The Electoral College Needs Reform
Although you may think the election is over it has actually not even started yet. The Electoral College will meet on December 15, 2008 to formally decide who will be the President of the United States. The popular election held this week was a manner used to determine who will be the electors attending the Electoral College. Once again many are asking, why do we still use the Electoral College?
Although in this most recent election, Barack Obama, the probable electoral winner was also the popular vote winner this has not always been the case. In 1876, 1888, and 2000 the winner of the Presidential Electoral vote did not win the popular vote. Following the close election of 1968 between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, where Nixon received a landslide of electoral votes but only won by 1% of the popular vote there was the closest attempt yet to remove the Electoral College. The proposal initially had a lot of support but died by a Senate filibuster in 1970 when Senators of both the Democratic and Republican parties mostly from the South opposed the final version.
Opponents of the Electoral College argue that apart from allowing a President to be elected who loses the majority of the vote nationwide that it also concentrates the election to a few swing states. Recent population trends do in fact lesson the effective vote of states like Texas, California, and Florida compared to states like Ohio and Missouri for example. Some may also argue that a winner take all system discounts the vote of those in the minority party such as Democrats in Texas or Republicans in New York in national elections.
The framers of the Constitution did intend for there to be some protection of regional differences in government. They foresaw the potential problems of a pure popular vote as being a threat to national stability. Today, however, the situation is becoming one where the national Presidential election is really just focused in the Midwest swing states without regard to issues affecting California, Texas, or Florida per se. Population shifts out of many of these small states should mean that they get less of say than the demanding one they get now. While the election is still fresh and we are four years away from another election, all sides of the political spectrum should look at reforming the Electoral College.
This reform could be approached by states dividing the electoral college vote according to the popular vote divisions instead of winner take all or by other means. To abolish the Electoral College would be quite a challenge because it would require a Constitutional amendment. It seems likely that those very same swing states would stop such an amendment.
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