The Electoral College

By Elisa c. '24

On November 9th, 2020, the election between President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden for the 46th president of the United States was held. From November to December, the Electoral College cast their votes, with Biden announced as the winner. Their ballots will be counted formally during a joint session of Congress on January 6th, where Congress will officially announce the 2020-2024 president. 

The Electoral College is a body of electors who cast votes for the United States presidential election. In the electoral college system, the candidate with the majority of the 538 electoral votes wins the election. Each state has at least three electoral votes. The two Senate representatives for each state compose 100 of the votes. The remaining 438 electoral votes are based on the state members in the House of Representatives, distributed in proportion to the state population. The way citizens vote for a presidential candidate directs their state electors' vote. Likewise, the candidate who wins the majority of the votes in a state obtains all of its electoral votes. 

In the beginning, the Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise between the vote from Congress and the popular vote. But, some now argue that this system violates democracy in America. And the unbalanced democracy sometimes produces outcomes that do not accurately reflect Americans' opinions by not giving equal representation to each citizen.

There have been five candidates who won the presidential election due to the electoral college but lost the people's popular vote. In 1824, John Quincy Adams; in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes; in 1888, Benjamin Harrison; in 2000, George W. Bush; and recently, in 2016, Donald J. Trump.

Due to this discrepancy between the electoral and popular votes, another alternative has been proposed in place of the electoral college. A popular option called the national popular vote is an option where the candidate who receives the most votes wins the election. Those in favor of the national popular vote argue that each vote would hold the same value with this system, ensuring the president is the more popular candidate. Also, candidates would campaign to voters in all states, rather than just swing states. However, critics state that this vote reduces rural states' power. Politicians would focus on gaining votes in urban areas with higher populations, giving smaller states less attention when campaigning. 

Still, the Electoral College is a system written in the Constitution and shown to hold power over the people. Due to Coronavirus and mail-in ballots his year, states took a long time to count votes. In the beginning, Trump and Biden appeared to be head-to-head; but once all of the states' votes were counted, Biden came out on top, managing also to take many Republican-dominated states. This surprising outcome created many skeptics among Trump supporters and Republicans, who refused to acknowledge Biden's win. However, once the Electoral College officially voted, some, including Republican and United States Senator Mitch McConnell, finally congratulated Biden on becoming the president-elect.

Regardless, change in the Electoral College would be a long process, and there is no perfect system for the presidential election. Nevertheless, as Americans, we should be asking ourselves: Is there a more democratic system for electing a president?