Alternatives to the Electoral College

Alternatives to the Electoral College

Adah Kaplan '24 Angie Wang '24 - 4 minute read
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Although there are certainly some positive things about the electoral college, we must remember that this is a system that has been reevaluated time and time again, while being altered slightly to further improve our government. As a country, it’s time to look at some possible alternatives for this system, while keeping the values of America in mind. 

Popular Vote:

One alternative to the Electoral College that’s been widely advocated for lately is a direct popular vote. The people vote, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The argument behind this is based primarily on the assumption that people voting have some sort of interest in politics, and their votes are what should decide the election rather than the states’ votes. Unlike the electoral college where Pennsylvania has 20 votes no matter what, in a popular vote, if very few people in the state of Pennsylvania vote, then Pennsylvania won’t have as much of an impact on the overall election. People want to feel like their vote matters. Republicans in California or Democrats in Texas know that when they go to the polls, they’re most likely not making an impact on the election. Swing states can decide the election, no matter if 10% or 100% of eligible voters win, and a popular vote could solve this problem. 

However, there are some clear flaws with a popular vote system, all of which were discovered by the Founding Fathers during the creation of the Electoral College. A candidate could claim several impossible things during the campaigning period, all with the intention of making every single citizen feel that they would thrive under this person’s rule, leading to a growing mob of people deciding the election. Additionally, the US is not and has never been a direct democracy. In the past, no nation that has tried for a true democracy has succeeded. Much of America has concluded that although the Electoral College isn’t perfect, there needs to be an intermediary level between the people and the president. So what are some other solutions?

Congressional Districts:

The congressional district system is already implemented in Maine and Nebraska, though it has never actually impacted the election. In this system, districts are allowed a certain number of votes, along with an extra two votes awarded to the candidate that wins the popular vote in that particular state. This system solves the problem of larger cities deciding the election, as districts that aren’t as densely populated rarely have an impact on the popular vote, depending on the state. We saw a situation like this play out in Pennsylvania this election, where nearly all of the counties of Pennsylvania voted Republican, yet Philadelphia and Pittsburgh voted Democrat, leading the state’s 20 votes to go to the blue party.

However, for those advocating to abolish the electoral college for the reasons mentioned previously, this system can make things even worse. The congressional district method is essentially an even more rigid version of the electoral college, dividing the country up into even smaller sections. If this current electoral system leads to candidates funneling all of their campaigning into swing states, a congressional district system would no doubt lead to the presidential candidates holding nearly all of their campaign events in a single congressional district..Though this system may improve conditions in one or two specific states, it is most certainly not a step above the electoral college, and should not be considered.

Ranked Choice Voting:

The ranked choice voting system allows for voters to list candidates in order of their preference. In a sense, people vote for multiple candidates and rank them as their first, second, third (or more) choice. Whichever candidate wins at least 50% of the votes is the winner of the presidency. However, if no candidate wins a majority vote, the ballots are counted again in a second round. During the second round, the candidate with the least amount of first choice votes is immediately out of the race. The votes of people who picked the eliminated candidate as their first choice are switched to their second choice pick. This process goes on until a candidate wins the majority of votes. 

Supporters of RCV say that this system guarantees that the candidate with the majority of support from the people wins the presidency–not a candidate with a small plurality of votes. They also believe that RCV makes sure that people vote for the candidate that they like the most, rather than voting against the candidate that they dislike the most. Many voters practice strategic voting because they believe that they need to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” which may prevent them from voting for the candidate they actually support. However, critics say that, with new RCV ballots, voting would become more complicated, and many ballots would be filled out incomplete or wrong. These ballots would be discarded, and so would the votes of those individuals.  Would the ranked voting system make the people happier or make things more complicated?

Proportional Popular Vote:

One popular alternative to the current electoral college system is a proportional popular vote. The proportional popular vote plan divides a state’s electoral votes based on which percentage of the state popular vote a candidate won. This plan combats the electoral college’s most critiqued part–the winner-take-all system. Supporters of this plan say that the proportional popular vote would force candidates to campaign in all states instead of focusing on swing states. They also argue that voters in majority Democratic or Republican states will feel like their vote counts, an example being Republican voters in California, which is a Democrat-filled state. 

However, there isn’t any system without any flaws. One major problem that arises is, similar to the popular vote, the candidate that wins the presidency may not win a majority of the popular vote. Third-party candidates, who gain more power due to the proportional vote system also may be able to stop any candidate from reaching the 270-vote threshold, which eventually leads to the House of Representatives deciding the presidency. 

Though this system has its problems, a proportional vote is the best alternative to the electoral college. This system allows for all voters, whichever state they are in, to have a voice– even if the majority of the state doesn’t share the same opinion. While the proportional popular vote doesn’t put an end to the electoral college, it alters the system in a way that will allow the people of the United States to have more of a say in who is in charge of the country.

There are clear flaws in every possible system of deciding our president. Not every voter in America sees the same news channels and interacts with people that have differing opinions from them. Not every eligible voter votes, and not every voter is educated on who they’re voting for. However, it is blatantly obvious that the electoral college, a system built on slavery and compromise, must be subjected more scrutiny before our country emerges with the best system possible. By looking at the ideals of our country and the state of the people in it, America has more than enough power to implement a new electoral system.

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/electoral-college-founding-fathers-constitutional-convention

https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/electoral-college

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/united-states-history/history-electoral-college-could-be-reformed/

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