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Thomas Eller Jr

Professor Stephanie Wilhelm

ENG 112

5 December 2016

Preserving A Democracy

This essay will focus on the Electoral College, how it shapes our Democracy and why it

was founded and remains important. Conversely it will also talk about what the nation would be

like without the system in place. Reform is also a major talking point on this topic as well. A

major reform would likely change a lot of the negative about the system without taking drastic

steps to repeal the system in its entirety. This is evident by the outcome of the 2016 presidential

election and how it seems unfair that Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote by over 2,000,000

votes. Knowing the aforementioned information the electoral college automatically is giving

Donald Trump the presidency. Overall this piece of academic work will focus on the many ups

and downs of the Electoral College system. Including how it pertains to our democracy and how

it affects every citizen in this nation. But most importantly this work will show why the Electoral

College system is majorly flawed.

The Electoral College has been around since the founding of our nation. The founders

intended for it to be a system where an unfit and unstable candidate for president could not gain

the presidency. The system has not always been approved by everyone. Some Americans believe

that the system limits the voice of the people. The system prohibits the one with the most votes

winning. The Electoral College instead picks a candidate who seems better suited for the job.

Many people including politicians from both sides of the isle want the system changed. This is

for one simple reason, that the choice should be the people's and not some elected group who
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picks a winner. Most of these people however do not realize that in order to fix or repeal the

system, it will take month or even years.

In recent years the Electoral College system has come under fire for potentially

undermining the choice of the people. In many years that elections have occurred the one who

has won the popular vote has not become president. This is because the electors from the states

have chosen a different candidate for whatever reason. That leaves the question should the

people's voices count for anything? It is just sad that our Democracy has taken hit after hit and

we the people are required to just agree or disagree. We do not ever actually have a chance for

our voices to be heard. In this literary work there will be many examples about scenario's if the

Electoral College system was repealed. One such example is the election in 2008 between

McCain and Obama and how it would have effected the election. Another article that will be

used has tons of information about abolishing the Electoral College and why it may seem

undemocratic.

In the end we will look at the history of the Electoral College system, what it will mean

to abolish the system completely, and finally it will discuss the faults in the system and why

people are so against the principle in the first place. A lot will be uncovered and explored in this

essay. By the end the hope is that it has presented important information that can persuade

people to embrace the current system or make a case as to why it should be reformed into

something new. According to Bryce Colquitt in the article Electoral College Reform for the

Policy Studies Journal "In presidential elections, many states are left out of the general election.

The Electoral College awards votes in a "winner take all" fashion" (693).
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What the author is saying here is that some states really do not matter. This is due to the

fact the majority of electoral votes are in larger states, and the most electoral votes are all that

matter. Meaning that while small states have electoral votes those states get mostly ignored and

overshadowed. Bryce also states, "by awarding electoral votes proportionally, all citizens will get

equal attention" (693). A good example of this was outlined by Bryce by saying "In the 2000

elections, the proportional system would have given Al Gore 209 electoral votes, and George W.

Bush 263. Gore, who won the popular vote, would have won the election" (693). This represents

how most Americans feel the system should work. It would not only be more fair but also let

more personal voices and opinions be heard.

As a matter of fact according to an article by John Aldrich, Jason Reifler and Michael C.

Munger "For the 2004 election, as of today, 48 of the 50 US states use winner-take-all allocation

rules for their electoral college votes; under these rules a state's popular vote plurality winner

gets all of its Electoral College votes" (546). By presenting this information the authors are

hinting that the rules are unfair without actually saying they are unfair. Currently most

Americans feel let down by the very system that is supposed to protect them from an unfit

presidential candidate. There has been initiatives presented lately that have let voters potentially

vote on new state constitutional amendments that would shift the system from winner-take-all to

a popular vote based system.

This is evident in the same article when the authors say In 2004, Colorado offered a

ballot initiative to voters that gave citizens the opportunity to amend the state constitution to

change its allocation of electors based on the popular vote (546). The authors continue

describing how the system would have worked had the initiative passed in Colorado. Rather

than winner-take-all, electors would be awarded in whole numbers (since a state cannot abolish
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the office of elector), but approximately proportional to vote totals in the state (546). This

actually In practical terms, this would mean that rather than nine electors being up for grabs in

Colorado, the Electoral College votes would almost certainly have been split five-four,

unilaterally reducing Colorados influence (546).

