Like much of how our federal government was designed to work, what is called the electoral college is misunderstood by most Americans. Contrary to popular belief, the people do not elect the President the states do.
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1
Part of the reason for this confusion is how most Americans have been taught, through school, media and the punditry class, that the President is the leader of the nation. But that is not how our Founding Fathers designed the office of President to work. If the United States were a corporation, then the President would be the CEO, Congress would be the board of directors, the states would be the major investors and we would be the stock holders of both the major investors (the states) and the federal government. With this in mind you can see that the President is the “face of the nation”, the person who executes the plan and whom other nations deal with. However it is Congress who makes the plan and insures that the President is following it. The states, both through the Presidential election and, originally through the Senate, make sure the plan is beneficial with them and we keep all of them in check through the ballot box. While not a perfect analogy, it does help understand why we have an electoral college and why we don’t elect our president.
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
U.S. Constitution, Amendment 12
The term “electoral college” does not exist in the Constitution, but refers to the group of electors chosen by the states to vote for President and Vice-President. When you cast your ballot the second Tuesday in November, if you look closely you should see that you are voting for electors who have pledged to vote for the President & Vice-President of your choice. It is then up to state law to determine how the electors are chosen.
As I noted before, this is undemocratic, and for a very good reason. Our founding fathers had seen democratic governments in action, including all of their problems. Democracy is rule by mob rather that rule of law. In a democracy, who ever can get the largest, the loudest or the most violent groups to agree wins. There is no protection of individual liberties, whatever the mob wants the mob gets. Our founders saw this happen a couple of years later during the French Revolution where those who could whip up the crowds were put into power. In a democracy, what the mob gives the mob can take away. Instead, we are a republic.
REPUB’LIC, 1. A commonwealth; a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people.
Webster’s Dictionary 1828 – Online Edition
In fact, the Constitution creates a republican for of government and Article IV, Section 4 requires that each of the states also have a republican form of government as well.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 4
And yes, the “electoral college” was designed to insure a few large and powerful states did not take over the Presidential election process. Since the federal government is a creation of the states, they wanted to make sure it was accountable to all the states. (Yes, this is quite different from the way the federal government runs today, but that’s another post.) Since states with a greater population have more electors, (due their representatives in the House) they have a greater influence, but since all states have the same number of Senators, smaller states still have a say in the election.
Let’s look at the 2016 election and discuss the “popular election” myth. A lot was made of the “popular vote” after the 2016 election when it appeared that Ms. Clinton “won” the “popular election” but lost the electoral college. The “popular vote” is a fiction created by the media and pundits to allow them to create stories and by politicians to complain about election results. As I mentioned, when you vote it is for electors not for the President. If we look at the electoral college map, we see that Ms. Clinton’s won 19 of the 50 states, Mr. Trump won 30 states and Maine’s electors were split between the two.
While this looks like a relatively close split, look what would happen if we had a popular election:
By looking at the election by county we see that Mr. Trump won approximately 2600 counties to Ms. Clinton’s approximately 500 or about 84%. How could so few counties give Ms. Clinton so many votes? Density.
A large percentage of the population is concentrated into three areas, the New York metropolitan area, Los Angeles and Chicago. In fact, over 50% of Americans live in the 20 largest cities. If we had popular elections for President, he or she would be chosen by those 20 cities. Candidates would focus their campaigns in those cities since the rest of the nation would not have a significant impact in the election. By having the President elected by the States, most of them have a meaningful say in who our chief executive is.
Sadly, some states are considering allocating their electors based on the “popular vote” of the nation rather than the results of their state. In other words, the state legislature would ignore the votes of their citizens in favor of the votes of others! This is another example of the states giving away their power, I believe in an effort to curry favor with the more vocal groups in our nation and with the media, which is concentrated in the largest population centers of our nation.
So the next time you hear someone complain about the “electoral college”, realize it’s just children whining because they did not get the toy they wanted for Christmas! None of their votes were taken away from them, since none of them voted for President. If they thought they did, it was their ignorance not a problem with the Constitution.
