Expert answer:The Electoral College essay
Solved by verified expert:use the documents provided as resources for a short persuasive essay responding to the focus question: Is the Electoral College a fair method of selecting the president? Your essay should be formatted according to MLA guidelines, include parenthetical documentation of sources used, and be written in formal voice (no “I” or “you”)In addition, the essay will be scored on the presentation of your position, the organization of your reasons/arguments, your use of sources, your ability to also address the opposite position and its weaknesses, and your correct use of grammar and punctuation.
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Social Studies 1183
SAS® Curriculum Pathways®
The Electoral College: Printable Documents
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Federalist Papers No. 68 (March 14, 1788)
Alexander Hamilton, writing to convince Americans to ratify the Constitution, describes
the process and advantages of the Electoral College.
The Mode of Electing the President
THE mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system, of
any consequence, which has escaped without severe censure … I venture somewhat further … that if the manner
of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent …
It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a
trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any preestablished
body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture.
…
[T]he people of each State shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and
representatives of such State in the national government, who shall assemble within the State, and vote for some
fit person as President. Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government, and
the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the President …
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to … any man who is
not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.
from The Federalist Papers
Small States (November 20, 2000)
During the 2000 presidential election recount, a Duke University professor describes
problems with the Electoral College.
… [A] deeper reality emerges in the battle of George W. Bush and Al Gore: the bias in the Electoral College
toward small states.
It seems clear now that Al Gore won the popular vote. Yet this time the Electoral College apparently did not fall
into line. The small-state bias … helps explain why.
States with large populations do get more electoral votes, of course, than those that have relatively few people.
Each state gets electoral votes equal to the number of its representatives to the House, which are allocated in
proportion to population. But then something else is added: an electoral vote for each senator. And that seemingly
small addition has a surprisingly powerful effect.
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10/29/2010
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South Dakota‘s electoral vote, for example, is tripled by the senatorial “add-on” of two electoral votes, while New
York’s electoral weight is increased by only 6 percent. And so in New York, one electoral vote represents 550,000
people, while in South Dakota it represents 232,000.
Mr. Bush generally did well in states with small populations, winning 19 of the 26 states that have fewer than 10
electoral votes each. By winning so many small states, he gained a clear Electoral College advantage.
Mr. Gore won, for example, 22 electoral votes representing 10.4 million people in Massachusetts and Minnesota.
Mr. Bush got more—24—by winning votes representing only 6.1 million people—spread across six small states.
Or, to look at the numbers another way, first count as a wash the seven small states won by Mr. Gore and seven
closely comparable small states won by Mr. Bush. That leaves Mr. Bush winning an additional 12 small states
with a total population roughly equal to that of California. From those states, he will receive 73 electoral votes,
compared with California’s 54. That difference is enough to tilt the outcome of the election.
…
Those who tout the virtues of the Electoral College should confront the mathematical reality of the inequities they
are defending.
from “It Pays to Win the Small States” New York Times
The Electoral College: Don’t Drop Out (December 4, 2000)
During the 2000 presidential election recount, a conservative magazine editorial defends
the Electoral College.
Every time the Electoral College comes up for discussion, so do proposals to abolish it in favor of a direct popular
vote. The main reason this will probably never happen is that getting rid of the Electoral College would require a
constitutional amendment, and too many small states are committed to keeping it. This year, in pursuit of a
narrow victory, Bush and Gore spent serious time in a slew of small states, from Washington to West Virginia.
Such places would never see a presidential candidate, if all the votes were thrown into a common pot. The United
States has always been a big country, even in 1789 when its population was small, and regional differences have
always had ideological and temperamental effects. Liberals in Oregon and Michigan are not the same; neither are
conservatives in Mississippi and New Hampshire. It is good that candidates should have to tool their messages to
address a variety of concerns.
An even more important reason for keeping the Electoral College is to avoid massive vote fraud. Under the
current system, thieves must concentrate their efforts to steal close elections in selected states: Illinois in 1960,
Florida in 2000. This makes successful vote fraud in presidential elections a rare event … In a national popular
vote, any fraudulent vote anywhere could tip the scales.
The Electoral College is attacked as a frustration of the people’s will. But the people’s will is multiform. They
express it when they respond to polls; when they buy and sell; when they speak; when they vote for senators,
congressmen, and school supervisors. Each expression is slightly different. The Electoral College is a frame for
catching the views of a nation stretching over several time, and thought, zones. It gave us James Buchanan, and
may well give us Al Gore. But it also gave us Lincoln and Reagan. It should be preserved.
from “The Electoral College: Don’t Drop Out” National Review
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10/29/2010
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Abolish the Electoral College (August 29, 2004)
In an editorial, the New York Times calls for the demise of the Electoral College.
It’s a ridiculous setup, which thwarts the will of the majority, distorts presidential campaigning and has the
potential to produce a true constitutional crisis …
The main problem with the Electoral College is that it builds into every election the possibility … that the president
will be a candidate who lost the popular vote. This shocks people in other nations who have been taught to look
upon the United States as the world’s oldest democracy. The Electoral College also heavily favors small states.
The fact that every one gets three automatic electors – one for each senator and a House member – means states
that by population might be entitled to only one or two electoral votes wind up with three, four or five.
The majority does not rule and every vote is not equal – those are reasons enough for scrapping the system. But
there are other consequences as well. This election has been making clear how the Electoral College distorts
presidential campaigns. A few swing states take on oversized importance, leading the candidates to focus their
attention, money and promises on a small slice of the electorate … The political concerns of Cuban-Americans,
who are concentrated in the swing state of Florida, are of enormous interest to the candidates. The interests of
people from Puerto Rico scarcely come up at all, since they are mainly settled in areas already conceded as
Kerry territory. The emphasis on swing states removes the incentive for a large part of the population to follow the
campaign, or even to vote.
Those are the problems we have already experienced. The arcane rules governing the Electoral College have the
potential to create havoc if things go wrong. Electors are not required to vote for the candidates they are pledged
to, and if the vote is close in the Electoral College, a losing candidate might well be able to persuade a small
number of electors to switch sides. Because there are an even number of electors – one for every senator and
House member of the states, and three for the District of Columbia – the Electoral College vote can end in a tie.
There are several plausible situations in which a 269-269 tie could occur this year. In the case of a tie, the
election goes to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation gets one vote – one for Wyoming’s
500,000 residents and one for California’s 35.5 million.
“Making Voices Count; Abolish the Electoral College” © 2004 by the New York Times Co. Reprinted with
permission.
Copyright © 2011, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA, All Rights Reserved
10/29/2010
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