Why do we have the Electoral College? Why can’t we just vote a President into office with a popular vote?
In the opinion of many people today, the Electoral College is ridiculous—we should just let the people choose. After all it is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Let the voters do their thing and vote directly for the President.
Recent study showed that the Founding Fathers had in fact considered popular voting for the Presidency. However, their study of history showed that democracies that had based their elections on popular voting did not survive.
The citizenry simply elected leaders that would give them personal benefits, which led to government dependence and lack of economic productivity. Ultimately the nation imploded because of debt or subjugation by a foreign power.
The Founding Fathers also considered what might happen if Congress chose the President but felt that that approach would remove the people too far from the equation.
Ultimately they recognized that they faced a multi-faceted challenge: how to protect the rights of people, protect states’ interests, prevent well-meaning groups from exerting their will, prevent special interest groups from subverting the election, and prevent the tyranny of the majority or tyranny of the minority.
The Founding Fathers’ answer was the Electoral College.
So the idea of an Electoral College was the answer to several problems:- Each state owns electoral votes equal to the number of representatives and senators. This gives more say to states with larger populations.
- A popular election is held in each state, and the state then elects representatives to an Electoral College. In that way voting rights are held closer to the people, and the states have input regarding their interests.
- The problem of tyranny by the majority is avoided, because the members of the Electoral College represent both the people and their state. In this way the interests of California residents and the state of California could not dominate the residents’ interest or the state’s interests of North Dakota.
- Special interest groups--even if they could convince their entire state--would not prevail, unless there was a consensus across the nation.
The Electoral College is one example of numerous creative solutions that the Founders built into our Constitution to create a balance of power among the federal government, the states, and the populace.
Another of these constitutional solutions is the Article V convention process. Using Article V, We the People--acting through the states--can exert our power over the overreach of the federal government.
