In modern day America, counting the popular vote seems like the best avenue for deciding a presidential election, making the Electoral College unnecessary.
However, the Electoral College should still remain relevant if the popular vote were to be compromised.
When election processes were designed, the Founding Fathers implemented an Electoral College to create a representative election process.
The Electoral College is defined as “a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president,” according to the Oxford Dictionary.
For the Electoral College, a set of electors are elected by popular vote for each state. The number of electors chosen for each state depends on the state’s population. Citizens vote for an elector they support and that elector will represent the people when the election comes around.
Currently, there are 538 electors. Without questionable political practices, like gerrymandering, the electors will represent the majority populations of their district. Only five elections, out of 58, in US history has a candidate won the popular vote and lost the electoral vote.
In the United States, the government implements a system of democracy known as a representative democracy.
The amount of electors, like the House of Representatives, are decided based off of the population of a state. This method was designed to give more of an equal say to each state.
Continuing to use the electoral college could act as a fail safe if there are incidents of a major manipulation of the election, like hacking.
While voter fraud is extremely rare, there are other ways to tamper with an election. Some states use outdated voting machines, according to NPR.org, that are vulnerable to hacking because they have no paper trail.
Russian hacking was an important topic in the 2016 election and many are afraid that it will affect the next election.
If something was proven to have affected the popular vote in future elections, the Electoral College would be a good fail safe because it still takes the public’s opinion into account to represent them, like the House of Representatives.
Faithless electors, or electors who voted against how they pledged, are also rare.
Voter turnout can also affect an election. According to FairVote.org, socioeconomic status affects voter turnout. The wealthier an individual is, the more likely they are to vote.
Race can also impact vote in the final election. According to the Washington Post, “among voting-age citizens, only 33 percent of Latinos and 35 percent of Asian Americans voted.”
When representatives are chosen, they are expected to represent all, even those who did not vote. This is the same for electors.
Making even small scale elections more accessible will impact the final presidential election by using the Electoral College as a comparison to the popular vote.
While the Electoral College may not be the best avenue for voting in modern day, it can still act as a back up option if something were to happen during the election.