Electoral College v. The People
Who elects the president?
by David Johnson
The 2000 presidential election generated renewed interest in
the Electoral College. Some experts
have suggested that the presidential candidate who actually receives the
most votes might not be elected by the Electoral College. This is because 48
states award all their electoral votes to the winner, regardless of how
large their margin of victory was. Only two states—Nebraska and Maine—allocate electoral votes
proportionately.
This raises the possibility that a candidate could
narrowly win a number of big states and get the most electoral votes and yet
lose the popular vote.
Four Times in History
Four times in
election history a candidate has won the popular
vote but lost the election.
In 1824, Andrew
Jackson won both the popular and the electoral vote—that is he
received more votes than any of the other candidates. But, no one in the
four-man race won a majority, or more than 50%, in the Electoral College, so
the House of Representatives decided the outcome. The House picked John Quincy Adams, who had come in second in the
popular and electoral votes. In 1876, Samuel J.
Tilden won 51% of the popular vote, while Rutherford B. Hayes captured
48%. However, Hayes won 185 electoral votes, while Tilden got 184. A special
electoral commission picked Hayes to be president.
In 1888, Benjamin Harrison became president by winning 233
electoral votes, even though he received only 47.8% of the popular vote. His
opponent, Grover Cleveland, garnered 48.6% of
the popular vote, yet received only 168 electoral votes.
In 2000, Al
Gore won 48.38% of the popular vote and 266 electoral votes. George W. Bush
won only 47.87% of the popular vote but received 271 electoral votes, thus
won the election.
538 Electors
There are a total of 538
electors. In December, the electors meet in each state's capital to formally elect the president.
While electors are supposed to vote in accordance with their state's voters,
they do not always do so.
In 1988 for example, a West Virginia elector
did not vote for Michael Dukakis,
who had carried that state. Instead the elector voted for Dukakis's running
mate, Texas senator Lloyd
Bentsen.
Article 2, Section 1 of the U. S. Constitution created the Electoral College. Each state receives as many electoral votes as it has senators and representatives. Therefore, each state, including the District of Columbia, will have at least three electors.
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Should We Keep the Electoral College?
Critics
say the current system is unfair, unnecessary,
and should be abolished. They claim that the Electoral College causes
candidates to ignore states where the outcome is certain in favor of states
where polls say the contest is close. For example, Massachusetts is usually
safely in the Democratic column on election day. Therefore, Democrats don't
need to worry about it, while Republicans can by-pass it.
However, if
the Electoral College were abolished and the popular vote tally were used,
each side might find it useful to campaign in Massachusetts, even though the state might remain
in the Democratic column.
Supporters of the Electoral College want to
keep it because it forces candidates to pay attention to small states as
they put together winning numerical strategies. In the 2000 campaign, for
instance, both Gore and Bush devoted considerable attention to such
relatively small states as Minnesota (10
electoral votes) and Wisconsin (11 electoral
votes). Polls indicated a close election in each state.
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