« Previous — Next »

Here We Go Again

3 September 2006

Country by county vote, 2000 presidential election So the move is back to eliminate the electoral college. We first saw this sentiment when Al Gore lost the election while taking a slim majority of the popular vote. Of course, Al Gore was not the first to lose under such circumstances. While it is admittedly rare, it has happened before. In fact, the rareness of it is a sound argument for leaving it in place because when it happens, it is doing what it was intended to do.

The impetus for the latest attempt to eliminate the electoral college is that large states like California that are solidly democrat feel they are left out. While both parties spend time there fund raising, neither party spends any time there campaigning so California believes it is being left out of the debate. Pardon me if I feel little sympathy for California.

What is most interesting this time around is the way they are going about this. They are not attempting to amend the Constitution. Instead, they have passed legislation in both houses of the California legislature that would give all the state’s electoral votes to the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide. The bill will go to Arnold’s desk and if he signs it, the law will still not go into effect unless and until enough other states also pass the same legislation to create a majority of electoral votes. In other words, this is an end run around the Constitution.

Also interesting is that this movement has support on both the right and the left. States with a lot of electoral votes that are pretty solidly red or blue don’t get the attention that split states do and they don’t like it.

I’ve never worried much about a constitutional amendment because smaller states would never go along with it so ratification would never happen. But this could actually work. There are 535 electoral votes so a majority would be 268 votes. It takes less than half the states passing this legislation to put it into effect, far less than the 2/3 required to pass an amendment.

So what would the consequences be if this actually comes to fruition? To be sure, the campaigns would pay much more attention to California and other states that are not now considered swing states. After all, large population centers would take on far greater importance than they currently enjoy. And that is precisely the problem.

You see, the electoral college exists as an equalizer. The Constitution would never have been ratified without it because it gives balance to smaller states. For example, Delaware has only one Congressman and so has little influence in the House of Representatives. But Delaware has two Senators just as all states do so they have the same influence in the Senate as every other state. Indeed, the Senate was configured as it is for the same reason the electoral college was. It balances states with large populations with small states with small populations.

One look at the electoral map from the 2000 election is all one needs to understand. While Gore had a small majority of the popular vote, he took a tiny fraction of the counties in this country. Seeing it graphically on a county by county basis on the red and blue map above was startling and it demonstrated why the electoral college was necessary.

If this new plan works out the small states and the rural areas will become completely disenfranchised. They will have no voice in the politics of this country. Presidential candidates will focus exclusively on large population centers in large states. If you think the country is polarized now, just wait for this plan to be implemented. And as a conservative I strongly object to California, New York and a few large states choosing the president and setting the political agenda for this country. We are all Americans and we all deserve a voice in the way it is run.

Finally, one of the big arguments in favor of this plan is that it is more directly democratic. As far as I’m concerned, that is not a good thing. Out founding fathers disdained direct democracy because they learned the lessons of history. They saw that every direct democracy degenerated into tyranny because the majority could always oppress the minority. That is why they chose a republic instead. We would be poorly served as a nation to eliminate this crucial aspect of our system of government.

In the end this is just a bad idea. The electoral college serves a vital purpose and it should be left in place. And taking end runs around the Constitution is dangerous indeed to our republic.