#420...and all those who say "aye"....and conclusion..

Arguments for the Electoral College

Proponents of the Electoral College system normally defend it on the
philosophical grounds that it:

* contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution
of popular support to be elected president
* enhances the status of minority interests,
* contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a twoparty
system, and
* maintains a federal system of government and representation.

Recognizing the strong regional interests and loyalties which have
played so great a role in American history, proponents argue that the
Electoral College system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country
by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president.

Without such a mechanism, they point out, presidents would be selected
either through the domination ofone populous region over the others or
through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the rural ones.
Indeed, it is principally because of the Electoral College that presidential
nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a
region other than their own. For as things stand now, no one region
contains the absolute majority (270) of electoral votes required to elect a
president. Thus, there is an incentive for presidential candidates to pull
together coalitions of States and regions rather than to exacerbate regional
differences. Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in view
of the severe regional problems that have typically plagued geographically
large nations such as China, India, the Soviet Union, and even, in its time,
the Roman Empire.

This unifying mechanism does not, however, come without a small
price. And the price is that in very close popular elections, it is possible that
the candidate who wins a slight majority of popular votes may not be the
one elected president -- depending (as in 1888) on whether his popularity is
concentrated in a few States or whether it is more evenly distributed across
the States. Yet this is less of a problem than it seems since, as a practical
matter, the popular difference between the two candidates would likely be so
small that either candidate could govern effectively.

Proponents thus believe that the practical value of requiring a
distribution of popular support outweighs whatever sentimental value may
attach to obtaining a bare majority of the popular support. Indeed, they
point out that the Electoral College system is designed to work in a rational
series of defaults: if, in the first instance, a candidate receives a substantial
majority of the popular vote, then that candidate is virtually certain to win
enough electoral votes to be elected president; in the event that the popular
vote is extremely close, then the election defaults to that candidate with the
best distribution of popular votes (as evidenced by obtaining the absolute
majority of electoral votes); in the event the country is so divided that no one
obtains an absolute majority of electoral votes, then the choice of president
defaults to the States in the U.S. House of Representatives. One way or
another, then, the winning candidate must demonstrate both a sufficient
popular support to govern as well as a sufficient distribution of that
support to govern.

Proponents also point out that, far from diminishing minority
interests by depressing voter participation, the Electoral College actually
enhances the status of minority groups. This is so because the votes of
even small minorities in a State may make the difference between winning
all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's electoral votes. And
since ethnic minority groups in the United States happen to concentrate in
those States with the most electoral votes, they assume an importance to
presidential candidates well out of proportion to their number. The same
principle applies to other special interest groups such as labor unions,
farmers, environmentalists, and so forth.

It is because of this "leverage effect" that the presidency, as an
institution, tends to be more sensitive to ethnic minority and other special
interest groups than does the Congress as an institution. Changing to a
direct election of the president would therefore actually damage minority
interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a national popular
majority.

Proponents further argue that the Electoral College contributes to
the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two-party system.
There can be no doubt that the Electoral College has encouraged and helps
to maintain a two- party system in the United States. This is true simply
because it is extremely difficult for a new or minor party to win enough
popular votes in enough States to have a chance of winning the presidency.
Even if they won enough electoral votes to force the decision into the U.S.
House of Representatives, they would still have to have a majority of over
half the State delegations in order to elect their candidate -- and in that case,
they would hardly be considered a minor party.

In addition to protecting the presidency from impassioned but
transitory third party movements, the practical effect of the Electoral
College (along with the single-member district system of representation in
the Congress) is to virtually force third party movements into one of the two
major political parties. Conversely, the major parties have every incentive to
absorb minor party movements in their continual attempt to win popular
majorities in the States. In this process of assimilation, third party
movements are obliged tocompromise their more radical views if they hope
to attain any of their more generally acceptable objectives. Thus we end up
with two large, pragmatic political parties which tend to the center of public
opinion rather than dozens of smaller political parties catering to divergent
and sometimes extremist views. In other words, such a system forces
political coalitions to occur within the political parties rather than within
the government.

A direct popular election of the president would likely have the
opposite effect. For in a direct popular election, there would be every
incentive for a multitude of minor parties to form in an attempt to prevent
whatever popular majority might be necessary to elect a president. The
surviving candidates would thus be drawn to the regionalist or extremist
views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the run-off election.

The result of a direct popular election for president, then, would likely
be a frayed and unstable political system characterized by a multitude of
political parties and by more radical changes in policies from one
administration to the next. The Electoral College system, in contrast,
encourages political parties to coalesce divergent interests into two sets of
coherent alternatives. Such an organization of social conflict and political
debate contributes to the political stability of the nation.

Finally, its proponents argue quite correctly that the Electoral College
maintains a federal system of government and representation. Their
reasoning is that in a formal federal structure, important political powers
are reserved to the component States. In the United States, for example, the
House of Representatives was designed to represent the States according to
the size of their population. The States are even responsible for drawing the
district lines for their House seats. The Senate was designed to represent
each State equally regardless of its population. And the Electoral College
was designed to represent each State's choice for the presidency (with the
number of each State's electoral votes being the number of its Senators plus
the number of its Representatives). To abolish the Electoral College in favor
of a nationwide popular election for president would strike at the very heart
of the federal structure laid out in our Constitution and would lead to the
nationalization of our central government -- to the detriment of the States.

Indeed, if we become obsessed with government by popular majority
as the only consideration, should we not then abolish the Senate which
represents States regardless of population? Should we not correct the
minor distortions in the House (caused by districting and by guaranteeing
each State at least one Representative) by changing it to a system of
proportional representation? This would accomplish "government by
popular majority" and guarantee the representation of minority parties, but
it would also demolish our federal system of government. If there are
reasons to maintain State representation in the Senate and House as they
exist today, then surely these same reasons apply to the choice of president.
Why, then, apply a sentimental attachment to popular majorities only to the
Electoral College?

The fact is, they argue, that the original design of our federal system
of government was thoroughly and wisely debated by the Founding Fathers.
State viewpoints, they decided, are more important than political minority
viewpoints. And the collective opinion of the individual State populations is
more important than the opinion of the national population taken as a
whole. Nor should we tamper with the careful balance of power between
the national and State governments which the Founding Fathers intended
and which is reflected in the Electoral College. To do so would
fundamentallyalter the nature of our government and might wellbring
about consequences that even the reformers would come to regret.

Conclusion

The Electoral College has performed its function for over 200 years
(and in over 50 presidential elections) by ensuring that the President of the
United States has both sufficient popular support to govern and that his
popular support is sufficiently distributed throughout the country to enable
him to govern effectively.

Although there were a few anomalies in its early history, none have
occurred in the past century. Proposals to abolish the Electoral College,
though frequently put forward, have failed largely because the alternatives
to it appear more problematic than is the College itself.

The fact that the Electoral College was originally designed to solve
one set of problems but today serves to solve an entirely different set of
problems is a tribute to the genius of the Founding Fathers and to the
durability of the American federal system.

Now class, don't you feel just a wee bit smarter? Good.  I do too. Thank you Mr. Kimberling.  Class dismissed.