05 September 2008
About This Issue
More than 100 million voters are likely to cast ballots in nationwide U.S. elections November 4. But only 538 men and women will elect the next president of the United States, and those elections will take place in 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., December 15.
This indirect election system, called the Electoral College and devised in 1787 by the framers of the Constitution, puzzles Americans and non-Americans alike. It reflects the federal governing system of allocating powers not only to a national government and to the people but also to the states.
As John C. Fortier, author of After the People Vote, writes in this issue of eJournal USA, the Electoral College requires a presidential candidate to have national stature as well as broad appeal to different regions: “One consequence of the Electoral College has been to make it hard for third parties, regional factions, or lesser figures to gain the presidency.”
The presidential electors nearly always vote the same way in December as the voters in their state did in November. The Electoral College winner has nearly always captured the most popular votes nationwide. But because all but two states have winner-take-all rules, occasionally the Electoral College winner trails another candidate in nationwide popular votes, as happened in 2000.
Political reporter David Mark describes the strategic game that flows from the Electoral College system. Presidential candidates pay less attention to reliably Democratic and Republican states in the campaign. Instead they focus their attention and scarce resources on a relatively small number of narrowly divided states – Florida and Ohio are well-known examples – that decide the elections.
A lot of Americans want to change the election of the president to direct popular vote, but no such change is imminent. Amending the Constitution requires enormous political will; only 27 amendments have passed in more than 220 years. And such change faces resistance from small states, which have disproportionate representation in the Electoral College, from supporters of a two-party system, and from supporters of a federal system of government.
Whatever its merits, the Electoral College at least offers decisiveness. The House of Representatives has had to decide only two presidential elections because no candidate achieved an Electoral College majority, and that happened most recently in 1824.
We hope that this issue of eJournal USA will improve your understanding of the historical reasons for the Electoral College system and how it functions.
