A Beginner’s Guide to the Electoral College
On November 7, major news outlets finally called the election. (Spoiler alert: Biden and Harris won.) The days of going to sleep and waking up to the only men we need in life — *ahem* John King and Steve Kornacki — have come to an end (for now). But what’s the big deal with color-coding maps? And why don’t we really care about the popular vote?
It’s a presidential election year. You wake up. It’s the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. You registered to vote months ago. You’re ready. You’ve been ready. Your job gave everyone a paid day off to vote. You get to your local polling place and there’s no line — as you would expect in your very privileged neighborhood. There are plenty of voting machines available with no issues. You checked in and cast your ballot. Now you get to flex your “I Voted” sticker all over Instagram. This is it — democracy!
You go about the rest of your day: a quick class at Soul Cycle followed by your weekly trip to Whole Foods. You finally get home and turn on your TV. There he is — John King. Just how you wanted to end your day. But then you see it. Your state of California is blue, but you voted for Jill Stein. Your vote still counts, right? Short answer: kinda, sorta, not really. Long answer: the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is complicated — and that’s exactly how our founders wanted it to be. Each state has two senators and anywhere from one to 53 representatives in the House. A state’s Electoral College votes is equal to its two senators + however many House representatives it has. The minimum number of votes a state can have is three (2 senators + 1 rep.). California has the most votes with a whopping 55. There Electoral College is made up of 538 electors and a candidate needs 270 votes to win. These electors ultimately decide who wins the presidency and cast their votes on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December.
But doesn’t my vote count? I thought this was a democracy.
Your vote counts. And will be counted in the election. Buuut we have a representative democracy (sometimes called an indirect democracy), meaning we don’t directly vote for candidates (presidents). Instead, we elect officials who do the work for us by nominating electors who later cast their votes for president. (State legislatures play the biggest role in nominating electors.) We do vote directly for other things like state representatives, House representatives, and senators. So please please please keep voting and learn about all the candidates on your ballot!
So the presidency is decided by electors I barely know?
Well, yes. Forty-eight states (not Maine and Nebraska) and D.C. have a winner takes all system. Whatever presidential candidate gets the most votes in that state gets all the electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska use something called the “congressional district method” which splits the electoral votes by congressional district. The winner of the popular vote in these states is awarded two electoral votes (based off the two senators), and then each congressional district in the state gets their own vote.
How can I trust these electors to vote how my state has decided?
In all honesty, it really is just blind trust (which sucks). The Constitution just gives states the groundwork for how many electors they get. From there states decide how these electors are chosen. These electors are typically chosen at political party conventions and usually align with whatever party is in control of your state. But if it helps you sleep better at night, most states have developed rules that punish “faithless electors” (the electors who go against states’ popular votes). According to the U.S. National Archives, “more than 99 percent of electors have voted as pledged” and the ones who didn’t vote as pledged have never decided an election.
P.S.: In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that states can require electors to vote according to their state’s popular vote (which basically means the punishments and fines these states have for faithless voters are totally legal).
P.P.S: Only 32 states and D.C. actually have laws requiring electors to vote according to the popular vote. In states that don’t have these laws, electors are technically allowed to vote however they want.
Okay, so these people are pretty much voting based on what my state decides. Why is this so controversial?
In short, the Electoral College is largely unrepresentative. Let’s look at the numbers here.
Wyoming is the least populated state and has 3 electoral votes. California, the most populated state, has 55 electoral votes. More people, more votes? Yes. More people, more votes, more impact? No. In Wyoming, one electoral vote represents 188,000 voters. In California, one electoral vote represents 677,000 voters. With the Electoral College, the popular vote basically means nothing. In 2016, Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, but still lost the presidential election. On the other hand, supporters of the Electoral College argue that it allows for less populated areas (pretty much the whole middle part of the country) to have a voice that would otherwise be drowned out by densely populated (mostly liberal) coastal cities.
And let’s not overlook the Electoral College’s racist roots.
I think I got it. Different votes hold different weights based on where you’re voting. But what about voter fraud?
Extensive research has shown that voter fraud rarely happens. And here’s a fact check on recent voter fraud claims from the 2020 election. The much larger problem throughout the United States is the issue of voter suppression. Black and Latino voters are heading to the polls in record numbers, but barriers still exist.
Psssst: Getting rid of the Electoral College is great, but officially abolishing it would require a Constitutional amendment (which is pretty hard).
