Changing The Electoral College

I

Introduction

The Electoral College, as it is outlined in the 12th Amendment, is a body of electors chosen to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. It is a controversial mechanism of presidential elections that was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as a compromise for the a failed presidential election process in the election of 1800. The founders believed a pure democracy was too reckless, while others objected to giving Congress the power to select the president. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution. In this system the electors are granted the discretion to vote for the candidate that they choose, but in practice the electors vote for the candidate that wins the most votes in their repective states. [21] In all the states except Nebraska and Maine, the candidate that wins a plurality of the popular votes wins all of the state's electoral votes. [23] Because of recent divergence of the popular vote and the electoral vote, many people believe that the Electoral College should be reformed for a more proportinally representative system or abolished in favor of direct elections.

The 2000 Presidential Election sparked criticism of the Electoral College because the majority winner of the popular vote, former Vice President Al Gore, lost the election in the Electoral College. This happened as a result of an aspect of the electoral system that is not mandated in the Constitution; how to distribute the votes in the state. It is customary that the states award the winner of the popular vote in the state all of the states electoral votes. Therefore, it makes no difference if a candidate wins a state by 50.1% or by 99% of the vote; the same amount of votes are awarded. This leads to candidates winning some states by large pluralities and losing others by a small number of votes; a likely scenario for one candidate to win the popular vote while another wins the electoral vote. This winner take all methods used in picking electors has been decided by the states themselves because nowhere in the Twelfth Amendment is their an article providing for how states should cast their votes.

Many believe that the Electoral College is undemocratic because it sometimes disobeys the wishes of the majority of voters. These critics claim that the system is anachronistic and disregards the votes of millions of voters. Conversely, some argue that the Electoral College secures democracy and the principle of federalism, as it was outline in the United States Constitution.

The opposition to the electoral system is built upon a false understanding of democracy. The founding fathers outlined a federal government that is governend by the states rather than directly by the people. They designed the Constitution, keeping in mind the federal principle and creating a federal democracy of the states. Accordingly, the Electoral College should not be reformed or abolished.

II

History and Background

At the time of it's creation, the United States consisted of 13 large and small states that strived to protect their own rights and powers and strived to avoid a central national government from growing too powerful. There were 4,000,000 people spread up and down one-thousand miles of the Atlantic seaboard, barely connected by transporatation or communication. [28] Information about Presidential candidates was not available at the click of a button, candidates were not able to fly state-to-state, city-to-city to debate their platforms and advertise their ideals. Whether desired or not, national campaigns were impractical, and the Electoral College was established.

The Electoral College was created for two fundemenatal reasons as well. The first purpose was to separate pure democracy and the choosing of a President. While members of local and state government are elected by direct elections, the Presidency and Vice Presidency are federal position, therefore the election process constitutes a system that resides on the majority of the federation of states. The second fundemental reason was to give smaller states a louder voice in national elections.

The first reason for the creation of the Electoral College was built upon the fear of the founders, and is hardly applicable in contemporary terms. The founding fathers were afraid to directly elect the President because they feared that the public opinion could be influenced and a political tyrant would come to power. Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers:

It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations. It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief. [22]

Hamilton and the other founders believed that an Electoral College would undoubtedly insure that only the most qualified candidate becomes President. They believed that with the implementation of the Electoral College, no one would be able to manipulate the populace. It would act as check on an electorate that might be deceived. Hamilton and the other founders did not trust a governance purely by the people because they felt that this much unlimited power would lead to the bad, unadvised choices. The founders also believed that the Electoral College had the advantage of being a group that met only once and thus could not be manipulated over time by foreign governments or others. The Electoral College is also resolution to satisfy the small states. Under the system of the Electoral College each state has the same number of electoral votes as they have representative in Congress, thus no state could have less then 3. Obviously this creates an unfair advantage to voters in the small states whose votes actually count more then those people living in medium and large states.

Since its ratification, the