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Bennett, Anthony, and Colleen Harris. "Debate should the Electoral College be abolished?"

Politics Review, Apr. 2011, p. 16+. General OneFile, Accessed 29 Nov. 2016.

This chronicles the debate, should the Electoral College be abolished? both sides of the argument

have valid points. This will reveal several points worth explaining in further detail in my rough

draft and final paper.

Smith, Bradley A. "Vanity of vanities: national popular vote and the Electoral College." Election

Law Journal, Summer 2008, p. 196+. General OneFile, Accessed 29 Nov. 2016.

This article talks about the Electoral College and how the system is the most criticized part of the

Constitution. It is the center of attention especially during election cycles. The system makes

people ask why is it important to vote? my vote will not count anyway.

Schmidt, Philip R. "The Electoral College and Conflict in American History and Politics."

Sociological Practice, vol. 4, no. 3, 2002., pp. 195-208.

This explains what affects the Electoral College has had throughout history. It goes over many

election cycles and explains what role the Electoral College has played in all of them. It also

brings up issues with the system throughout history.

Brown, L. M. (2012). How close is too close?: The 2012 election in the electoral college.

Society, 49(5), 418-422.

This article basically explains what happens when the Electoral College is so close and evenly

split. It talks about the 2012 Electoral College being that close and what that means for the

outcome of an election cycle.

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Aldrich, J., Reifler, J., & Munger, M. C. (2014). Sophisticated and myopic? citizen preferences

for electoral college reform. Public Choice, 158(3-4), 541-558.

This article will be useful for this assignment because it asks the question should we get rid of

the "winner take all" method we use now or go to a more fair and proportional method of

electing someone based on votes. It also has a lot of information about Electoral College reform

and what that means for the nation.

Fakhouri, R. (2010). THE MOST DANGEROUS BLOT IN OUR CONSTITUTION:

RETIRING THE FLAWED ELECTORAL COLLEGE "CONTINGENT PROCEDURE".

Northwestern University Law Review, 104(2), 705-739.

This article represents a lot of information about repealing the Electoral College system on a

Constitutional level. It describes scenarios in which a simpler one person, one vote principle

would benefit elections in this country. They use an example of the 2008 election between

McCain and Obama. This will be useful in my final paper as it gives an example that is relevant.

76 Fordham L. Rev. 2943. (May, 2008 ): 31399 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date

Accessed: 26 Nov. 2016.

This article presents some pretty compelling information when it comes to the purpose of the

Electoral College system. It asks readers if influence from states can change how the electors are

chosen? This is an excellent question that is answered very thoroughly.

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Pfiffner, James P., and Jason Hartke. "The electoral college and the framers' distrust of

democracy." White House Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, 2003, p. 261+. Expanded Academic

ASAP, . Accessed 26 Nov. 2016.

This article argues why the framers decided to utilize the Electoral College system in the first

place. It says that the only reason was because they feared that if it was up to "the people" they

might be swayed by demagogues. But this was not the main reason the main reason for this

system was a fear of a pure democratic society resulting from only the people voting.

Glenn, Gary. "The Electoral College and the Development of American Democracy."

Perspectives on Political Science, vol. 32, no. 1, 2003., pp. 4-8. Web. Date

Accessed: 26 Nov. 2016.

This article talks about how the Framers described democratic within the system and also the

meaning of democratic we use today. "one person, one vote". The framers thought that

democratic should \mean for the common good and justice while barely listening to the popular

opinion. The disconnect is emphasized in the article and it examines how the "one person, one

vote" principle is undemocratic because it is actually supposed to be "one vote, one value"

nationally.

Colquitt, Bryce. "Electoral College Reform." Policy Studies Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, 2008., pp.

693-694. Web. Date Accessed: 26 Nov. 2016.

This article talks about Electoral College reform and why it is important it be considered. The

information proclaims that not all states are included in presidential elections as the Electoral

College awards votes as a "winner take all" type fashion. It also gives good key facts about the
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issue such as: In 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000 the winner of the popular vote did not win the

presidency. And also this article brings to light the fact that due to our two party system a third-

party candidate has an unlikely chance of winning any Electoral votes whatsoever!