The United States is the only democracy in the world where the presidential candidate who receives the most (popular) votes can lose the election. This has happened at least four times in the past, twice this century, in 2000 and 2016 (table). The reason lies in the role the Electoral College plays in the American system.
In the United States’ unique electoral system, the popular vote supporting a presidential candidate is actually intended to elect the candidate’s preferred electors. These electors vote for the president after the election. The Electoral College is a process that consists of the selection of these electors, a meeting where the electors vote for president and vice president, and the tally of the electoral votes by Congress.
How many electors are there in the Electoral College?
The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors, and a candidate must win a majority of 270 electors to be elected.
The number of electors varies by state. Each state has a number of electors equal to the size of its congressional delegation. That is, one for every member of the House of Representatives and two for every two senators.
California has the largest share of the Electoral College with 54 electors. Six states (Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming) and the District of Columbia each have three electors, the smallest delegation within the university.
Who are these electors?
Prior to the election, both political parties will select their preferred electors for each state. The selection is based on established conventions that vary from state to state and party to party. A party’s candidates are typically made up of long-time party members and staff, or people with personal or political ties to the party’s presidential candidate.
The U.S. Constitution has few provisions regarding who is eligible to be an elector. A member of Congress or a person “holding an office of trust or interest under the United States” cannot be an elector.
After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment also prohibited state officials who had “engaged in rebellion or insurrection” against the United States, or who “gave aid or comfort to the enemy” from becoming electors.
How are electors selected?
The Electoral College is chosen by popular vote. This is essentially what the November 5th election is about. Ballots in many states even include each candidate’s electoral roll name.
Most states use a “winner-takes-all” system, in which whoever wins the popular mandate within a state secures the entire Electoral College allocation. This is central to how electioneering works in the United States. Candidates tend to focus on states with close contests, so-called “battleground states,” and there is limited incentive to allocate campaign time and resources to states where they are sure to win or lose.
Two states are exceptions to the winner-take-all system: Maine (four electors) and Nebraska (five electors). Both use a specific form of proportional representation, where the state winner receives two electors and the winner of each congressional district (which may or may not be the same as the state winner) Receive one elector.
What do electors do?
Electors gather in their respective state capitals on the Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December to cast their electoral votes on separate ballots for president and vice president. This is largely a formality, as electors rarely vote for anyone other than their own party’s candidate.
However, there is no federal law or constitutional provision that requires electors to vote according to their state’s popular vote results. However, some states require electors to pledge allegiance to their party, which could result in the party replacing them with an alternative elector, and also require electors to take an oath of allegiance to their party, which could result in the party replacing them with an alternative elector. It is required by law to do so.
In U.S. history, more than 99% of electors have voted as promised. The last time so-called “faithful electors” refused to vote for their party’s candidates was in 2016. Many were disqualified and removed or fined according to specific state regulations.
How did the electoral system come about?
While drafting the Constitution, the so-called Founding Fathers debated how the “national executive” (now called the president) should be elected.
One proposal was for the president to be elected by parliament, following the Westminster model used in Britain and most of its former colonies, including India. Supporters of the system felt that voters could not be trusted with direct voting and that direct voting could allow the president to pander to the “democratic mob.”
Another proposal was to hold direct elections in which the chief executive would be chosen by popular vote. Although such a system did not yet exist, many framers of the Constitution believed that it would prevent corruption and collusion between the executive and legislative branches.
Eventually, the Founding Fathers reached a compromise. “They were tired, they were impatient, they were frustrated. They couldn’t agree on anything else, so they put together this plan,” political scientist George Edwards III told History.com. Ta.
What are the arguments in favor of the Electoral College?
Founding father Alexander Hamilton asserted that “the electoral process provides moral certainty, and the office of president will never be given to a man who does not have a good academic degree with the necessary qualifications.” At the same time, he claimed to have secured “national consciousness.” “The people” are still functioning within the system.
Another reason for the establishment of the Electoral College is said to be to prevent states and regions with large populations from gaining undue control. “Proponents argue that the electoral system contributes to the country’s cohesion by requiring a distribution of popular support to elect the president. , they point out that presidents are chosen either by which populous regions dominate other regions, or by metropolitan areas that dominate rural areas.” William C. Kimberling writes in “The Electoral College” (1992).
And what are some of the main criticisms of this system?
📌 The Electoral College reduces the value of each individual’s vote in large states. For example, California has about 68 times the population of Wyoming, but only 18 times as many Electoral College votes.
Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College (2020), told NPR: It’s one person, one vote, and everyone’s vote counts equally. ”
📌 Winner-take-all mechanisms exaggerate the importance of battleground states in the final outcome, with millions of people voting for non-dominant parties in traditionally red (Republican) or blue (Democratic) states. It does not reflect the American vote. Thus, in 2020, Donald Trump received only 68.62% of West Virginia’s popular vote, but secured all four Electoral College votes. And Joe Biden won 63.48% of California’s popular vote, but all 54 of the Electoral College votes.
📌 This system effectively binds electors to vote for their own party, defeating its original purpose of preventing unsuitable candidates from reaching top jobs. Critics argue that electoral systems do not exist in modern representative democracies. In fact, this system has been abolished by all other democracies in favor of direct election of the president.
