The U.S. Electoral College

By Drew Harris

As the American presidential election comes closer and closer, it would be helpful to provide a refresher on the inner workings of the Electoral College used to select them. It is a majoritarian electoral system known as the single-member district plurality system or ‘first past the post’. Rather than purely basing it on the popular vote, the candidates fight to obtain the largest number of electoral votes by winning districts. If they win most of the districts in a state, all of the state's electoral votes then go to that candidate, regardless if half or more of that state’s collective population do not support them. Electoral votes represent the number of congressional representatives from each state. For example, Rhode Island, the smallest state, has 2 house representatives and 2 senators, equaling 4 electoral votes. For context, each state has 2 senators, but the number of house representatives varies based on the population, the larger the more representatives. Out of 538 votes, each candidate hopes to obtain 270 or more. This incentivises the only competitive parties (the Republicans and Democrats) to focus on securing most of their respective voter bases. It leaves us with candidates and policies that are not as representative as they would be under a proportional system. The focus on winning districts makes their shape and magnitude very important. This is where gerrymandering comes in.

Gerrymandering is the process by which partisan actors redraw district boundaries to ensure that their supporters are the majority in each. It is important to note that the districts are based on population quotas, which require them to be redrawn every few years. Here is a hypothetical example of gerrymandering: the state of Columbia has a population evenly distributed between Republican and Democrat-aligned voters. It is composed of 10 districts, which have recently been selected to be redrawn by a group of Republicans. Each district has around 250,000 citizens. By moving the borders of each, they can ensure that each district has at least 51% (130,000) or more Republican voters.

Even these slight increases, taken collectively, can determine whether or not the state will go red or blue. I have used the Republicans as the boundary movers in this instance since they have historically been the main instigators of this practice. However, the Democrats have occasionally done the same.

There have been many calls to either reform or dispose of the Electoral College for an alternative, however, these have all come to nought. The continued practice of gerrymandering and the fact that multiple presidents have won the Electoral College without winning the popular vote engender this criticism. Despite these setbacks, the college has obvious strengths: it is simple, easy to understand (when it comes to voting), and tries to give smaller states more of a voice on the national stage. Without the Senate to balance the proportionality of the House, states with larger populations like California (39 million) would have more of a say than smaller ones like New Jersey (9 million). This becomes dangerous when it means that larger states get to dictate policy to their benefit. Established politicians and their parties also have little desire to change it. It has been around for so long that they understand exactly how to take advantage of it to achieve electoral success, the problem is that so do their rivals. The only chance for reform or its abolition is if both the Republicans and Democrats find themselves unable to achieve electoral success using it. Nonetheless, the jury of public opinion is firmly set against the system. It will yet to be seen how much longer it lasts.

13th October, 2024

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