POLI 330N Week 4 Assignment: Electoral College – Good or Bad?

Electoral College – Good or Bad?

Chamberlain University

27 Mar 2021

Electoral College

•  The purpose of electoral college
  
  
•  The president is NOT chosen by popular vote
  
  
•  Electors pledge to vote for specific candidates
  
  
•  Winner takes all except Maine & Nebraska

Presidential Election of 2000 – Background

•  Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating 
  
•  American presidential election held on Nov. 7, 2000
  
•  Ten candidates competed in the election
  
•  There were 538 members of the Electoral College
  
•  270 was the majority number
  
•  Hanging chads’ and butterfly ballots created controversy
  

Presidential Election of 2000 – Results

The Popular Vote

Al Gore 50,996,039

George W. Bush 50,456,141

The Electoral Vote

George W. Bush 271

Al Gore 267

Why the debate?

•  The result of 2016 presidential election highlight the issue with electoral college
  
•  Is the Electoral College method JUST? 
  
•  Is the Electoral College RELEVANT now? 
  
•  It acts as a PRAGMATIC METHOD to just compromise
   
•  EC has backfired and continues to backfire
  

The issues with EC

•  It is no longer relevant
  
•  Some states have more power especially swing states
  
•  No proper distribution of votes based on population and demographics
  
•  Unfairness, because individuals’ votes are not equally weighted

The issues with EC

•  Rogue electors
  
•  Capitol hill incident indicate irresponsible demagogues in office
  
•  Will of people will be ignored

Reform for Electoral College

•  Weightage for votes should be included to limit representatives from voting for self benefit
  
•  All votes should be equally counted
  
• Distribution of electoral votes among states should be optimized
  
• Eliminate electors but still count electoral votes

POLI 330N Week 4 Assignment: Electoral College – Good or Bad?

Reform Plans for Electoral College

•  The Proportional Plan

• The Automatic Plan

• The District Plan

•  Choose the president by direct popular election

References

• Aldrich, J., Reifler, J., & Munger, M. (2015). Sophisticated and myopic? Citizen preferences for Electoral College reform. Public Choice, 158(3-4), 541-558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-013-0056-z
  
• Bugh, G. (2016). Electoral college reform (2nd ed.). Routledge.
  
• Edwards, G. (2019). Why the Electoral College is bad for America (3rd ed.). Yale University Press.
  
• Paige, L., & Neale, T. (2018). The Electoral College: an overview and analysis of reform proposals. Everycrsreport.com. Retrieved 25 March 2021, from https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30804.html.
  
• Virgin, S. (2017). Competing loyalties in electoral reform: An analysis of the U.S. electoral college. Electoral Studies, 49, 38-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2017.07.003