The job of the Electoral College is to select the President and Vice President after the people of each state have voted. When the national vote and the electoral vote reach different conclusions, as happened in 2016, voters on the losing side cry foul. Why do we have an electoral college in the first place?
In this first of three presentations on our constitutional democracy, we will consider the rationale behind this 18th century institution. Alexander Hamilton argued that the Electoral College would reduce the “tumult and disorder” of a presidential election. Critics of the electoral college point to its racist origins: by following the political calculations of the 3/5ths clause, the Electoral College (like the House of Representatives) favored slave-holding states.
Nowadays apportionment in the Electoral College favors rural states. Vermont gets far more representation per capita in the Electoral College than more urban states like California. We’ll consider how the Electoral College and the federalist system benefits Vermonters. Is this really a privilege we want to forgo?
This program was funded by the “Why it Matters: Civic and Electoral Participation” initiative, administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation