Why the Electoral College Is More Important Than Ever

When I was in my early 20s, I voted in my first presidential election. My guy lost and it led me to believe that perhaps the electoral college had passed its expiration date. One of the main reasons it was invented was the lack of education and literacy in the population at the time and it seemed that had been long resolved. Looking back, I know I was wrong and there is good reason for us to still be using this system now. In fact, maybe even more so than any time since the early days of our nation.

Yes, one can argue that we are more educated today than ever before. However, education does not equal one being informed. With all the sources of information out there, we often become lazy researchers and or take less interest in things. For example, a poll conducted in 2017 showed that 37% of those interviewed couldn’t identify even one right established by the First Amendment. Only 26% could name all three branches of government. Sadly, polls like this are more the norm than exceptions.

Another argument to abolish the Electoral College is that it can have a result that differs from the popular vote. First off, this has only happen on 3 occasions. Second, it really depends on how you define popularity. Sure, if you define it by the number of votes, this can happen. But, what if you define it by the number of states? If a candidate wins 35 out or 50 states, I’d say that’s pretty popular. But, if they don’t win the “big states” it wouldn’t matter without the Electoral College.

The popular vote can be manipulated by a single state! For example, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million in 2016. California gave her a distorted margin as that as a whole the rest of the country voted for Donald Trump by 1.4 million votes. We can’t have one state or a few states control everything otherwise the rest of the nation would be ignored.

To use an analogy in sports, take the 1960 World Series. Ok, maybe you’re not a sports fan but this should help clear it up some. The Pittsburgh Pirates, my hometown team, beat the New York Yankees 4 games to 3 to win the title. The Pirates won games 1, 4, 5 by the scores of 6-4, 3-2, 5-2 and 10-9. The Yankees won games 2, 3, and 6 by the score of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. So, when you add it all up, the Yankees outscored their opponents 55-27 over a period of seven games. But guess what, they didn’t win. The Pirates won 4 games and that’s what counts. Nobody would dispute that victory and neither should they when a candidate wins significantly more states than the other.

Now, you should be able to see why this popular vote thing is not such a clear cut concept after all. The fact of the matter is that the Electoral College gives a voice to the “little guy” and the voiceless much more than does a popular vote that can be thrown off by a few states. It’s much more fair and equitable and is also more representative of the country as a whole. After all, that is what the United States is supposed to be, a representative republic where we all get representation no matter if we live in Los Angeles, California or Dubuque, Iowa. While they sometimes get a lot of flack, it sure seems like the founding fathers might have knew what they were doing after all.