ELECTORAL COLLEGE BENEFITS

The 2024 Presidential Election brought attention once again to the Electoral College. The losing party often berates it as unfair, but it was actually a fantastic idea by the founding fathers. The Heritage Foundation explains it far better than this author can. The following is from Heritage.org:

When the Framers drafted the Constitution in 1787, they could not have predicted the many changes and advances that our society has undergone since the 18th Century. However, through their genius and foresight, they designed an electoral system that has the ability to adapt to modern-day America and work even better than they could have anticipated. Below are some of the many benefits of the Electoral College.

PRESERVES FEDERALISM. The Electoral College preserves the principles of federalism that are essential to our constitutional republic. The U.S. is a large country made up of people from very different regions and cultures, and federalism is an important way of preserving the differences that make us unique while uniting us behind one common federal government.

ENCOURAGES BROAD COALITION BUILDING AND MODERATION. The Electoral College prevents presidential candidates from winning an election by focusing solely on high-population urban centers and dense media markets, forcing them to seek the support of a larger cross-section of the American electorate. This addresses the Founders’ fears of a “tyranny of the majority,” which has the potential to marginalize sizeable portions of the population, particularly in rural and more remote areas of the country.

PROMOTES LEGITIMACY OF ELECTION OUTCOMES. The Electoral College increases the legitimacy and certainty of elections by magnifying the margin of victory, thereby diminishing the value of contentious recounts and providing a demonstrable election outcome and a mandate to govern. Since 1900, 17 out of 29 presidential elections have been decided by 200 or more electoral votes.

A MECHANISM FOR STABLE ELECTIONS. The Electoral College makes elections more stable, and less likely to trigger contentious recounts. Every state has different procedural rules for the administration of elections, including how recounts are triggered and conducted and how provisional ballots are counted.

DISCOURAGES VOTER FRAUD. While no system can completely eliminate the risk of individuals trying to cheat the system, the Electoral College minimizes the incentives for voter fraud because the system isolates the impact of stolen votes. Under the current system, stolen votes only affect the outcome of one state rather than the national outcome. 

Let us pray that the Constitution and the Electoral College stay intact in every future election for many more generations.