The Electoral College maps the political divide. Should we keep the system?

After divisive elections such as the Bush/Gore and Trump/Clinton races, voters consider once again the Electoral College and why we choose our President through this means. What is the Electoral College, why is it in place and is it still the correct way to elect a president?

The Electoral College was created by the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention. With few changes, the EC was established to ensure the states are fairly represented in electing the president and vice president. The convention debated whether to have Congress or the people decide. A consensus was reached tasking the states with selecting Electors to represent the people’s vote (Article ll, Section 1).

The main reason behind the original decision for fair representation was to ensure that several densely populated areas of the country did not speak for the whole nation. Former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said, “If we don’t have the electoral college, presidential candidates will spend their time in those highly populated areas and exclusively speak to their issues – rather than national issues.”

The number of electors for each state is equal to the total number of Senators and Representatives the state sends to Congress. This bicameral system allows the states to be represented equally in the Senate: every state has two Senators. The number of Representatives are apportioned among the states according to the population determined by the Census. Washington state has 10 Representatives, thus a total of 12 electors.

Currently the total number of electors is 538. (In 1961, the 23rd amendment provided the District of Columbia three electors.) Most of us know the magic number is 270 to claim victory.

According to a New York Times article Dec. 19, 2016 entitled “A Historic Number of Electors Defected, And Most Were Supposed to Vote for Clinton,” of the 306 electors pledged to vote for Donald Trump, 304 voted for him. Of the 232 pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton, 227 voted for her. This was unusual. In Washington state, three of the state’s 12 electoral votes went to Colin Powell and one elector voted for Faith Spotted Eagle. In two other states electors also went rogue.

Initially, Democratic electors in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota broke ranks and would not vote for Hillary Clinton and were replaced or changed their vote. Ultimately, those three states did go to Clinton.

Although the Constitution does not require the electors to vote for a specific candidate, some states require a “pledge” from the electors and may fine or replace electors who refuse to vote as pledged.

I found some interesting facts on votes by county nationwide. The Associated Press found that Clinton won 487 counties nationwide, compared with 2,626 for President Trump. These totals are very close to PolitiFact.com, a non-partisan fact checking website. This group determined Clinton won 489 counties and Trump 2,623.

In New York (62 counties), Trump won 46 and Clinton 16. This is where numbers are interesting, when population per county is taken into effect. For example, per FactCheck.org, census data shows that Kings County, New York (Clinton won), has a population of 2.6 million people, and Petroleum County in Montana (Trump won) has 475 people.

Time magazine stated: “The majority of Trump’s counties have small populations, even if they are geographically larger than average.” By Time’s calculations, “Trump’s territories account for 75.6% of the nation’s land mass, not including water. And yet, he lost the popular vote by (over 2.8) million votes, since Clinton won most high-population, urban areas that take up less space but house many more people.”

It is a well-known fact, people with like minds migrate to geographic areas. So, the high population areas will consistently have residents with a similar political mind set. The flip side is also true. So what is fair?

There are many pros and cons and strong sentiment on both sides of the argument. Four times over the years, the Electoral College voted for a president who did not have the popular vote.

Since the Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution, it would be necessary to pass a constitutional amendment to change this system.