Purpose Of The Electoral College

The Electoral College is the system used to elect a new President in the United States where there are a set of electors for each state that represent the state’s number of members in its Congressional delegation. Each state is allowed to decide their own method of choosing their electors within each state’s constitution. There is a total of 538 electors and to win, the President elect needs to win 275 elector votes. After the election in November, the chosen electors then meet in December to cast their final vote on who will be the President. This was established in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers in 1787. There are two primary reasons for the Electoral College. The first reason being is that rural cities with low populations need

Supporters claim that the Founding Fathers introduced the Electoral College to balance out the interests of high and low populated areas in the country. For example, if the result of the election was decided by popular vote, the results would reflect the more populated areas since that area casted more votes. The purpose of the Electoral College is to make every state count, as well as every voting citizen in that state. John Samples, a political author, defends this notion by stating, “We should keep in mind the regional conflicts that have plagued large and diverse nations like India, China, and Russia. The Electoral College is a good antidote to the poison of regionalism because it forces presidential candidates to seek support throughout the nation” (Samples, 2000). John Samples earned his Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University. He is the publisher and President at the Cato Institute. Samples is an author, who has published a book and many scholarly articles in Society, History of Political Thought and Telos. John also believes that if we want to demolish the Electoral College, then were in return demolishing the Senate as well. Richard A. Posner, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th circuit, also defends keeping the Electoral College by stating that, “No region has enough electoral votes to elect a president” (Samples, 2000).

Popular vote is very direct; one vote for every person. It’s a common belief among political critics that the popular vote is a more fair system and will encourage a higher number of voter turnout. Under the restrictions of the Electoral College, specifically in lower populated states, some voters could feel an overwhelming sense of support for a specific candidate. This would give the voter the feeling that their vote would carry no meaning and in turn could cause a lower voter turnout. Since higher populated states have more electoral votes, many believe that the lower populated areas will be neglected. According to Robert Speel, a political author from Time magazine, Presidential candidates will still focus on the states where they can get the most electoral votes, which are the higher populated states. Robert Speel earned his Ph.D in political science from Cornell University and Bachelors from The University of Pennsylvania. In fact, Penn State University published his book, Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States. Speel believes that presidential candidates typically campaign in at most 12 states based on the amount of electoral votes from those states. During the 2016 election, both parties spent a combined 87% of their campaign efforts in 12 different states (Speel, 2016); as a result, this