Concordia High School
Concordia, Kansas
Teacher: Timothy Berger
Debating the
Electoral College
By Amanda Hamel
12th grade
One of the biggest controversies of the United States Government is how the president should be elected. Today the electors vote for the president. This system of voting is called the Electoral College. The Electoral College system has been around for more than 200 years and today's society is still debating whether to keep it or not. The Electoral College is not the only thing that has been debated. Soft money has been another issue. There is much to know about the Electoral College, and why people debate the issues concerning it.
The framers of the American government had to decide how to select the president. They had three main systems they could choose from. These were: the president to be elected by Congress, by the people, or by electors. The Electoral College system was chosen. They knew this was not the best system, but it was the best choice of the three. Winston Churchill later said, "The Electoral College system is probably the worst possible method of choosing a president - except for all the others." 1 When choosing electors, states had to make a decision how they wanted to do this. They had three main choices: the legislative system, district system, or winner-take all system. The legislative system failed because of the promises and payoffs. The district system became very unpopular because it encouraged third parties. The winner-take all was the dominating system. In today's elections, the electors' names are not shown on the ballot. "Electors are expected to vote for the people's choice by voting for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. They are considered faithless or unfaithful if they do not vote for the candidate they are expected to. Electors are expected to be the more responsible members of the community, capable of making rational and judicial decisions, and removed from the tumult of politics." 2 "Today during a presidential election, the people in each state vote for a group of electors equal to the number of representatives and senators from that state. Each state has had a different group of electors for each presidential candidate." 3 Every ten years the census is conducted to determine how many representatives each state is allowed. This number with two more added is how many electors each state has. Every state goes by the general ticket system, except Maine and Nebraska. They use the district system. The general ticket system operates as follows: A direct vote system is held in every state. The winner of the states vote should get all the electoral votes. The electors are to vote as pledged in 24 states. Maine and Nebraska hold elections in each congressional district. The winner of each district gets one electoral vote. The candidate with the most electoral votes gets the remaining two. All of the electoral votes are added up from each state. The candidate has to get the majority of the votes, which are 270. If neither candidate reaches 270, then the election goes to the House of Representatives. Each state is given one vote and they vote on the top three candidates. The one with the majority wins the presidential race.
The system for selecting a president has become weaker over the years. The popular vote system would be the most logical, but this has not changed. The smaller states have a disadvantage. They have very few electoral votes compared to the larger states. Therefore, a candidate only needs the larger states to win. California, for example, has 54 electoral votes. If the popular vote goes toward one candidate, he gets all the electoral votes. This is unfair if the popular vote percentage is very close. "It is technically possible for the candidate without the most popular votes to receive the most electoral votes and therefore be elected president." 4 This is why people feel their vote does not count anymore, so they don't vote. This happened during the election of 2000. Gore was receiving the popular vote, but Bush was taking the electoral votes. "When winners take all, candidates avoid small states that tilt heavily toward one party. This year no one from either ticket visited the Sunflower State." 5 Smaller states are basically taken for granted. The candidates know whom the state leans toward, so they don't even bother campaigning. Something needs to be changed about this electing system. It might take awhile to change, but the problems that have transpired during the 2000 election might make the citizens realize the unfairness of the system. The Electoral College is not the only problem that Americans want to change about the government. There are other issues as well.
An area of controversy is soft money. It is paid advertising for a specific party or candidate; gatherings for a specific party or candidate, or payment made by a company, or individual which supports one party. Republicans would benefit by abolishing soft money since they have a greater margin of contributions in hard money anyway. A large contributor of soft money is the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA has published in its magazine, The American Rifleman, endorsements for its pro-Republican campaign for the presidential race. It has also sent direct mailings and held media events. "This year, 280,000 NRA members signed up to be election volunteers." 6 The NRA is only one organization that contributes by using soft money. There are thousands more. Donating to a campaign by use of soft money may be a good fund-raising tactic, however this is not good public policy.
The debates of today have gone on for years. Many people think that things need to be changed, but this can only happen if people make a stand and voice their opinions. The Electoral College was not the best system chosen, but it was better than the others. If the other systems had been chosen, would government be better or worse today? The only thing to do is, work together and make it better for the future.
