The Electoral College
September 29th, 2008
Anyone who has known me for any length of time has probably heard me rant about how unfair the Electoral College is, and how any system that allows for a President to be elected when they lose the popular vote is a system not worth using. Well… today is your day to gloat …. or to pass out from shock.
I still believe it is wrong for someone to “win” an election when they have lost the popular vote. I believe that is a flaw in the system, but one that could be fixed if congress would just take the time to do it. I suppose since it has only happened 4 times (as of today.. I’ll be watching this year’s election *quite* closely) they must not think it a problem worthy of their attention. In my opinion, it should never have happened at all. But I digress…
Yes, there are problems with the system, but I have come to make peace with it, as flawed as it is. It is NOT because I have switched to a Jeffersonian mindset; i do not think people are too stupid or uninformed to be able to vote for the president directly. However, I do now see that the Electoral College system ensures an even distribution of power between the states. In the same way the House of Representatives strives to ensure equal voice for the citizenry of the country, so too does the Electoral College strive to ensure equal weight for the votes of that citizenry.
It is quite possible that this equalization has been a strong factor in how our country has survived for so long without imploding. A representative democracy is not an easy thing to maintain, yet we;ve managed to keep it running. I’m beginning to think that some of these things, which I have been so verbally against for so many years, have actually been part of the glue that has held this country together.
May Columbia and Uncle Sam forgive my impudence.
That said… I still have one issue: The Electors themselves. Quite honestly, they seem superfluous to me. Many (but not all) states have created laws that say the Electors are required to cast their votes in line with the popular votes of the state. Those state lacking such laws have Electors who are mealy “pledged” to vote a certain way; they are legally free to vote however they wish. With more and more states passing laws to remove the “pledged” part of the Electoral College, and even some states moving from an all-or-nothing division of Electoral Votes to a congressional district division of Electoral Votes, it seems odd to me that we still have physical Electors… people who simply go to a meeting and hand in the states votes. It seems to me that we should be able to cut out the middle man. Thy have already been stripped of independant thought in many states, so why not get rid of them completely?
The states collect popular votes and divide up the Electoral Votes however they wish, and then simply report to the Federal Government on how their Electoral Votes have been cast. Simple. Done, and Done. Why do we even bother with the physical Elector anymore?
Anyway… there you go: I’m okay with the Electoral College now. I see the underlying benefit it has on our government and in how it helps ensure political stability across so many different states. All we have to do is get rid of the superfluous physical Elector, and fix the holes that allow someone to lose the popular vote yet still win the election, and you’ll never hear me complain about it again 
