Introduction
The Electoral College is a unique process in which electors vote for the President and Vice President of the United States. During the general election, citizens elect their preferred representatives for each state. The state officials then certify the popular vote for each state. The selected electors then cast two ballots, one for the President and one for the Vice President. Therefore, the purpose of the Electoral College is to vote for the next US president through the electors.
The Electoral College process is necessary for several reasons, among them to balance the popular and congressional votes, to maintain checks and balances of power, and to preserve federalism. However, the process is marred by unequal representation and a winner-takes-all system. The United States should continue using the Electoral College system despite its flaws because it balances the opinions of the populace and Congress, maintains federalism, and preserves a two-party system.
Origins and Purpose of the Electoral College
The Electoral College was established to balance the American population and the opinions of Congress. When the Founding Fathers created the US Constitution, they also developed the Electoral College to guide the presidential voting process (Ross, 2019). The creators, also known as the framers, compromised the two primary election opinions to prevent manipulations.
Ross (2019) argues that the framers wanted to “take away the true decision from a largely uneducated populace and a need to maintain a balance between people of diverse areas and opinions (29).” The developers of the process feared that the general population, comprising both educated and uneducated individuals, would make a poor decision when choosing the country’s top leader. The framers also needed to find a balance between diverse opinions, thus creating a sense of inclusion.
The electoral process ensures that the views of both the American majority and minority, as well as those of political and non-political citizens, are represented and balanced (Ross, 2019). The process is critical to sieve these popular opinions to find a neutral view. Therefore, the founding fathers decided to implement measures that would prevent manipulation during the voting process.
The framers of the Electoral College also sought to influence the opinions of legislators. According to Edwards III (2019), the founding fathers believed that if Congress alone were to elect the President, it could be easily manipulated to vote for a particular candidate, thereby not truly representing the will of the people. Therefore, to find balance, the college acts as the buffer of the population and the selection of the President. The Electoral College process requires that the general public select state representatives whom they entrust with choosing the next President to preserve federalism (Edwards III, 2019).
Federalism, Representation, and the Balance of Power
Federalism is an American core value held by the nation’s founding fathers. The Federalists’ primary priority, in contrast to the Antifederalists, is to strike a balance between different communities. The process demands selecting at least three electors in each state to ensure that the final opinion fully considers the people’s voice (Edwards III, 2019).
Different US states vary in population sizes, and so do the electoral process representatives. For example, while California had 55 electors, Montana and Alaska had three each in the 2020 general election (Hass et al., 2023). While citizens select some electors, Congress also decides who represents them. In most states, the electors vote for the winning President based on their popular vote. That way, the process ensures that the general public and Congress are represented. The electoral process also ensures a balance between rural and urban development.
The Electoral College and Inclusive Presidential Campaigns
The college prepares presidential candidates to serve all Americans equally by ensuring they conduct inclusive campaigns. If the presidential elections solely depended on the popular vote, the aspiring individuals would limit their campaign movements to largely populated regions (Britannica, 2021). Winning the election requires that candidates garner votes from all areas and thus must visit all places. Inclusive campaigns enable candidates to visit and identify the needs of all people, thereby formulating available resources to address them once elected (Britannica, 2021).
If the US had no such college, rural categories of people, including Iowa farmers and Ohio factory employees, could have been significantly overlooked in favor of growing metropolitan regions with huge populations, thereby increasing regional marginalization (Britannica, 2021). According to Britannica (2021), South Dakota Representative Tina Mulally once mentioned that the college protects the interests of minorities. She said that depending on the popular vote could feel like letting “two wolves and a sheep decide what’s for dinner” (Britannica, 2021). Indeed, the process balances the urban and rural interests, thus ensuring the presidential winner supports all regions. The college founders also sought to distribute power evenly across various arms of the government.
The electoral college is essential to ensure a balance of power across different sectors and branches of the government. The framers of the college wanted to ensure that each branch of the US government votes for their preferred President (Haas et al., 2023). The process is formulated to ensure that no government sector is left out during the election (Haas et al., 2023). This decision is crucial because the electors make the essential decisions on behalf of the people.
Equal distribution of power ensures an equal distribution of wealth, harmony, political stability within a nation, and overall economic growth. When each section of the government chooses the President and vice president, they attain satisfaction, ensuring peace in the country (Haas et al., 2023). The college also empowers each branch of the government with the power to check and prevent other departments from becoming more powerful (Haas et al., 2023). By selecting each electoral representative, the college ensures that all the branches and sectors have equal power to choose the President. The college also allows for checks and balances by the political opposition.
Support for a Two-Party Political System
The college is essential for maintaining a two-party political system. Checks and balances are integral to a two-party system. A two-party system is a political system in which two major parties are established to represent the majority of politicians (Edwards, 2019). In this system, citizens largely vote for the candidates of these two parties. In the US, the two major parties are the Democrats and the Republicans (Ross, 2019).
A two-party system ensures power control by minimizing the scattering of votes to many parties. The college promotes the system to ensure order and progress in Congress. A two-party system allows for limited perspectives and distinct election results margins. A congress composed of representatives from two main parties can present two distinct views on ideas (Edwards, 2019).
