The time to get rid of the Electoral College is now. It’s now obsolete. No longer does it serve a helpful purpose. But has it ever? Below, I will show how it never served a purpose that helped the people of this nation in a fair manner.
The Electoral College’s original purpose was to enable the Southern states to compete and have equal say with the Northern states. The North had more cities and higher population centers. Even in the 1700s, the South had fewer people and was more agrarian. For the South to compete with the North’s population numbers and legislative power, the South needed to count its slave population. But to count slaves meant to consider them citizens or persons at the very least. According to the Southern states, slaves were not people, but the South still feared being underrepresented in the what would become the U.S. Congress. The South’s trepidation threatened to derail the formation of the United States. So the Three-Fifths Compromise was born.
By counting each slave as 3/5 of a person, the South could match the North in population and legislative power. To maintain the system, the Electoral College was created so that slave states would determine the president of the country, instead of get steamrolled by the Northern states during elections.
But, with the ratification of the 14th amendment, the nullification of the Three-Fifths Compromise occurred. With the Compromise now nullified, why wasn’t the Electoral College nullified? I’m honestly searching for a reason. The Three-Fifths Compromise formed the basis for the creation of the Electoral College. Since the Three-Fifths Compromise is gone, the Electoral College should’ve followed with the ratification of the 14th amendment.
Then, why do we still have The Electoral College. We keep it because it is a racial entitlement for white people. This is the argument litigators should use in court for how the Electoral College’s abolishment. That’s right, call it a racial entitlement. Litigators can use Shelby County v. Holder (the case that got it the voting rights act in 2013) as the basis. SCOTUS judge, Antonin Scalia, cautioned that racial entitlements are ”difficult to get rid of” in order to perform the ”normal political process.” Scalia was talking about the protections for racial minorities against voter suppression efforts in Southern states. But the Electoral College is a racial entitlement because it enshrines southern white power against racial minority voting trends. Litigate the case against the Electoral College this way and it will go bye-bye. I’ll leave the details to sharper minds than mine.
The Electoral College’s goal is to stand against the idea of “one person, one vote”. The system weighs one states votes or a particular person’s vote higher than others, and that’s not fair or democratic. Even Founding Father, James Madison, saw the South’s disadvantage and clambered against too much democracy saying, ”suffrage is more diffusive in the North than in the South. The latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of the electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections.”
What Madison was diplomatically trying to say was the North and the South have equal populations, but 1/3 of the south was enslaved. Under a popular voting system the South had less clout politically. And if slavery ever came up for a referendum, under a popular voting system, slavery would’ve been voted out of existence, with whites in the South having to share power with newly freed Black folk. So now you see how the Three-Fifths Compromise was used as the foundation for the creation of the Electoral College. And with that, this gave the South an advantage it still enjoys today.
Under the Electoral College, Black votes are muted. Even though Black people are more concentrated in the South, based on Black voting patterns, their preferred presidential candidate tends to lose electoral votes. Despite six states having Black populations of over 25%, five of these states vote reliably red in presidential elections. See why the Southern Strategy was so effective?
Then there is the “voters will be ignored” excuse that’s used if we abolish the Electoral College. But 3/4 of Americans live in states where the political parties don’t campaign. 3/4 of the country is already ignored due to the Electoral College.
Twice now, in the last 25 years, has the loser of the popular vote become president. This has caused candidates to campaign only in a handful states that don’t represent the majority of us. Unfortunately when you honestly critique the Electoral College it has worked as intended: weaken the black vote and black legislative power, and place some votes higher than others.
Let’s rid ourselves of this antiquated system and make every American citizen’s vote equal.
