While in most democracies, like the United States of America, presidential elections are decided by the popular vote, the electoral college has chosen the winner of American elections since 1787. The electoral college is a unique system in the US where each state is given a certain number of electoral votes that roughly corresponds with its population. California is granted the most at 54, while sparsely populated states are given a minimum of three. In most cases, states award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in that state. A candidate then needs the majority of the 538 electoral votes in the US to be declared the winner of the election. While this may seem unproblematic on the surface, the electoral college has a dark history and flaws that persist today.
The electoral college system was created before the Civil War. At the time, the total populations of the North and South were roughly equal. However, about one third of the Southern population was made up of enslaved people who were not allowed to vote. Although the South had a large total population, only white people could vote, meaning their actual voting population was much smaller than in the North. Without the Electoral College, the South would have had less political power because only whites were voting. This racist beginning continues to influence election results today, as the voices of minorities are overshadowed in states with mostly white populations.
Furthermore, it can be argued that the electoral college is actually antithetical to democracy. The system makes it so that the candidate who wins the popular vote of the people is not guaranteed to win the presidency if they have less electoral votes. In 2000, George W Bush became president over Al Gore, even though Gore won the popular vote by over half a million votes. In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton as a result of the electoral college votes, yet Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes. Can we really call America a democracy if the votes of the people do not dictate the outcome of the election?
Additionally, the Electoral College also discourages voter participation, particularly for those belonging to the minority party in their state. Votes from the minority party have virtually no impact on the final election outcome in states where one party dominates, causing many voters to feel their voice doesn’t matter. This powerlessness leads to many often choosing not to vote at all, believing their vote cannot make a difference.
Finally, the electoral college gives too much power and attention to certain states. For example, Wyoming has a population of about 580,000 and three electoral votes, which is roughly equivalent to one electoral vote for every 190,000 people. In comparison, California has a population of about 40 million 54 electoral votes, meaning there is one electoral vote for every 700,000 people. Some may argue that this allows for minority representation, it ultimately creates an imbalance that overrepresents certain groups and doesn’t reflect the diversity and makeup of the broader American population.
In addition to small states getting too much power, swing states (states that could reasonably vote either Republican or Democratic) also become a problem. Due to the electoral college, elections are often decided by only a handful of states. This causes candidates to spend a majority of their time and funding to influence Americans in swing states. Often, candidates may not even campaign in certain states that they know will vote a certain way. Instead of fighting for the vote of every American, candidates focus on appealing only to voters in select regions.
In a popular vote system, candidates would have an incentive to campaign everywhere, fostering a deeper sense of engagement. A popular vote system would also force candidates to take into account the concerns of every voter, not just the ones in swing states.
The electoral college is fundamentally flawed. Under the electoral college system, America is not a true democracy. The only way we can have a true democracy is if the vote of every American has equal power—through a popular vote system. Although it would be difficult to change a system that has run America for centuries, the first step towards reclaiming democracy is acknowledging that the electoral college is detrimental to America and needs to be reevaluated.
