolute majority, the House of Representatives, as the house of Congress closer to the people, will have a vote to decide the winner from the top three candidates.
The Electoral College has not been a static entity. It has evolved along with our great nation, and as our republic is ever changing, so is the Electoral College. Some believe that the time as come for us to do away with the Electoral College entirely, and move to a direct popular vote for the President. Many argue that because of the Electoral College, George Bush unfairly won the 2000 election over Al Gore, who actually won the popular vote. There are good arguments on both sides of the debate; the following are just a few of them.
Common arguments against the Electoral College include: the possibility of electing a minority president, “faithless” electors, possibility of Electoral College in depressing voter turnout, and its failure to accurately reflect national popular will (source http://165.193.100.197/pdf/eleccoll.pdf). A minority president could be elected in one of several ways. The most common is if a third candidate draws enough votes, either popular or electoral, that neither of the top candidates has a majority. In the event that there is no majority in the Electoral College, the House of Representatives will cast a vote to see who will become president. A faithless elector is one who does not vote according to how he or she has been instructed to vote by the popular vote in his or her state. Although rare, this has happened, but it has never changed the outcome of an election. The next argument, that the Electoral College depresses voter turnout, is a serious concern for many. Many of those who do not vote cite the fact that their vote does not count, and they refer to the Electoral College. Those in favor of the Electoral College often point out that the Presidential election is accompanied by other elections, so the Electoral College does not depress voter turnout. The final argument, that the Electoral College does not represent national popular will, is argued by saying that is over represents rural states. But it must be noted that the Senate does the same thing, albeit to a greater degree, and the fact that we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a democratic-republic. It is also said by both sides that this encourages a two-party system, by making it hard for third party candidates to get any votes in the Electoral College. Those against it cite it as a problem; those for it cite it as a good thing.
Arguments for keeping the Electoral College include: the Electoral College contributes to political stability, enhances the status of minority interests, contributes to cohesiveness in the country, and it maintains our federal system of government and representation. Those in favor of the Electoral College point out that the President needs to have a distributed base of popular support across the country, not one that is concentrated in a few states in a specific part of the country. They argue that by encouraging a two-party system, the Electoral College gives us a stable two-party system. The Electoral College enhances the status of minorities because of the fact that most states are all or nothing- that is, they do not split their vote; one candidate gets them all. Thus a state can be tipped one way or the other by a relatively small group of voters. Those in favor of the Electoral College also wish to preserve the Federal system of state governments and the national governments that our country operates under. They argue that by abolishing the Electoral College, you take away the meaning of having states, and if you take away that, then why not the Senate as well?
Those are the basic arguments of both sides, but I recommend that you look into it further if you are interested. The next election is four years away, and it might be up to us as to how we vote in it.