Works Cited
1 "Then, Now and Tomorrow." The Electoral College. 1999. 16 Oct. 2000
http://www.wikman.com/eric/electoralcollege.html
2 Woll, Peter. America's Political System. New York: Random House, 1972. 139-142
3 Holt, Sol. Dictionary of American Government. New York: Macfadden-Bartell
Corporation, 1970. 102
4 "Electoral Votes, Electoral College." What Are Electoral Votes? 2000. 16 Oct. 2000
http://dns.usis-israel.org.il/publish/elections/colintro.htm
5 Carol, Crupper. "Electors see no reason for nation to change its Electoral College system."
The Salina Journal. 4 Nov. 2000, C1
6 "Testimony of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook Regarding "Compelled Speech"
2000. 7 Nov. 2000. http://www.citizen.org/congress/reform/test41200.html
Questions
- How and when
did the United States elect a president and vice president of different parties?
Name them and their respective parties.
In 1796 the constitution stated that the person with the most votes became president and the
person in second place was vice president. In the 1796 election Thomas Jefferson, a Federalist,
was elected president and John Adams, a Republican, was elected vice president.
- Describe four
ways that were suggested to elect the President between 1808 and 1846.
In 1808 by lot was the first proposal to choose the president. The candidates that were to be
chosen by lot were to be the retired Senators. In the later proposals each state had to elect a
native-son candidate. In 1816 Abner Lacook proposed the direct-vote plan and was defeated 21 to
12. The third plan came about by Charles Haynes of Georgia. He introduced the automatic plan.
This is where all the sates votes would be for the candidate who got the highest percentage of
popular votes. This plan keeps the winner-take all provision of our present system but abolishes
the office of presidential elector. The last plan to be proposed was in 1848 by William Lawrence.
He introduced the proportional plan. This plan called for a division of each state's Electoral
College votes according to the popular vote received by each party.
3. Name five U.S. Presidents who were elected with less than a popular vote.
John Quincy Adams
Abraham Lincoln
Harry Truman
Richard Nixon
John Kennedy
- Describe the winner-take all system. Which states use this system?
The winner-takes all system gives leverage to a few popular votes in low turnout states, small
states and large pivotal states, which in turn gives ethnic minorities, and others who tend to
congregate in the urban areas, power beyond their numbers in presidential elections. This tends
to influence candidates toward liberal domestic policies. Every state uses this system except for
Maine.
- When do
electors vote and when are the results known?
The electors vote on the set date of the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. In
January all the votes are counted before the Houses and on the eighth the results are officially
announced.
- What affect
would substituting a direct popular vote for the Electoral College have on a
third party candidate?
This would increase participation in the third party. The people would probably vote because they
would not be voting for just a Republican or Democrat. If there is a third party candidate then
there might be a chance that the two main candidates electoral votes won't add up to 270 or more.
To be the winner the candidate has to have 270 or more of the electoral votes. They would then
take this to higher authority to vote, which in some cases could be unfair.
- Give four
major arguments for and against a direct vote system.
Those people for the direct election felt that it would always ensure that the candidate with the
highest popular vote would win office for president and the votes would be of equal weight. It
would do away with the winner-take all system, reduce the chance of fraud, encourage greater
participation, and place the election into the hands of the people. The ones who are against the
direct vote system thought that the plan would encourage minority parties. They maintained that
Bayh Plan would make actual voting more important than population and would give less voice to
the poor non-voters represented by the weighted urban vote. A candidate who is elected on
popular vote alone could conceivably win on the votes of special interests.
- Describe the
difference between the district plan, the proportional plan and the winner-take
all plan.
The district plan is when two electors are chosen on a statewide popular level and one is chosen
from each of the congressional districts. This plan called for the division of each state's Electoral
College votes according to popular votes received by each party. Urban areas lose and third
parties are encouraged. The winner-take all system gives leverage to few popular votes in low
turnout states and large pivotal states. This plan tends to influence candidates toward liberal
domestic policies and makes them more internationalist in foreign policy.
- State the four
points experts in 1969 agreed should be included in an ideal plan for electing
U.S. Presidents.
The four points are:
· The need for a quick decision and clear-cut winner.
· The victor should be the peoples' choice winner of the most popular votes.
· The president-elect should have a mandate to govern, a legitimacy which
comes from a margin of victory.
· The ideal system should not undermine the two-party system.
- Write a
paragraph describing what is meant by: The
people most likely to be under
Represented.
The ones who are most likely to be under represented are the ones who lack opinions. Because
attitudes are so weakly related to social class and race, the poor and minorities will find enough
allies to avoid political weakness in proportion to their own voting rates. The ones who show
great strength at the polls are ones with the college degrees, higher incomes, and government
employees. Voters are close to representing the views of the non-voter population. Voter's
concerns are if the proposal will work or not. They do not worry if it is not consistent.