What is the electoral college? Why are people saying it’s racist? Why isn’t the election over? What just happened?
These questions received quite a bit of news in the 2016 US presidential election when various news outlets consistently reported Hillary Clinton in the lead by popular vote. As we all know now, Clinton lost the election even though she received 65,853,514 votes while Donald Trump received 62,984,828.1 That’s over 2.8 million more votes. She lost the election because in the United States, the electoral college determines the election, not the popular vote.
Now, Joe Biden is ahead of Trump by more than 3 million votes.2 Despite his lead, Biden has not yet received the required 270 electoral college votes to win the election. And again, many Americans are wondering why this is happening….
What Is the Electoral College?
The electoral college is an election system that appoints electors in each state to vote on behalf of the state. Whichever candidate secures the most electoral votes wins the election.3
How Does it Work?
Here in the United States, each state is allocated a given number of electors depending on the population of each state. The total number of electors is 538. This total remains the same even if the overall population increases.
Once a given state counts its total number of votes, whichever candidate has the most votes wins all of the electors’ votes. However, there are two exceptions: Maine and Nebraska, each of which has a split electoral voting system. To win the election, a candidate must secure 270 or more electoral votes. Thus, it is actually the electoral college that elects the president of the United States.
How Did the Electoral College Come About?
The idea of an electoral college first arose in Federalist No. 68, written by Alexander Hamilton (18th century guy to your right). This essay, which was one of many essays advocating for what would become the United States Constitution, argued that an electoral college was the best way to elect the president.4
First, Hamilton argued that the electoral college would ensure that the decision would be made by “men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”5
Otherwise stated, Hamilton believed that the general public might not be educated or informed enough to make the best voting decision. Thus, electors, who were better prepared, would make the final vote.
He also believed that appointing a short term elector of “transient existence” would reduce the chances of corruption or self-interest over the interest of the Union. He noted that unlike congress members, electors would have no longstanding political ties.6
“The Tyranny of the Majority”
Most notably, however, the college would help smaller states have a real voice in the election. If it were a popular vote, then it would be easier for a candidate to win so long as they were popular in a mere few states. This idea, that a simple majority that acts on behalf of only a few states might not act in the best interest of the entire Union, would come to be described by scholars as “the tyranny of the majority.”7
Ultimately, although some still favored a popular vote system, the delegates voted to establish the electoral college as the electoral system of the United States. The process was ratified in 1789 in Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
Is the Electoral College Racist?
It might be more accurate to say that the electoral college is an example of systematic racism in the 18th Century.
When the country convened for the Constitutional Convention, many southern politicians were aware of two key facts: (1) their states had populations much lower than the populations of their northern counterparts, and (2) they had the largest population of enslaved Black people, approximately 40% of the population in the South.8
Clearly, a popular vote was not in the South’s interest, since they would never allow enslaved Black people to vote. So, these politicians viewed the electoral college as their way to gain power. That is, the electoral college was an opportunity for the South to obtain more electoral votes, but only if they could count enslaved people as a part of the population when determining how many electoral votes their states received.9 At the beginning of the Constitutional Convention, however, legislators had planned to count only citizens to determine each state’s population. As is common knowledge, the United States government did not recognize enslaved people as citizens at that time.
This just wouldn’t do for the South, so they demanded that the delegates change the rules so that enslaved Black people would be counted, or else the South would not vote to ratify the Constitution. The delegates decided to compromise.
The Three-fifths Compromise
The Three-fifths Compromise established that “enslaved Black people would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of allocating representatives and electors and calculating federal taxes.” It is also an example of critical race theory, training on which Trump recently banned in all federal agencies.
This compromise was the result of much debate. At the time of the Constitutional Convention, many in the North were becoming more and more abolitionist (albeit, still racist) while the South strongly supported slavery due to their racism and their economic dependence on slave labor.10 Ultimately, the North favored uniting the North and the South over abolishing slavery. Hence, the compromise.
One might argue that the electoral college may not have started out as a purposefully racist idea. After all, Alexander Hamilton, who first presented the electoral college in the Federalist Papers, opposed slavery. Unfortunately, he was no abolitionist, as he often compromised his personal beliefs against slavery for personal and political gain.11
Regardless of its original conception, through the Three-fifths Compromise the electoral college absolutely became racist. Of course, the United States ended the compromise when the Union abolished slavery, but this decision and countless others had a lasting impact.
Vox | The Electoral College, explained
If you’re interest in learning more about the electoral college, check out VOX’s latest video on the topic:
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[1] Federal Elections 2016: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Federal Election Commission. Washington D.C. 2017.
[2] 2020 US election results, Associated Press, Retrieved November 5, 2020 at 9:50 AM via Google.
[3] U.S. Const. Art. II. § 1.
[4] The Federalist Papers, No. 68.
[5] See note 4 above.
[6] See note 4 above.
[7] John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Longmans, Green & Co., 1913).
[8] Dave Roos, “Why Was the Electoral College Created?” History Stories, History Channel, updated November 2, 2020.
[9] Jeff Wallenfeldt, “Three-fifths compromise,” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
[10] Wikipedia. 2020. “Three-fifths Compromise.” Last modified November 2, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_Compromise#cite_note-3.
[11] Christopher Klein, “Alexander Hamilton’s Complicated Relationship to Slavery,” History Stories, History Channel, updated October 16, 2020.
