The Electoral College

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the problems of the 2000 presidential election intensified the debate over the effectiveness of the Electoral College, which was established by the Constitution. The author points out that the Electoral College, which was originally created to give all states a voice in the selection of the president, ensures that candidates cannot run campaigns focused entirely on population centers and has been a stabilizing factor in American politics because it limits the emergence of multiple parties. The paper relates the most important disadvantages of the Electoral College are that the winner of the popular vote does not necessarily win the presidency, and the votes of individuals in each state do not count equally.

From the Paper:

"The Democratic Party argued against the state's election results, demanding that disputed ballots in three heavily-Democratic counties be counted by hand. Numerous local court rulings resulted in different orders some ordered recounts because the vote was so close and others declared that a selective manual recount in a few heavily-Democratic counties would be unconstitutional. Finally, the Gore campaign appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which ordered that the recounting process proceed. The Bush campaign appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which nullified the decision of the Florida Supreme Court saying that the court's decision to bypass state election laws, which stated that results had to be certified by a certain date, was dubious, as there was "considerable uncertainty" as to the specific grounds for their ruling."

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