by Bill Welker
During the dawning of our nation, there were two factions in Congress at that time regarding the election of a president. One faction wanted Congress to decide who would be president. The other insisted that the presidency should be decided by all the citizens of the newly formed United States of America.
In 1787, it was Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth who drafted the “Great Compromise” known as the Electoral College. Briefly stated, the Electoral College is comprised of individuals known as “Electors,” who are equal to the number of representatives each state has in Congress. Keep in mind, the number of representatives per state is based on the population of each state.
Electors are appointed by their state every four years during a presidential election, and are not elected officials. Except for Maine and Nebraska, all Electoral College votes in each state must be cast for the presidential candidate who won the state’s popular vote. Today, the first presidential candidate to receive 270 of the 538 total electoral votes wins the White House.
The “no one state rules” theory
As a history enthusiast, I believe there is another underlining motive for instituting the Electoral College. It has to do with the population of our original 13 states.
In the 1780s, Virginia was the largest populated state. This gave the citizens of Virginia an overwhelming advantage in national elections. In fact, during the first 36 years as a country, a Virginian sat in the White House for 32 of those years. (President John Adams of Massachusetts was the lone exception.)
Moreover, even with the creation of Electoral College, Virginia had a huge advantage due to its population. At the outset of the Electoral College, Virginia had over a quarter (12) of the total electoral votes (46) required to pick a president.
“The Electoral College was never considered to be a ‘perfect’ system for picking the president,” said George Edwards III, emeritus political science professor at Texas A&M University.
He further stated, “It wasn’t like the Founders said, ‘Hey, what a great deal! This is the preferred way to select the chief executive, period.’ They were tired, impatient, frustrated. They cobbled, together, this plan because they couldn’t agree on anything else.”
It’s ironic. What started as a compromise to appease all concerned politicians of the day, proved to be one of the most valuable political decisions ever made during our nation’s infancy.
Whether it was intended or not, America’s Founding Fathers created a political mechanism that is very much needed in today’s much greater state-by-state populations and their Electoral College designates. But even then, they realized that no “one or more large states” should dictate the outcome of a presidential election.
If we eliminated the Electoral College, as some of our contemporary politicians endorse, a presidential candidate could conceivably win the popular vote in 49 states, but lose the election due to one gigantic state’s population, such as California or New York.
Is that fair? Not at all.
The Electoral College is here to stay, folks.
And I say thank goodness!
