Idaho and the Electoral College

by Senator Brent Hill

A recent letter to the editor stated that “the Electoral College is an anachronism and a travesty that definitely needs to be scrapped.” Such critics fail to recognize that the Electoral College is an important part of the framework of constitutional checks and balances. A better understanding of the purposes and advantages of the Electoral College will help us appreciate the wisdom of our Founding Fathers.

The Origin of the Electoral College
            Long before Democrats and Republicans, before opinion polls and mass mailings, the Founders of our country adopted the electoral system while drafting the Constitution. It was a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. Although the Constitution does not use the term Electoral College, Article II, section 1 of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment describe the electoral process.

How the Electoral College Works
Each state is allotted electors equal to the number of House members to which it is entitled based on population, plus its two Senators, totaling 538 electors nationwide. These electors are not the House and Senate members themselves, but are determined by the results of each of 51 separate state elections (including D.C.). In Idaho presidential electors are selected by each political party at its state convention prior to the general election. The President and Vice President are actually selected by these electors based on the results of the general election in each state. It is possible that an elector could ignore the results of the popular vote, but that rarely occurs.

The allocation of electors on this basis provides smaller states (by population) an advantage in the Electoral College, thus protecting state’s rights that were so cherished by our Founders. For example, based on the 2000 census, Idaho was allotted four electors (two House members and two Senators) to represent its 1,293,953 citizens. California was given the largest number of electors, 55 to represent its 33,871,648. The result is that Idaho has an elector for every 323,488 citizens, while California has an elector for every 615,848 persons. The vote of an Idaho citizen counts almost twice as much as someone’s vote in California when it comes to electing our President! The small states were given this additional power to prevent politicians from focusing on issues that only affect larger states. Why would we, as Idahoans, ever want to remove that advantage to rural states? The drafters of our Constitution were adamant that neither the Senate nor the President was to be elected on the basis of one person, one vote.

Advantages of the Electoral College
            The Electoral College offers several advantages:

• It upholds federalism and reinforces the role of states in one of the most important acts in our representative democracy.
• It limits the effects of any corruption or mismanagement at the ballot box to the state in which it occurs.
• It encourages candidates to consider local issues and conduct a national, rather than regional campaign. Without the Electoral College political battlegrounds would move even more to the populous, metropolitan areas of the country, at the exclusion of rural Americans.
• It is a good antidote to the poison of regionalism that plagues so many other countries. It makes presidential campaigns a nationwide event, providing a measure of coherence to our nation. 

The Effects of the Electoral College on our Nation
The Electoral College continues to affect the course of American history. In only three of our fifty-five presidential elections has the Electoral College winner failed to garnish a majority of the popular vote: Rutherford B. Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888), and George W. Bush (2000). We can only speculate how this nation might be different without the Electoral College. One thing we do know: if we ever abolish the Electoral College, we will be taking America further away from its roots as a constitutional republic.