Electoral College and Alternatives

Introduction

Introduction

When the Founding Fathers met for the Constitutional Convention, they were trying to create a revolutionary new style of government. While most countries had kings and queens, the United States wanted to elect theirs. However, there was significant debate among the Founders over how to elect a president.

The Founders created the Electoral College, where states appoint electors to vote for the president. Originally, each state had its own method of choosing electors, but in modern presidential elections, these electors cast their ballots based on the state's popular vote. When one candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, they win the presidency.

Over the years — and especially following the 2016 election — calls have intensified among some for reforming or outright abolishing the Electoral College. Proposed alternatives include ranked-choice voting and the national popular vote. Though it began over two centuries ago, the debate over how the United States elects its president rages on, and it is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

Electoral College

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During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, there was a stark divide between the Founding Fathers on how the country should elect its president. At that point, “no other country in the world directly elected its chief executive,” so the delegates were in unprecedented territory. The Founders created the Electoral College as a compromise between Congress electing the president and the popular vote electing the president. The exact reason for this compromise, however, is up for debate. Historians have offered many possible explanations, including balancing power between Congress and the president, concerns over direct popular vote, ensuring representation for small states, and slavery.

Many will be surprised to learn that the term “Electoral College” does not appear in the Constitution. Both Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors.” This Article empowers state legislatures to determine how they appoint electors. Over the years, it has evolved to become what we know as the Electoral College today. Initially, state legislators chose electors, but it became increasingly common for the popular vote to determine who went to the Electoral College. By the late 1800s, every state-appointed its electors using this method. 48 of the 50 states, excluding Maine and Nebraska, use a winner-take-all system, where the winner of each state’s popular vote receives all of that state’s electors. Maine and Nebraska, in contrast, award two of their electors to the state popular vote winner and then one each to the popular vote winner in their two congressional districts.

The Electoral College has voted for a different candidate than the person who won the national popular vote on five occasions: 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. The most recent was former President Trump’s victory in 2016 when he won the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes.

In recent election cycles, the Electoral College has become an increasingly partisan issue. Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the eight most recent presidential elections, but at the end of President Biden’s term, they will have only occupied the White House for 20 of those 32 years. This streak has prompted some Democratic politicians and the majority of their voters to call for reforming or abolishing the Electoral College. Republicans, in contrast, have criticized these calls as a power grab, arguing that if there is no Electoral College, crowded cities like New York City and Los Angeles will hold all the power in elections.

Electoral College Process

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When Americans vote in presidential elections, they are actually voting for which electors their state legislature will select to vote in the Electoral College. Each state has electors based on its congressional representation: the number of its members in the House of Representatives plus its two senators. Currently, the Electoral College has 538 electors who represent the states and D.C., and each elector casts a vote for president in an election. The states have the authority to decide how these electors are chosen. In recent electoral history, state political parties provide a list of electors should their respective presidential candidate win the statewide popular vote. After the election, the state legislature appoints the slate of electors of the winning party in the state to vote in the Electoral College. Following the Electoral College vote, Congress counts the votes, certifies the election, and officially announces the new president.

Popular Vote

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Why can a candidate win the popular vote yet lose the Electoral College, thus losing the presidency? This question has sparked debate over whether it is time to change. Ahead of the 2020 election, 58% of Americans said the Constitution should be amended to abolish the Electoral College and instead use a national vote to declare a presidential winner.

Most Americans in favor of abolishing the Electoral College mainly support the use of the popular vote. The popular vote would determine the presidential winner solely through a majority of votes nationwide. Proponents of the national popular vote argue it would be more representative of the country as a whole instead of making candidates focus on battleground states like Michigan, Georgia, or Pennsylvania. Opponents say that — without the Electoral College — presidential candidates will tour only the most populous cities, thus disenfranchising rural voters and states with small populations.

A Gallup poll shows that 61% of Americans want to use the national popular vote; however, it has become a partisan issue with the Left in favor of abolishing the Electoral College and the Right in favor of keeping it.

Politicians and academics have discussed several possible reforms to the Electoral College instead of abolishing it entirely. One possible reform is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). The NPVIC is a ballot referendum movement that gets states to pledge their electors to the national popular vote winner. Importantly, this method of proposing state-by-state ballot initiatives is much more feasible than the constitutional amendment it would require to abolish the Electoral College. This approach makes the Electoral College functionally powerless as the popular vote winner would always win the presidency. The Compact only takes effect once signatories represent at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes. As of December 2021, 15 states and D.C. have adopted the Compact, representing 195 electoral votes.

Opponents of the Compact question the constitutional legitimacy of the NPVIC and warn that inconsistent recount policies could undermine the president-elect’s legitimacy.

Ranked Choice

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The NPVIC is not the only suggested reform to the American electoral system. Some have proposed reforming the way Americans vote through a process known as ranked-choice voting. In ranked-choice voting, voters order the candidates on the ballot based on preference. “If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.”

Ranked-choice voting has been gaining steam in elections across the country. Maine has implemented ranked-choice statewide and, in 2020, was the first state to use ranked-choice voting in the presidential election. In 2020 Alaska approved a ballot initiative for using ranked-choice in future general elections. Despite a legal challenge to the new election method’s constitutionality, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the system in January 2022. The New York City mayoral primaries and the Republican primary election in Virginia used the system in 2021.

Proponents argue that ranked-choice voting, sometimes called instant-runoff voting, helps avoid runoff elections, which tend to be more divisive and have lower turnout. They also suggest the method ensures majority support and encourages more civil campaigns, as candidates do not want to offend other candidates’ voters. However, some argue that ranked-choice ballots will become too confusing for voters to understand. Those against ranked-choice are also worried that calculation times may become excessive, delaying results and undermining public trust in the process.

1. Explain which system you support most and why.
2. Would switching to the popular vote unfairly favor urban centers?
3. With 61% of Americans supporting the national popular vote, why do you think politicians have made it a partisan issue?
4. What are your opinions on ranked choice voting? Should more states adopt it?