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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
ResearchPaper
PADM501:FundamentalsofPublicAdministration Dr.
Abi Oguntuase
07/01/2021
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
Abstract
This paper will discuss a public administration problem in today’s society. The discussion will
document the history of the Electoral College in regards to the formation, growth, and current
process.TherewillbeseveralviewsontheadvantagesordisadvantagesoftheElectoralCollege as it is
referenced to Presidential Elections for the United States of America. Some solutions have
been offered in order to take into consideration the popular vote as well as balancing the
number of electoral votes a state gets compared to other states.
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
Introduction
When discussing public administrations, one of the main questions has to deal with
selectingaleader.Theseleadershiprolesareoftenhighlyinvolvedwithseveralpoliticalparties
wanting or having influence in the ways that the leader is selected. This varies from each
democratic country on how the leaders of those countries are elected. There is no perfect
system and ones that were formed over a hundred years ago, may not be the best for today’s
modern society.
The American Electoral College is a complex system which is in contrast to other
democratic nations. Brazil holds a two round voting system. Voting is mandatory for all to
participate and the fine for not voting is less than one dollar ($1). If the voting from the first
round has a candidate with more than 50% of the popular vote, then that candidate wins and
thereisnosecondround.Thisisbasedonthehigherthannormalamountofcandidatesusually
involved. United Kingdom has voting which each area selects a lawmaker in for them and the
lawmakers are part of parties. The largest amount of lawmakers in a particular party takes
power with their party leader being named as Prime Minister. There are several parties
competing which makes a popular vote difficult. There are countries with a simplified system,
for example, South Korea has a single round popular vote for the decision.
The United States Electoral College has a history of presidential candidates which have
won the popular vote, but lost the election from the Electoral College vote. This leads
Americansintoday’ssocietytoquestiontheuseofthesystemtoelectourPresident.Ifthisisa problem,
then what are some possible viable solutions?
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
HistoryoftheUnitedStatesElectoralCollege
“In September 1787, as the Constitutional Convention was drawing to a close, James
Wilson of Pennsylvania observed that “in truth, the most difficult” issues that the framers had
encountered was designing a method for choosing the nation’s chief executive.”1 Article II,
Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution directs each state to appoint a number of
electors which is equal to the state’s congressional delegation. The congressional delegation is
made of the number of members for the House of Representatives plus two senators. In forty-
eight(48)ofthefifty(50)states,thestate-widepopular vote candidatereceivesallofthestate
electoral votes. There are two (2) states, Maine and Nebraska, which two electors are handled
inthenormalmanner,buttheremainingelectoralvotesarebasedonthepopularvotesineach
congressional district. United States territories, for example Puerto Rico, have never been
entitled to electoral votes.
As with any process, the first Presidential elections showed items that needed to be
adjusted. The elections held took into account the top two popular votes were awarded as
President and Vice President instead of there being running mates. There was also an issue
concerningthethree-fifthsclauseandarolethatslaveryhadincountingvotes.Severalchanges
between 1787 and 1836 have formalized the current process. There has been five elections in
the history of presidential elections where the candidate with the most popular vote did not
win the election.
1 Keyssar,A.(2020).P.17Whydowestillhavetheelectoralcollege?.ProQuestEbookCentralhttps://ebookcentral-
proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
The first came in 1824 with Andrew JACKSON running against John Quincy ADAMS.
JACKSON received 151,000 votes to ADAMS having 113,000, but the election was decided by
the House of Representatives who chose ADAMS as the President. In 1876, Rutherford HAYES
received 4.03 million votes compared to TILDEN who received 4.2 million. HAYES was awarded
one electoral vote more than TILDEN and ultimately HAYES was elected President. In 1888,
Benjamin HARRISON won the electoral vote against Grover CLEVELAND even though
CLEVELANDhad90,000morevotesoverall.Thethreeexampleslistedalloccurredinearlytimes of the
Electoral College, however we have currently had two instances within this century to bring the
debate to the forefront. In 2000, George W. BUSH won the Presidential Election with the
Electoral College, but it was Al GORE who received more than 500,000 votes in the popular
vote overall. The last occurrence was in 2016 with the Presidential Election between Hilary
CLINTON and Donald TRUMP. TRUMP won the Presidential Election by winning the Electoral
College, however CLINTON won the popular vote with 51.11% of the total votes.
