The Electoral College: It's not a Popularity Contest!

With the recent election in November and the upcoming inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, you have probably heard people discussing the Electoral College. But what really is the Electoral College? For starters, it is not an actual college where you can get an education and a degree. The Electoral College is actually a process which our founding fathers established in our Constitution. This process was created as a compromise between the Congress and the general population for the election of the President. Basically, it allows representatives from each state as well as qualified citizens to have their vote for president accounted for. Another purpose is to ensure that people in less populated areas of the country have their vote counted as equally as those in more populated ones.

If you watched the poll numbers during the election this past November, you might have noticed that there were two different numbers and percentages for each candidate. One of those numbers is the popular vote, which is solely a record of the actual voters who put that particular candidate on their ballot. The other, the electoral vote, is a bit more complicated. When you vote for the president, you are not actually voting for the president. In fact, you are voting for electors from your state to represent you.

The whole country has a total of 538 electoral votes, which are divided amongst each state depending on their population. A large majority of those representatives pledge to cast their electoral vote for whoever is running within the party they stand for. For instance, Republican electors likely promised to cast their vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Only rarely do electors choose a candidate different from the one that represents their party, and those rare inconsistencies haven’t affected the election significantly in all of American history. 270 votes are needed to win the presidential election.

We will use the 2016 presidential election as an example. In New Jersey, 55% of the state voted for Hillary Clinton. New Jersey has 14 electoral votes, which were all given to democratic electors since Clinton ran for the Democratic party. In Texas, which has 38 electoral votes, Donald Trump won by 52%, so the 38 electoral votes went to Republican representatives from Texas. At the end of the election after all the electoral votes were counted for each state, Hillary Clinton won 232 votes, and Donald Trump won 306. This is the reason for Trump’s victory, despite Clinton winning the popular vote.

Many people have debated whether or not the electoral college is still necessary for the election of our President. Some argue that since it is a part of our Constitution which was created by our founding fathers, it should not be altered. Others say that it is completely unnecessary and that each vote should be counted individually, so the people really have the power to decide. Eliminating the electoral college would also streamline the election process as a whole.

The electoral college has been a part of our country since its birth, and although there are many disputes about its role in the election process, it is important that you know where your ballots are going when you cast them in the voting booth. After all, it is not a popularity contest!

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html

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