The Electoral College

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

10-25-2024

Abstract

This chapter considers a profoundly anomalous feature of American democracy: our system of presidential selection. From very early on in the country’s history, the Constitution’s system for presidential selection proved flawed in ways both large and small. Those flaws have only become more conspicuous, and more pressing, with the passage of time. Today, the complex system, part constitutional and part statutory, that we refer to collectively as the “Electoral College,” has not only repeatedly misaligned popular will and presidential selection, but has exacerbated polarization, distortion, and dysfunction, both in presidential elections and in our politics more broadly. In recent years the College has also shown itself dangerously susceptible to manipulation and abuse. For these reasons, addressing the deficiencies in the Electoral College should be high on any agenda that takes seriously the imperative of democratic reform. The chapter begins by tracing the origins of the Electoral College. It then briefly compares the Electoral College to other mechanisms for selecting chief executive officers, both abroad and in the American states. It next surveys the College’s key shortcomings today, both conceptual and practical, concluding that the College, far from serving any genuine democratic purpose, is flatly antidemocratic, a corrosive force in our politics, and dangerously vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The chapter ends by considering prospects for reform, examining both historical efforts to change or abolish the College, and the efforts underway today.

Keywords

Electoral College, President, presidential election, constitutional amendment, interstate compact, Constitution, politics

Publication Title

The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197547922.013.28

Link to Full Text

Link to SSRN

Available at Biddle Library

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