ElectoralCollegeasaPublicAdministrationIssue
As it has been stated, there is a debate as to whether the Electoral College accurately
represents the true American vote as to who should be our elected leader. There are many
supporters and detractors on this issue with advantages and disadvantages. Supporters will
argue that the current system does choose the popular vote president the vast majority of the
time with only five instances out of fifty-nine (59) elections. The current system promotes
federalismbykeepingatwo-partypoliticalsysteminsteadoftherebeingamultitudeovermajor
partieswhichwoulddividethecountryevenfurther.Thisstillallowsforsmallerstatestostayin the
discussion and have a feeling of voting power.
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
Detractorsfromthecurrentsystemwouldarguethatthesystemisoutdatedandthat moving
to a new system would allow for all states to be equal rather than there being key
“battleground”stateswherecandidatesspendavastmajorityoftheirtimeinanefforttowin that
state. As seen in figure 1, planning a campaign is based on winning large number of electoral
votes in key states to get to the 270 magic number.
Figure1.
2
Ultimately,thecurrentprocesselectsthePresidentandVicePresidentoftheUnited
Statesbythe538electorvoteswiththewinnerhaving270ormoreofthosevotes.Allstatesare given at
least 3 electoral votes and more are established in states based on the number of
representatives a state has plus two for the senators each state has. All states choose their
2 Figure retrieved June 15, 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_Kansas
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
electoralvotesbypopularvotewiththemajorityofstates,exceptionsareMaineandNebraska,
sendingallelectoralvotesforthestatetothepopularvotecandidatefortheirstate.Maineand
Nebraskagivetwoelectoralvotestothepopularcandidatewinnerandtherestoftheelectoral votes
are given based on winning the actual congressional districts in those states for those votes.
NominatedSolutions
Several solutions for the Electoral College have included a focus on reforming how the
individual states appoint their electoral votes rather than changing the Electoral College itself.
EventhoughonesolutionwouldsteerawayfromtheElectoralCollegealltogether,theNational
Popular Vote is almost unrealistic based on changing a Constitutional Amendment. “While
individual states can determine how their electors are chosen, a Constitutional amendment is
necessary to change or dissolve the Electoral College. Article V of the US Constitution lays out
the process of amending the Constitution. To pass a Constitutional amendment, which would
then be sent to the states for ratification, one of two procedures must be followed: (1) either
two-thirds (a supermajority) of members in both the US House of Representatives and the US
Senate must vote in favor of the amendment, or (2) a two-thirds (supermajority) amendment
vote must be held by a national convention, which is called by Congress at the request of the
state legislatures of at least thirty-four states (two-thirds).”3
Solutionsthathavebeenproposedareadirectpopularvote,aproportionalvote,a
districtvote.TheNationalPopularVotesolutionofferstheresolutionforonemajorvote
3 Lienhardt,D.(2016).Theelectoralcollege:Ananalysisofreformproposalsthroughthelensofpastpresidential
elections. Wayne Law Review, 61(2), 439-460.
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
which would create a national majority winner and every person’s vote would be counted
towardsthatwin.Thistakesthestatesoutoftheinvolvementandwouldencouragecandidates to
focus on every person rather than key “battleground” states. The disadvantage of this solution
is that it would take a Constitutional Amendment to proceed and there would be an increase in
the number of candidates which would make the voting distribution expand for no clear cut
winner.
4 Table Retrieved June 15, 2021. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/americangovernment/chapter/political-
participation-how-do-we-select-and-elect-a-president/
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
The Congressional District voting method starts with the candidate who wins each
congressional district would receive that electoral vote and the two remaining senate votes
would go to the candidate winning the popular state vote. This system is currently in use by
MaineandNebraska.Theadvantagesofthissystemincludesmallerstateshavinganimpactand closer
related to National Popular Vote. The disadvantages include gerrymandering where the district
lines are moved to benefit one party or another and a candidate can still win without the
overall national popular vote.
