Background: In the aftermath of the 2016 & 2020 presidential elections, many people have
said that it’s time for the U.S. to get rid of the Electoral College in favor of the popular
vote. Beyond its potential to skew the outcome, opponents argue the Electoral College creates all sorts of perverse incentives for states and candidates to ignore groups of voters.
Its supporters claim the Electoral College ensures that states remain important and makes presidential campaigns manageable. And, of course, both sides say lots of other stuff, too.
Question: Should the Electoral College be abolished in favor of the popular vote? Why?
Two notes:
1. If you argue “yes,” you may not argue that the Electoral College should be
abolished because it sometimes allows the popular vote loser to win. That’s reportedly
occurred four times in US history. It’s never good when it does but I’m disallowing that
argument. You need to bring more than a once-a-blue-moon event.
2. There’s lots of writing about the Electoral College including the Constitution itself and
the several Federalist Papers. These include:
Art II, Sec 1, Clause 3 which (briefly) lays out the process of choosing a president. Good luck following this, but it’s clear that nothing so straightforward as popular elections was ever contemplated, and electors were meant to exercise some independent judgment.
Federalist 68 by Hamilton is most specific about selecting a president; 39 and to a lesser extent 10 by Madison provide a more general philosophical approach to elections.
The 12th Amendment (1802) lays the groundwork for our current system.
One last thing. There’s no right or wrong here. We’re only interested in the quality of your
argument. Good luck!
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