As Election Day was almost a month ago, many Americans are reflecting on the electoral process in the United States, specifically whether or not there is still a need for the Electoral College.
Every four years, millions of Americans wonder why the president is chosen through the Electoral College. Many believe that a system that allows the loser of the national popular vote to become president is outdated and needs to be changed.
The Electoral College also narrows the campaign for president to mostly swing states. Today, 48 states use a winner-take-all system in which the candidate that receives the most votes in the state gets the states electoral votes. Most states are considered either solidly Democrat or solidly Republican. Candidates then do not feel the need to campaign in these states since either themselves or their opponent will easily take the state. The states that matter to the candidates are battleground states. States such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida and North Carolina are considered battlegrounds. In the height of a presidential election, candidates focus on getting the most votes out of these states.
A little more than half of Americans prefer a national popular vote to elect the President of the United States. Congress has attempted on many occasions to alter or get rid of the electoral college completely. In 1970, Congress came close to changing the electoral system in the United States but it did not have quite enough support.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in September 2020, 61% of Americans support changing the Constitution to elect the president using a national popular vote. Americans are very split on how to elect the president. There is a party divide in changing to a national popular vote, 89% of Democrats support a popular vote, while only 23% of Republicans do.
The Electoral College is made up of 538 delegates who select the president after the election is certified in each of the 50 states. They cast the vote for president and formally elect the president of the United States. The total number of electors represent the total number of U.S. senators (100), the total number of state representatives, (435), and three more electors from D.C.
Each state in the U.S. receives the same number of electors for its two senators. Meaning that California, the state with the largest population, receives the same amount of electors as Wyoming, the state with the smallest population. Smaller states receive more electors based on their population than larger states.
It takes 270 or more electoral votes to win a presidential election. On Election Day, many of the media outlets have “270 to win” on their electronic boards depicting the states.
In 2016, Trump won the election with 304 electoral votes, but lost the popular vote by almost three million votes. This also occurred in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the Electoral College. In only one presidential election since 1992 has a Republican candidate received more of the popular vote than the Democratic candidate.
When the Constitution was written in the 1700’s, most Americans were not educated, were not allowed to vote, or were unable to learn about the candidates who were running for office. The founders could not trust the average voter to make the decision to choose the president, so the Electoral College was created. Americans are much more informed now, and have ways to become educated on the issues driving presidential campaigns. The Electoral College system is becoming more and more outdated.
Supporters of the Electoral College say that smaller states will be overpowered by larger states in electing the president. Republicans are less supportive for getting rid of the Electoral College than Democrats and Independents. The divide between Republicans and Democrats has become greater since the 2016 election. After Trump defeated Clinton by getting more electoral votes, Democrats were more than four times as likely as Republicans to favor using the national popular.
In order to amend the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College system in the U.S. there would support from two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and three-quarters of the 50 states. There is deep partisanship regarding this issue, which means that it is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
Amelia Morel 