The last solution I will discuss involves the Proportional Representation Plan which
reformsthe Electoral College toallow forthe numberof electoral votesto be apercentage that
they win. Meaning, that if a candidate wins the state popular vote by 60% then the candidate
would win 60% of the state electoral votes. This can be rounded to the nearest thousandth of
decimal places. Candidates would have to take into consideration all states, but this would also
openthecountrytomanypartiesbeinginvolvedandswayingthenumbersforanactualpopular vote.
Conclusion
“The division between Red America and Blue America has become part of ordinary
citizens’ understanding of US politics. However, institutional rules such as the US Electoral
College structure campaigning incentives so that candidates need to allocate their limited
resources and time with the goal of increasing their likelihood of gaining the needed 270
ElectoralCollege(EC)majority.Thus,thecampaigningofthecandidatestendstobefocusedon theso-
called‘‘purplestates’’,i.e.,thecompetitivestateswherecampaigningmightbeassumed
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
to make a difference.”5Our country has evolved in technology where on election nights we
expect an immediate answer to the question, who is our President? With social media
assistance, we watch as states are assigned a red or blue color based on democratic or
republicancandidateswinningthoseelectoralvotes.Weanxiouslyawaitthefirsttogetto270 and be
projected to win the race.
Our Constitution and our system was originally generated based on the “thought 18th-
centuryvoterslackedtheresourcestobefullyinformedaboutthecandidates,especiallyinrural
outposts. Second, they feared a headstrong “democratic mob” steering the country astray. And
third,a populistpresidentappealingdirectly tothe people could command dangerousamounts of
power.”6
The current Electoral College system is not a perfect system, however I do not feel that
there is a perfect system which has all advantages and no disadvantages. In 59 Presidential
Elections, there has been five (5) which the popular voted candidate did not win. After
reviewing the solutions and the current model, my recommended solution is maintain the
currentElectoralCollege.ThesolutionsmentionedabovewouldmostlyrequireaConstitutional
5 Cervas,J.R.,&Grofman,B.(2017).Whynoncompetitivestatesaresoimportantforunderstandingtheoutcomes of
competitive elections: the Electoral College 1868–2016. Public Choice, 173(3-4), 251-265.
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s11127-017-0474-4
6 Retrieved June 15, 2021. https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-
convention. 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
Amendmentwhichisalmostimpossibleintoday’ssocietyforbothrepublicansanddemocrats to pass
through.
References
1) Keyssar,A.(2020).Whydowestillhavetheelectoralcollege?.ProQuestEbook
Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu
ThescholarlyarticleisashortinformationalpiecepublishedintheCongressionalDigestJune 2020
issue. It references a current movement about the National Popular Vote and that the issue is
growing with numbers interested. There is no solutions or debates, it is merely an
informational piece that the discussion is continuing.
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ResearchPaper:ElectoralCollege
2) Figure Retrieved June 15, 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election_in_Kansas
Figureaddressesthe2024electionElectoralCollegewithitbeinginallgraybeforethestates are
assigned as red or blue based on political party wins.
3) Lienhardt,D.(2016).Theelectoralcollege:Ananalysisofreformproposalsthroughthelens of
past presidential elections. Wayne Law Review, 61(2), 439-460.
ThisreviewisabouttheoverallElectoralCollegeprocessandsuggestedsolutionsforreform. It
covers the advantages and disadvantages of several solutions. The review discusses the
reasoning for several of the solutions not making progress.
4) Table Retrieved June 15, 2021.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/americangovernment/chapter/political-participation-
how-do-we-select-and-elect-a-president/
ThetableaddressesseveralsolutionstotheElectoralCollegewiththeadvantagesand
disadvantages of each listed solution.
5) Cervas,J.R.,&Grofman,B.(2017).Whynoncompetitivestatesaresoimportantfor
understanding the outcomes of competitive elections: the Electoral College 1868–
2016. Public Choice, 173(3-4), 251-265.
http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/s11127-017-0474-4
This research discusses the importance of all states being in the candidates political
campaign as well as the history of Electoral College results throughout our history. The
discussionishowtochangebattlegroundorswingstatesandtomakethebattleforallstates in
order to be victorious.
6) Retrieved June 15, 2021. https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-
constitutional-convention. 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. This
articlediscussesthecurrentsystemandtheover-whelmingoddsofcreatingaconstitutional
amendment to change the system based on the two divided political parties.
