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Should the Electoral College be Abolished?

Few aspects of the presidential election process are as controversial as the electoral college. The institution was created by the Founding Fathers and enshrined in the Constitution. When Americans go to the polls, they do not directly elect the president. Instead, they are technically voting for a slate of electors. Each party that has a candidate on the ballot in a particular state chooses a group of electors that equals that state's congressional delegation. For instance, Arizona has two senators and eight members of the House of Representatives. Therefore the state has ten electoral votes. Prior to the election, each party picks ten people to serve as electors and if their candidate wins a majority in the polling, that candidate receives all ten electoral votes. After the election, all of the electors from each of the states meet in Washington, D.C., and formally cast their votes. There are 538 electoral votes, and to be elected president, a candidate must have a majority, or 270 electoral votes. Even if candidates receive a majority of the popular vote, if they do not win a majority of the electoral vote, they are not elected president. On four occasions in American history, a candidate has won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college. If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives decides the election. The last time that happened was in 1824.

The electoral college was put in place because the framers of the Constitution sought to give the states a role in electing the president. In this respect, the electoral college is an important component of the nation's federal system; however, the institution was also created as a check on the average voter. Early American political elites did not trust the judgment of ordinary Americans and saw the electoral college as a means to prevent the election of someone unsuitable for office. Consequently, some argue that the electoral college is undemocratic. Some studies also show that the institution discourages voting since some people believe that their individual vote does not matter.

The authors in the following chapter examine the electoral college in great detail. They explore the creation of the institution and its role in contemporary elections. The viewpoints also analyze various reform proposals and investigate the impact that changes in the presidential election process would have on the federal system, states, and individual voters.