The Effectiveness of the Electoral College System

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the problems with the electoral college system of voting and proposes a change in the system which would prevent such aberrations as the 2000 presidential election in America from reoccurring The paper looks at the original intent of the framers of the Constitution and how the system has changed over time, as well as the way it works today.

From the Paper:

"One man, one vote" may be a familiar democratic motto, but it hardly applies to American Presidential elections. The Electoral College system makes it possible for a candidate receiving fewer popular votes to triumph and actually win the presidency. It was originally designed to provide protection to less populous states in the union whose tallies in the popular vote would always be proportionally small. To many modern Americans, though, this system, however well intended, seems to have produced some bizarre distortions. The claustrophobically close 2000 Presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush has revived the intermittent, long-running dispute over the validity of the Electoral College, refueling the debate about whether or not to maintain it. Valid or not, a change in the way the electoral count is conducted would resolve problems such as the ones which arose in the 2000 presidential election. My own position, which is neither for nor against the Electoral College as such, proposes a change in the system, which can resolve anomalies such as the 2000 presidential election."

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