A Modern Defense of the Electoral College

• In Event: The Electoral College: New Theoretical and Empirical Thinking

Abstract

In recent years, critiques of the Electoral College as anti-democratic have multiplied and intensified. As the number of candidates who have won the Presidency without receiving a majority or even plurality of the national popular vote has grown, it has become impossible to dismiss that possibility as remote or unrealistic. This Article offers a modern defense of the Electoral College despite these powerful objections. Most basically, it contends that the Electoral College provides the unanticipated benefit of facilitating resolution of post-election disputes. The Electoral College also is one of the remaining political safeguards of federalism, ensuring that presidential candidates pay attention to the interests of states they might otherwise overlook or marginalize. It likewise contributes to the long-term stability of the American political system by reinforcing mixed government. Additionally, the Electoral College helps ensure the President truly remains a nationally responsive office that considers diverse interests from various regions of the country, rather than maximizing national vote tallies by focusing primarily on the interests of major population centers. Finally, perhaps counterintuitively, the Electoral College helps promote state control over state and local offices.

Author

• Michael T. Morley, Florida State University