Fixing the Electoral College

The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 have led to an increased outcry for electing our president via popular vote.  Even the media has taken to reporting the popular vote along with the electoral vote, a questionable thing to be doing since it is clear to all -- even Al Gore -- that the popular vote means nothing in presidential elections.

The push for election by popular vote is not likely to go away without something being done, especially if a couple more elections come and go with scandalous results.  There are at least two problems with the popular vote idea, though.  The first problem is that doing so would dilute the power of the less-populous states -- which means most of the states -- and since making this change would involve amending the Constitution and therefore would require approval by 2/3 of those states, such a proposed amendment is doomed to failure.

The other problem is that it really wouldn't be a good idea.  The framers of the Constitution devised the electoral college for a very good reason -- to make sure the less-populous states had a say in the running of the country -- and that reason is still valid today.

What would be a good idea is to make the electoral college work the way it was intended, which means to do away with the winner-takes-all policy in each state and apportion the electoral votes properly. 

What does "properly" mean?  There is one electoral vote corresponding to each Senator and one corresponding to each Representative.  This has been misinterpreted to mean that each state controls a number of electoral votes equal to the number of Senators and Representatives from that state, but the "control" is the issue here.  Each state should no more control an electoral vote corresponding to a Representative than it should control that Representative.  Each Representative is elected by the voters in his home district, and that's how that electoral vote should be cast as well.

Accomplishing this change requires an amendment to the Constitution.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment:

In presidential elections, each state shall cast two electoral votes according to a statewide vote.  Each congressional district shall cast one electoral vote according to a vote within that district.

This change requires an amendment because it's too much to expect that each of the 50 states would do the right thing and unilaterally make this change on their own -- even though Maine and Nebraska already have.  Unilaterally delegating your electoral votes according to the vote in individual districts weakens your state's influence in the election compared to all the other states that are keeping the winner-takes-all scheme.  To be fair, an amendment is required to compel this policy be employed everywhere.

The framers devised the Senate and House to provide a balance of power between states of different populations.  The larger populations will rule the House, but each state has an equal voice in the Senate regardless of population.  Logically, the framers intended to provide a similar balance of power in the election of our president -- and based the electoral college on the number of members in the House and Senate so as to achieve that balance.  This intention has been thwarted by the states, and this amendment is needed to correct it.



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