Could the Electoral College Become Obsolete?

U.S. presidents are voted into office by the electoral college, made up of representatives from each state. Learn how changing the way electors choose a candidate – from the state’s popular vote winner to the national popular vote winner – could change elections in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey Brainstuff Lauren
bog Obam here. Earlier this month, Oregon became the fifteenth
state plus Washington, d C. To join what's known as
the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under this agreement, participating
states pledged to deliver all of their Electoral College votes

(00:23):
to the winner of the national Popular Vote. If enough
states join, it could spell the end of the Electoral College,
a temporary body of state appointed electors who are ultimately
responsible for choosing the president of the United States. The
Electoral College was created by the Founding fathers as a
way of checking the raw power of the people and
giving a leg up to small states, but it also

(00:44):
makes it possible for the winner of the popular vote
to actually lose the presidential election. That very thing has
happened five times in American history, most recently with the
election of Donald Trump, who won the electoral vote by
a broad margin and six to thirty two, but lost
the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than two
point eight million ballots. In the year two thousand, the

(01:08):
closest presidential election in US history, George W. Bush narrowly
won the White House with two hundred and seventy one
electoral votes while receiving five hundred and forty three thousand,
eight hundred and ninety five fewer popular votes than his opponent,
Al Gore. The electoral college is generally unpopular. A May
twenty nineteen poll found fifty three percent of Americans think

(01:29):
it should be abolished, and according to a twenty nineteen
report by the Congressional Research Service, there have been seven
hundred different proposals floated in Congress that would reform or
repeal the electoral College, which is enshrined in Article two
of the Constitution and also in the twelfth Amendment. But
despite centuries of opposition, the electoral College is alive in
kicking because amending the Constitution or repealing and existing amendment

(01:52):
is a huge political undertaking that requires supermajorities in Congress
plus the president's signature. That's why electoral college critics are
excited about a new approach that uses the Constitution's own
language to bring power back to the popular vote, and
it's getting traction. The National Popular Vote Plan doesn't require
a constitutional amendment because it doesn't get rid of the

(02:14):
electoral College. Supporters believe it brings parity back to the
voting process, every vote would count, while opponents claim that
any state sponsored attempt to mess with federal elections is
by its very nature unconstitutional. We spoke with John Coza,
the chair of National Popular Vote Incorporated, a nonprofit organization
that's been lobbying states to join the movement since two

(02:36):
thousand and six. Cosa's biggest gripe with the electoral College
has nothing to do with what the Constitution says, but
with state winner take all laws. These laws, which are
on the books in forty eight states plus Washington, d c.
Hand over all of the state's electoral votes to the
candidate who gets the most votes at the state level.
Cosa said, if you lose Florida by half a percent,

(02:58):
you get nothing, and that's exactly what happened to Gore
in two thousand plus. If you live in a state
that constantly gives all of its electoral votes to the
political party you're opposed to, you start to feel like
your vote doesn't even count. A troubling side effect of
the winner take all system is that presidential candidates have
learned to campaign exclusively in so called battleground states, where

(03:19):
both presidential candidates stand a good chance of winning. It
makes perfect mathematical and financial sense. Don't waste time and
states that are guaranteed to go blue or red, but
go all in on the purple ones. As a result,
says Cosa, in the twelve election, a hundred percent of
campaign events and spending were focused on just twelve states.
Incent of events in spending occurred in those same twelve states,

(03:44):
and that can affect how and where government policy is made.
For example, manufacturers in a battleground state like Ohio get
a lot more attention from White House policymakers than farmers
in a solid red state like Idaho. This hasn't always
been the case. A. Cosa said that in nine seen
sixty John F. Kennedy campaigned in thirty five states and
his opponent, Richard Nixon, visited all fifty. Okay, but let's

(04:08):
go back to the foundation of all of this. What
it says in the Constitution about the electoral vote, the
National Popular Vote movement Hinges on a clause contained an
article to Section one. Each state hill appoint in such
a manner as 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 Congress. According

(04:31):
to National Popular Vote supporters, the Constitution requires the use
of electors to choose the president, but it gives states
the right to pick those electors in such a manner
as they see fit. And that's exactly what fifteen states
and Washington d C. Have done. They've chosen to pledge
all of their electors to the winner of the national
popular vote instead of their state level popular vote. Cosa explained,

(04:54):
the Constitution sets up the electoral college, but doesn't say
how these electors get to the electoral College. It leaves
it totally up to the states instant only. This is
how forty eight states plus DC ended up with a
winner take all system in the first place. The winner
take all idea isn't anywhere in the Constitution, explains Kosa.
States past legislation one by one as majority politicians tried

(05:16):
to consolidate power in the decades preceding the Civil War.
Only Nebraska and Maine divvy up their electoral votes by
congressional districts. Critics of the National Popular Vote movement argue
that even if the interstate compact isn't expressly unconstitutional, it's
at least anti constitutional. They point to the fact that
the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as a deliberate

(05:38):
move away from direct democracy. By giving ultimate power over
selecting the president to a representative body chosen by the states,
it avoided the threat of unchecked majorityarianism. In the words
of the Congressional Research Service report, the National Popular Vote
plan and opponents say would undermine the intent of the
Founding Fathers by bringing back majority rule. Other criticisms of

(06:01):
the National Popular Vote proposal are that it would incur
endless state recounts because so much will be writing on
every single vote nationwide, not just in battleground states. Also
that it would disadvantage smaller states over larger ones, and
further that it would encourage multiparty elections in which a
candidate could win the presidency with a plurality of votes
but not a majority. In the extensive Answering Myths section

(06:26):
of the National Popular Vote website, the organization addresses these
criticisms and many more, generally arguing that the National Popular
Vote scheme won't be any worse than what we have
now and has the potential to function far better. For example,
state recounts are already a pain, and fifteen American presidents
have already won the White House without an absolute majority

(06:46):
that's more than of the popular vote. Further, most of
these smaller states are currently ignored during campaign season because
they aren't battlegrounds. If you've paid attention on US election night,
you know that two d and seven is the magic
number of electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
It's also the same number of electoral College votes required

(07:07):
to make National Popular Vote a reality. The only way
for the Cooperative Interstates scheme to work is if all
of their pooled electoral votes add up to a majority.
As of this recording, National Popular Vote legislation has passed
in states with a total of a hundred and ninety
six electoral votes, which is seventy four shy of the goal.
Maine could be the next to add its four humble

(07:29):
electoral votes, but it will take some bigger states to
sign on, many of which voted for Trump, who once
again stands to benefit from the electoral College in the election.
While the vast majority of states who have signed on
to the National Popular Vote have been Democratic strongholds, Colorado
became the first purple state to join in May, could
more follow we'll keep you updated. Today's episode was written

(07:56):
by Dave Brus and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For
more in this and lots of other political topics, visit
our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And for
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