Unlike in a multi-party system, where various perspectives are raised during a discussion, it is easier to conclude a two-party system. The college allows electors to vote for either a Republican or a Democrat, thus making third-party candidates ineligible (Edwards, 2019). A two-party system also helps to reduce election results doubts by comparing the results of two candidates (Edwards, 2019). The system offers a higher margin between the winner and the loser by dividing voters between the two main parties. Although the electoral process proves critical for America, some people would like to dissolve it.
Debates on Equal Representation and the Winner-Takes-All System
Counterarguments
Those who support ending the Electoral College system argue that the process fails to honor equal representation. Edwards III (2019) states that the “electoral college system in United States presidential elections disenfranchises and diminishes the voting power of particular geographic populations.” All the states might have representatives during the presidential election, but they are not equally represented.
For example, while New York had 29 electors, Alabama had 9, Delaware had 3, and Hawaii had 4 (Haas et al., 2023). The distribution of electors interferes with the people’s wishes. Therefore, a president who wins the popular vote can lose in the Electoral College election. For example, Hillary Clinton won the 2016 popular vote but lost in the Electoral College vote (Haas et al., 2023). Although such occurrences are rare, they are possible with the winner-takes-all system.
The application of the winner-takes-all idea prevents equal representation of Americans. The concept of winner-takes-all requires all the state’s electors to vote for the winning candidate (Zhan & Yang, 2022). For example, Hillary won the popular vote in New York and Alabama but lost in California. All the 29 and 9 New York and Alabama electors will vote for her, respectively. Similarly, if Donald Trump won in the popular vote of California and Alaska but lost in Montana, he would have 55 and 3 votes, respectively.
For this reason, although Hillary had won with more than 2 million popular votes against Donald, the college electors voted for Trump. Critics of the Electoral College feel that in such circumstances, the people’s will is not respected (Zhan & Yang, 2022). The uneven distribution of electors per state shows the unequal representation of states with fewer districts.
The electoral college process also interferes with personal opinion (Zhan & Yang, 2022). The citizens are denied the chance to choose their preferred President and vice president. The use of the college prevents citizens from making the final decision regarding their choice of President. Those in support of the college have varied opinions regarding the issue of representation.
Refutation
The American Electoral College does honor the concept of equal representation. The college ensures equal representation in terms of electors per state, utilizes the popular vote, and considers all branches of government (Ross, 2019). Furthermore, three electors represent all the states, no matter their population size. Adding electors in large states is also a way of ensuring that all states’ populations are equally represented.
The college also provides that the voice of each popular voter is heard by allowing the winner-takes-all system in the Congress vote. In this system, the electors choose the person who receives the most votes (Ross, 2019). That is, all the state electors elect the winning President in a state. Therefore, the electors represent or affirm the will of the majority. Henceforth, the winner-takes-all concept is highly favorable to people’s choices.
The Electoral College also ensures equal representation of Americans by including all branches of government in the presidential election. Owusu-Mensah (2022) states that the electoral system has been in use since 1864 and has only been questioned in five elections, indicating its effectiveness. In rare cases where the winning candidate in the popular vote loses in the Electoral College election, the contributing factor is not unequal representation but an uneven distribution of state populations.
People in all states, regardless of their population size, have the right to representation (Owusu-Mensah, 2022). Therefore, critics often overlook the disadvantages of a small geography and instead associate it with unequal representation. From the framers’ point of view, the Electoral College, although some states have a smaller population than others, ensures that all people are equally represented.
Conclusion
Although being flawed, the United States should continue to use the Electoral College system because it has proven effective. The Electoral College is essential in balancing the wishes of the people and the government, preserving a two-party system, maintaining federalism, and ensuring checks and balances of power. However, the electoral process is criticized for not adequately representing people from small-populated states.
The founding fathers, who developed the college, wanted to prevent possible voting manipulation. They also wanted to preserve the distinctness of each community by allowing them to make their own choices about their next President. Maintenance of a two-party system, as enabled by the college, provides for checks and balances of power. Each government branch can check the others to ensure they have no extra power in the government. In addition to ensuring that the American presidential election is not manipulated, the college is necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of the government.
References
Edwards III, G. C. (2019). Why the electoral college is bad for America. Yale University Press.
Edwards, S. (2019). The electoral college. Weigl Publishers.
Britannica. (2021). Electoral College pros and cons – Top 3 arguments for and against. ProCon. Web.
Haas, C. J., Pielak, I., & Steele, I. (2023). 235 Years since the Electoral College: A Probabilistic Consideration of Voting Power. Department of Political Science, 1-23. Web.
National Archives. (n.d.). The electoral college. Web.
Ross, T. (2019). Why we need the electoral college. Gateway Editions.
Owusu-Mensah, I. (2022). The Role of the Kingmakers and the Electoral College System in the Dagbon Chieftaincy Crisis. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 22(1), 93-119. Web.
Zhan, Z., & Yang, Y. (2022). Profile electoral college cross-validation. Information Sciences, 586, 24-40. Web.