The Beauty of the Electoral College

I'm not talking about the electoral college as it functions today; I'm talking about how it was formed under the Constitution and operated originally.  It was genius, it was inspired, and I'm only now realizing that!  It is designed to represent the voice of the people in a much better way than how we vote today.  I shall explain this.  I've spent my whole life misunderstanding the electoral college.  It always seemed unfair to me.  As Jim and I have talked about it recently, and studied it direct from the Constitution a light bulb turned on!

Are you ready to be impressed?  That's how I feel about this.  Here we go.

First here I am putting the actual text from the Constitution that explains the electoral college.  Second I will go into my explanation.  You can reference the Constitution here.

 Article II - The Executive Branch Note

Section 1 - The President Note1 Note2

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

(The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two-thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice-President.) (This clause in parentheses was superseded by the12th Amendment.)

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Amendment 12 - Choosing the President, Vice-President. Ratified 6/15/1804.Note History The Electoral College

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Now for my thoughts.  Initially I thought the electoral college unfair because the electorates were the only ones actually casting votes for the President and Vice-President.  I felt that every individual has a right to be a part in the election process.  Further, I was frustrated with the way the electoral college functions today.  Today a state can be split 50/50 between two candidates, yet the one who has slightly more is the one awarded ALL of that state's electoral votes.  (FYI: This is actually mandated by the state governments.)  I won't go into how it operates today aside from that statement.  

Now let's get back to the original electoral college.  Under the original plan, each state is awarded a certain number of electoral votes based upon that state's number of senators and representatives which number is based on population.  Each state appoints these electors based upon their individual legislatures. 

Now let's imagine what this step of the process would be like.  I, the citizen of a certain state, would participate in an election process to choose my electors.  The individuals I would be choosing between would be fairly accessible to me because they live in my state, and are only campaigning in my state.  Further, multiple electors are to be chosen, so I imagine I would be choosing the elector to represent my specific region.  I would have great opportunity to get to know what these individuals stand for and make an informed decision when I voted.  I, and others in my region, would have a much better understanding of who we were voting for than if it was a national contest.  I cast my vote, and an individual is chosen to be an elector for my region.  This may or may not be the person I voted for, but this person represents the voice of the majority of citizens in my region. 

Who would these individuals be that are chosen to be electors?  I imagine they would be persons of education, and specifically people who understand government, the role of the President and Vice President, and the various issues that are important for a President/ Vice President to manage.  So we now know one thing.  No vote would be cast in ignorance by these electors.  That is VERY important. 

Important decisions are to be made after proper study and thought.  When I participate in elections, I always study every individual and every proposal that will be on my ballot.  If I haven't found adequate information, taken adequate time to understand, or find that I missed researching a candidate or proposal, I do NOT vote on it, for I feel I have no right to vote on it.  My vote would be like pulling straws, and that is not helpful to my county, state, or country.  A large number of votes are cast this way in our country, especially during every presidential election.  Yes it is important to fulfill our duty to vote, but it is more important that we understand who and what we are voting for when we do so, for we can hurt our nation without intending to do so.  This doesn't mean that we need a perfect understanding to vote or that we will all vote the same way, but we should absolutely try to reach a solid understanding before we place our vote.  I sincerely believe that there are men in our government with evil intent who use the ignorance of the people as a way to influence our country.  We should never vote in ignorance.

Let's go back to the electoral college again.  Once educated and well informed electors are chosen, I as a citizen place my trust in them that they will represent what I feel is best for my country.  By choosing them we've eliminated any ignorant votes or drawing of straws.  I have no doubt they would continue to meet with the people to receive their input.  Then they would have access to meet with the presidential candidates.  I visualize them having many small meetings and some large ones where they discuss the issues, and learn about the candidates backgrounds.  It would be entirely feasible for EVERY member of the electoral college to personally speak with EVERY presidential candidate.  They would have the opportunity of becoming incredibly well informed before they cast their votes.

When it came time to vote, the electors would meet according to their state, and each cast two votes which would be sealed and sent to the President of the Senate.  I was puzzled initially as to why each would cast two votes instead of one, but then I started playing this out in my mind.  By casting two votes they would be indicating their 1st and 2nd choices.  Ultimately this means more votes for the true favorites, and then reflects who the true favorites are.

Here's an imaginary breakdown to illustrate this.  Let's pretend there are 100 electors to make simple math.  Say 60 of the electorates like choices A and B, and really don't want C.  To continue simple math, imagine an even split between these 60.  With one vote A and B each receive 30.  The remaining 40 have C as their 1st choice.  If you look only one vote, C would seem the winner.  This is what the numbers would look like:

                A             B             C
                30           30           40

If all parties had a second vote, in this scenario the original 60 electorates would cast their second vote for A or B depending on which had been their first, because none of them wanted C at all.  So each A and B would receive 30 more votes.  The remaining 40 electorates would also cast a second vote.  I'll pretend they had a split of 10/30 between A and B.  In this case, B would be the ultimate winner, with A the second winner.  Here's the math:

                A             B             C
                30           30           40 
                30           30          
                10           30
_______________________
Totals:   70           90           40

In this scenario 30% got their first choice.  However it works out that another 60% got their second choice, and only 10% their last choice.  If you consider that in the electoral college set up presidential candidates don't run in pairs and the second place winner is appointed as Vice President, the outcome is even better.  It means that 60% of the electorates see their top candidate appointed to an office, and 100% see their second choice appointed to an office.  Everyone is represented.   

In the first scenario, 40% got their first choice, and 60% had their last choice.  60% would be absolutely unhappy with the person elected for President and only 40% would be happy. 

Amendment 12 (shown above) changed the electoral college somewhat, so that each electorate would cast two votes, but would indicate which was their first and second choice (in other words their choice for President and Vice President).  It works out about the same, though. 

I played with these numbers to see what kind of outcomes could be made.  I used anywhere from three to eight candidates to keep it simple, but it was really enlightening to see the wisdom in casting two votes.  It is a much better representation.  Also, I think that the second place winner being appointed to Vice President is wise, and a much better representation of the people.  For if the people (or the electorates in this case) are split evenly between two very good or two very popular candidates, both will be appointed and thus the vast majority of people (or electorates) will be satisfied.

Once the electors cast their votes, the President of the Senate in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives opens the votes and counts them.  The decision is then made based upon majority, and the above text from the Constitution lays out how it is handled if there are ties.  I won't go into that because it's not my purpose, though it is also a wise way of keeping things fair.

If it's not already obvious why I was so impressed when I finally understood the electoral college, here's a recap. 

1. It allows the people to have a more intimate and informed position to influence the choosing our nation's most responsible leaders. 

2. It eliminates ignorant voting. 

3. It allows a state to be evenly represented vs. ALL of a state's votes automatically going to the candidate with a slight majority. 

4. It allows for greater satisfaction with the election outcome among citizens because the 1st and 2nd place choices are appointed to office.  

5. It eliminates the possibility of a worst candidate being elected because the greater majority were split over two better candidates.