HOW EXACTLY DOES THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORK?
There are 538 votes in the electoral college. Each state is allocated a number of electoral votes equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives. Every state has two Senators, whereas the number of Representatives is based on population. On election day voters vote for electors nominated by the parties, rather than the candidates themselves, and the electors subsequently meet to cast their votes. In most states the candidate receiving the most votes is allocated all of that state’s electoral votes (known as ‘winner-takes-all’), although a few states permit the electoral vote to be split. If no candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the election of the President falls to the House of Representatives, with each state delegation having one vote, while the Senate would choose the Vice-President.
WHICH ARE THE KEY STATES THIS YEAR?
The electoral map of the United States seems to be retaining its general features: a sea of red in the south and middle of the country, with the blue states clustered on both coasts and around the Great Lakes. As in recent elections, the states of Florida and Ohio are both important battlegrounds, but the global financial crisis appears to have opened up the race in a number of other states, some of which have not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since the 1960’s (Indiana and Virginia) or 1970’s (North Carolina). Finally the two parties are pretty closely matched in the western states of Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.
WHEN AND WHY WAS IT CREATED?
It was established by the United States Constitution, drafted in 1787 and ratified by the states. Using their knowledge of the classical world, the Founding Fathers devised a system of indirect election as a check against the popular majorities which they feared might propel the republic towards tyranny. According to Alexander Hamilton, the small number of electors chosen from “the general mass” would be more likely to possess the discernment required for “such complicated deliberations”. The electoral college was also designed to meet the needs of a society which lacked the transport and communications networks necessary for national campaigns.
DOES IT BENEFIT EITHER DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS?
The cynical answer would be that the system favours whichever party controls the voting apparatus in any given state (for example Florida in 2000). Some argue that the electoral college benefits Republicans, since it gives disproportionate power to less populated, rural states by basing only part of a state’s share of the electoral votes on population. However it is third parties who stand the most disadvantaged under these ‘winner-takes-all’ arrangements: witness Ross Perot, who received 19 million popular votes in 1992 but not a single vote in the electoral college. Its defenders claim that this is actually an advantage, because the two party system maintains the stability and integrity of the nation by mitigating against the emergence of extremist or regionalist parties.
HOW DOES IT AFFECT CAMPAIGNS?
The working of the electoral college has a huge influence over campaign strategy, since it makes victory less about winning the most votes and more about winning votes in the right places. Obviously it is much more important for a candidate to win in California than in Wyoming, although in a close race candidates will be looking to achieve victory with the votes of smaller states as well. Since many states are reliably blue (Democrat) or red (Republican), the election is often fought in the ‘swing-states’, where either party could win. The system can also produce discrepancies between the number of actual votes a candidate receives and their result in the electoral college. In 1860 39% of the popular vote secured Abraham Lincoln the presidency with 180 electoral votes, whereas his rival Stephen Douglas received a paltry 12 votes for his 29% of the popular vote.
HAS REFORM EVER BEEN ATTEMPTED?
Since its inception, there have been more than 700 proposals to reform the electoral college. These have ranged from replacing it entirely with direct elections (which would require an amendment to the Constitution), to reforming it via the so-called ‘interstate compact’. Under the compact states would agree to cast their electoral votes for the candidate who wins the most votes nationally, a mechanism which would come into effect once states possessing 270 or more electoral votes between them had signed up. The current system has plenty of critics – not least because in the electoral college some people’s votes are simply worth more than others – and opinion polls conducted over the past 50 years have consistently suggested that the majority of Americans favour change. However, there are many obstacles to reform, including the fact that many states are reluctant to relinquish the enhanced weight which the electoral college gives them.
