On Wednesday, November 13, in the final lecture of the election Lunch and Learn series, Mr. Erickson discussed the history and motivation behind the Electoral College. To introduce his topic, he reminded the audience that America’s foundation rests on principles of republicanism, not of democracy. America elects representatives to vote on laws rather than holding a popular vote on key measures, as would occur in a democracy. From the early days of the Republic, the Founders were wary of another monarchical system arising in their country. They passed legislation outlining our governmental structure in order to prevent a one ruler system. After the failed Articles of Confederation, they strengthen the central government but crafted our Constitution with checks and balances for the three branches of government to sustain republican rule. In the process of creating the Constitution, the Founders pondered an essential question: How would they select the president?
The Founders originally devised two solutions to presidential selection. First, the election would occur by popular vote. They quickly rejected this idea, though, as many of them feared majority rule. Their distrust of the majority stemmed from their elitism. As classically educated men, they predicted that power in the hands of a mostly uneducated populace would cause the country to run aground. The second proposed method of election was to place the vote in the hands of the state legislatures. This resonated with many delegates at the convention as a multitude of states already used this method to elect governors. Yet the method risked subjecting the executive to partisan control.
The Founders did not accept either of these messages, however, and formulated a compromise — the Electoral College. In the initial Electoral College, each state would send their leaders as delegates, or “electors,” to a convention where they would then vote and elect the president. Enlightenment thinking had a tremendous influence on this proposal as it encouraged systems that were inherently good. The Founders sought to create a good government, balanced between the will of the people and what was inherently good for the country. Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s most prominent founders, believed that the will of the people should not be the only consideration, but the country should instead focus on crafting a good process.
As the Constitution does not mandate the procedure for the Electoral College vote but leaves it up to the states, the states experimented in many elections on the preferred method. Beginning in the 1820’s, many states adopted the winner take all strategy to consolidate power for their voice. This evolving proposition survives to this day. The modern day Electoral College consists of a “winner take all” method in each state with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska whose electoral votes are divided proportionally in correspondence to the popular vote. Most states conduct a popular vote, and the winner of the popular vote would receive the totality of their allotted electoral votes, even if they fail to win the majority. The number of electoral votes for each state matches their number of Representatives plus their number of Senators.
The Founders intended the Electoral College to “safeguard against tyranny,” asserting that the individual was inherently selfish and could not be trusted to steer the country. In creating it, they envisioned a way to maintain republican principles without a dominating majority. This electoral structure would force candidates to travel the country and present a diversity of viewpoints to get votes from a wide range of states. Mr. Erickson pointed out the pitfalls in neglecting states with smaller populations or rural areas: they all contribute to the vote. The use of BLOC voting in many states has evolved to increase the political power of each state in the election. In BLOC voting, states force their electors to all vote for the same person so they can make a greater impact on the election. Over time, the use of BLOC voting weakened the call for popular voting as states would lose electoral power if they utilized a popular vote.
The first presidential election in the United States in 1788 posed no controversy for Congress since the revolutionary war hero George Washington won with unanimity. But, after Washington, Americans began to identify with parties and the country grew divided over elections despite Washington’s warning against creating factions. The first test of the Electoral College would come in 1796 when John Adams vied against Thomas Jefferson for the executive seat.
Mr. Erickson concluded his discussion considering the issues and effects of a popular voting system. If the United States discarded the Electoral College and adopted the popular vote, presidential candidates would retreat to states where they enjoyed high acceptance to foster as much support and acquire as many votes as possible. They would only go to the densely populated cities where the most votes could be obtained, ignoring large swaths of the country and essentially discounting rural America. With only the city population needed to win an election, rural areas would lose their voice in the election. States without large cities and great populations, such as those in the Midwest, would have to bow to the will of large states and cities such as California, New York, and Houston, Texas. In adopting such a system, the diversity of thought inherent in a more universal system would disappear, and the country would suffer under a pseudo-authoritarianism blind to national concerns in areas such as agriculture, interstate commerce, and transportation which might require policy positions unpopular in urban areas. With a broader understanding of proportional representation and the evolution of the Electoral College, citizens of the United States may appreciate the successes of our constitutional system in the modern era.
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