Evaluate the extent to which the Electoral College is an outdated institution. Flashcards
Introduction - Themes
- Power of Small States
- Legitimacy
- Faithless Voters
Introduction - Arguments
The Electoral College system is massively outdated and comprises the legitimacy of the Presidential election
Indate - Power of Small States - Point
The initial reasoning behind the electoral college system is that smaller states would have more of a say and not be overrun by the bigger states
Indate - Power of Small States - Examples
- The Great Compromise between the Founding Fathers when writing the Constitution meant that smaller states would have more of a say
- Today, the smaller states have a bigger say than other larger states - Texas has 38 Electoral College votes while Vermont only has 3. However, each delegate represents 664,000 people in Texas but only 210,000 people in Vermont
Outdated - Power of Small States - Point
Despite it following what the Founding Fathers wanted it is still outdated in the sense that it does not fit with the current demographic of America
Outdated - Power of Smaller States - Examples
- The Electoral College system unfairly disadvantages ethnic minorites - the smaller states tend to be unrepresentative and white. From world population view, California was the most diverse scoring 70.89 and Maine was the least scoring 58.4
- It can be argued that it is not the smaller states that have more influence rather the swing states - these are often bigger states. Florida has 29 ECV and Pennsylvania has 20
Indate - Legitimacy - Point
The legitimacy to the elected president is much greater as the Electoral College system promotes a two horse race
Indate - Legitimacy - Examples
- The last time that a Presidential Election had a third party candidate was when George Wallace ran in 1968 - he won 5 of the Southern States. However, since them every race has been between the Republicans and the Democrats
- There is a contingency plan if no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes - it goes to the House of Representatives. This has only ever been used once in 1824
Outdated - Legitimacy - Point
In the 21st century there have been two cases of the elected president winning the electoral college vote but losing the popular vote
Outdated - Legitimacy - Examples
- Bush won 271 Electoral College votes compared to Al Gore’s 266. However, Bush lost the popular vote by 543,000 votes - not an awful margin
- Trump won very convincingly on Electoral College votes getting 306 compared to Clinton who only got 232. However, Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes
Indate - Faithless Voters - Point
Faithless voters are voters who do not always vote for who they are meant to. However, these people are incredibly rare and when it happens there are reprocussions
Indate - Faithless Voters - Examples
- Only 7 out of the last 13 elections have seen rouge electors and it has never affected the final result
- There are also punishments in place within certain states to stop faithless voters - in 14 states, for examples, faithless electors are replaced by alternates and their vote discarded. In 5 states, faithless voters face fines
Outdated - Faithless Voters - Point
Faithless Voters are currently rare, however, they do have the potential to change the outcome of elections. Alternative electors are dangerious and the increase polarisation in the US makes it a very real problems
Outdated - Faithless Voters - Examples
- The case of Chiafalo v Washington meant that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state could punish faithless voters. Although, this appears positive - it is still to the state’s discretion and currently only 29 states have measures in place
- In 2016, there were 10 faithless voters - 8 Democrat and 2 GOP - in certain elections this could have been enoigh to change the outcome
