The Electoral College
The Electoral College is the institution through which citizens elect the United States President, as outlined in Article II, Section 1, and other amendments of the Constitution.
In the Convention Debates, the Founders disagreed strongly about the selection of the chief executive. Some wanted the legislature to choose the president, while others feared that the president would become too dependent and subordinate to the legislature. Some wanted the people to elect the president, while others worried that a national election would reduce the power of the states. The Electoral College was the solution to this debate.
In the Electoral College, each state receives electors equal to the number of the state’s delegation in the House of Representatives and the Senate. These electors then vote on their state’s behalf. Since the U.S. Constitution does not mandate that states must hold statewide presidential elections, some of the original electors actually voted without consultation from the people. However, as states began to require a popular vote, these electors began to mirror the state’s popular vote. Today, all electors in the Electoral College reflect the statewide vote tally for president. The Supreme Court recently decided that electors cannot be unfaithful to their state’s wishes. Forty-eight states currently have a “winner take all” model, in which the candidate who receives a plurality or outright majority receives the entirety of the state’s electoral voters. Maine and Nebraska, however, divide their electoral votes by congressional district. (For example, when Donald Trump carried Maine’s second congressional district, he won 1 electoral vote, while the democratic candidate carried the other 3 electoral votes.)
There are 538 electoral votes, since there are 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 Senators, and (by the 23rd Amendment) 3 District of Columbia electors. House members and Senators cannot serve as electors. Rather, electors are chosen by the political parties in order to ensure that, if their party’s candidate carries the state, the elector will be faithful to the party’s candidate.
In this video, Dr. Thomas Varacalli, Dean of the Honors College, interviews Mr. Michael Maibach, from Save Our States, on the Electoral College.
Insightful Secondary Literature:
Trent England, Why We Must Defend the Electoral College (New York: Encounter, 2020).
John C. Fortier, After the Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College, Fourth Edition (Washington D.C.: AEI, 2020).
Tara Ross, Why We Need the Electoral College (Washington D.C.: Regnery, 2019).
Herbert Storing, “In Defense of the Electoral College,” in Toward a More Perfect Union: Essays in Honors of Herbert Storing (Washington D.C.: AEI, 1995).