Lecture: Electoral College Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:33 AM

Rationale • Didn't trust voters to make sound decision ○ Uninformed ○ Demogogues • Didn't trust Congress • Didn't trust states  Compromise: let the voters vote… but the informed people are deciding the vote Allotment of Votes • Votes allotted based on number of Congressmen (min. 3 electors per state) ○ Each state has 2 Senators ○ Each state has Representatives based on population ○ Additional 3 electors for Washington, DC (but not for territories)  All territories except Washington, DC can become states if they want to  Washington, DC can never be a state  exception to the rule ○ Winning party selects Electors for state ○ Not based directly on population • Population shift  from Rustbelt to Sunbelt (re-allocation of votes)

Winning Votes • "Winner takes all" system, based on plurality of votes in state (Plurality ≠ Majority) ○ Candidates focus campaigns on swing states (ex. Florida, Ohio, etc.) ○ Candidates ignore solid states (ex. California, Texas, etc.) • Need majority of votes in Electoral College (270 votes) ○ Note: Majority = 50% + 1 (not 51%) ○ No majority?  House of Representatives votes, with one vote per state (none for Washington DC) for top 3 candidates  "Abstains" don't count!  lowers number of votes necessary to win election Criticism i. Popular vote ≠ Electoral vote ○ Can lose popular vote and still win election, and can win election without majority of popular vote  Grover Cleveland vs. Benjamin Harrison  George W. Bush vs. Al Gore  John Quincy Adams vs. Andrew Jackson ii. Faithless Electors: electors who cast votes against the way they're supposed to cast them ○ Note: Electors can vote however they want… (not a crime, but some states make Electors sign contract) iii. Small states overrepresented! ○ California… 35,000,000 popular votes / 55 Electoral votes = 636,363.6364 popular votes/Elector ○ Wyoming… 500,000 popular votes / 3 Electoral votes = 166,666.6667 popular votes/Elector Alternatives • Democracy  Abolish Electoral College and let the voters vote ○ Issue: difficult to get a majority (esp. with more minor candidates participating)  runoff elections! ○ Requires Constitutional Amendment… (38 states required, which would hurt small states) ○ Advantage: it's simple! • District Plan (used in Maine and Nebraska) G G "Squaretopia" ○ Split state into districts; vote by district Districts 1, 2, 3 Green Party Makes states more competitive for Unit 2 Political Beliefs and Behaviors Page 1

Districts 1, 2, 3 Green Party ○ Makes states more competitive for election District 4  Brown Party ○ Can be done without Constitutional G B Amendment Both Senators go to Green ○ Problem: Party due to majority vote  Still doesn't represent nation's population equally • Proportional Vote: Electoral votes based on percentage of popular vote ○ Problem:  Based on Electoral Votes… so still unequal representation  Smaller states?  difficult to allocate votes • Get rid of Electors!  Use point system instead of Electors, which solves issue of Faithless Electors only… • National Bonus Plan: ○ Do Electoral College as normal… but whoever wins popular votes gets 102 "bonus" votes (votes correspond to number of Senate seats + representatives for DC)

Unit 2 Political Beliefs and Behaviors Page 2