It's
time, once again, to think about the electoral college.
Presidents
and their vice-presidential running mates are the only governmental
officials elected by the entire nation. Rather than just comparing
the raw vote—how many people voted for this candidate compared to
how many voted for that other candidate—candidates win the
electoral votes of a particular state by winning the presidential
election in that state. It is the total number of electoral votes,
not the total number of raw votes, that determines who wins and
becomes president.
This
means that, instead of winning one big national election, a
successful candidate must win many smaller state elections.
States
with small populations have a lot fewer electors than large states
with large populations. The number of electors of a particular state
is the number of senators from that state (and every state gets the
same number of senators—two) plus the number of representatives
from that state (which depends on the population).
So Delaware and
Alaska have three electoral votes each, Texas has 38, and California
has 55 electoral votes.
Why
is the presidential election set up this way? Do you think this
method is fair? Read on....
Why
and when?
The
Founding Fathers created the electoral college system in order to
make sure that the large states wouldn't have undue control over the
presidential elections; another way of saying this is that this
system was devised to safeguard the voice of the less populous
states.
The
first plan to elect U.S. presidents was to have Congress elect the
president. (This would be somewhat similar to the British
Parliament/Prime Minister system.) However, some of the Founding
Fathers thought that the president wouldn't have the proper amount of
independence from Congress—in other words, that the president would
be under Congressional control.
The
Founding Fathers did briefly discuss the idea of direct election—each
citizen voting for president directly, and the winner being the guy
(so far, it's always been men!) with the most raw votes. James
Madison liked this idea but pointed out that southern states
wouldn't, because much of their population was made up of non-voting
slaves. A lot of compromise over slavery happened during the crafting
of the Constitution; it's surprising that the document has served as
well as it has, for as long as it has, with as few amendments as it
has had, considering!
Note:
the Constitution refers to “electors” but not to the “electoral
college.” The latter phrase began to be used in the early nineteenth century and appeared in written form in a federal law in 1845.
Good
things about the electoral college:
In
a close election, a recount would have to happen with ALL the
ballots in the whole nation, if we went by raw votes. With the
electoral college, there is only a recount of votes in the really
close states. Recounts are expensive and time-consuming.
The
electoral college gives more influence to small states, with their
different perspectives, and to rural areas than a raw vote count
would. It also gives a bit more influence to racial and ethnic
minorities, who often live in large cities in populous states and
who therefore can tilt all the electoral votes of those states.
The
electoral college system tends to prevent candidates with only
regional support from winning.
An
analogy...
What
if the World Series of baseball was decided by the raw total of all
the runs made in all the games of the Series?
Let's say that the
Giants won six out of seven games but totaled only 10 runs in all
seven games. If the Tigers had one freaky game in which they scored 7
runs, and won that one game—would it be a good thing if the Tigers ended
up winning the whole series with 11 total points, even though they lost six games and only won one?
In
sports, we almost always have a series of small competitions adding
up to a large win. A tennis player doesn't win a match because
someone tallied up all the points she made in a match, and compared
that tally to her opponents. Instead, she has to win more sets than
her opponent (and to win a set, she must win more games).
Bad
things about the electoral college system:
The
electoral college system to some extent discourages voter turnout.
However, since there are other offices and propositions in any given
election, apathy and non-participation seems to me to be a problem
largely separated from the whether we use direct voting or the
electoral college.
- It's
an unnecessarily complicated system. Many people think that one citizen-one vote makes more sense.
- Some people think that some of the things on the “good” list above are really bad. For example, some people don't like the fact that the current system favors less populous and more rural states. Some argue that the system makes disadvantages third parties, but others claim that the electoral college system actually improves chances of third-party candidates in some situations.
Voter
suppression (passing state laws that make it harder for some people
to vote) isn't punished by our electoral college system. However, a
direct-vote system wouldn't help fight against voter suppression
efforts, either....
To
learn more...
Kids Discover offers an infographic
about the Electoral College.
Congress for Kids has a page on this
system.
Also
on this date:
