The Electoral College and Three Inch Heels



Since we elect our President today (the Electoral College meets today, December 19, 2016) I thought I would re-run this column about one of America's better ideas.
 
        If you are a woman of diminutive stature (I am only 5’2”) you appreciate the small advantage that comes from wearing high heels.  Wearing heels doesn’t make me as tall as everyone else, it just makes me a little more competitive in eye-to-eye conversations.   And that, oddly enough, explains why I love the Electoral College.  
Every election cycle produces people who want to eliminate the Electoral College as if it were an inflamed appendix.  Yet the Electoral College has worked smoothly over 94% of the time.  If you want more faithful service than that you need a golden retriever. 
Article II Section 1 of the Constitution is proof that the framers were intelligent masters of the concept of compromise.  There were some in 1787 who wanted the President of the United States elected by members of Congress.  Others thought he should be elected by direct vote of the people.  The common ground they came to was the Electoral College.  Each state was given a number of electors equal to its number of representatives and its two senators.  The inclusion of the two senators is the mathematically significant piece.  It empowers the small states disproportionate to their size by factoring in equal representation in the Senate. 
            Most people know that when they vote for a Presidential candidate they are really voting for a slate of Presidential electors, commonly called the Electoral College.  The party who gets the majority (or plurality) of the votes in any particular state gets to send their electors to the college.  These chosen electors then meet on the Monday following the second Wednesday in December.  [Sounds like figuring out Easter doesn’t it?  Remember, these rules were made in the days of literal horse power.]  They meet in their respective states and cast their ballots. The candidate who gets the majority of electoral votes (in this case, 270 of 538) becomes President of the United States, announced officially on January 6.  Of course we all know the results of both the popular and electoral college vote within hours of the November election.  Or do we?
On principle, these representatives are selected by their party to vote for the candidate of their party, BUT they do not have to.  They are free agents, allowed to vote for anyone they wish—the opposition candidate, their spouse, a football quarterback—they vote their conscience.  Has this ever happened?  Only about 200 times; eight times in my life time alone.  
            Many people are sure that the Electoral College gives disproportionate strength to the big states.  California gets 55 delegates, Texas 38, New York 29…; while Wyoming, Vermont, the Dakotas, Montana, Delaware, and Alaska get only 3.  On the surface this might look unfair, but it is, in fact, just the opposite.  The Electoral College gives added strength to the small states, and dilutes the strength of the large ones.   
            For simplicity let’s look at just the smallest and largest states by population: Wyoming and California.  Wyoming has 0.17% of the total U.S. population, while California has 11.95% of the same.  California is 70 times larger than Wyoming.  Does that mean that they get 70 times more votes in the electoral college?  No.  California only has 18 times more delegates than Wyoming because no matter how large or small, both states get credit for two senatorial votes.   In essence, Wyoming “buys” an electoral vote for only 200,000 people while the same vote costs a Californian almost 700,000 people.  Earning a single electoral vote for “Jones” instead of “Smith” costs Californians more than 3 times as much as it does the citizens of Wyoming.
            Without the Electoral College, it would take the population of 31 states at the low end of the population to equal the population of California alone.  With the Electoral College it only takes the lowest 16 states to equal California’s clout.
            The next time someone criticizes the Electoral College, ask them to look at more than the numbers.  Ask them to look at the math. 
            God bless the founding fathers and keep the faith.  

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