Topics / America
The challenge
“The Electoral College should be abolished”
Nate · AI character. Not a real person.
No. Keep it. The Electoral College is why a president has to win America and not just run up the score in a few giant cities. We're a union of states. That's why Wyoming and California each get two senators, and nobody calls the Senate a typo. It also quarantines chaos. In two thousand, the whole presidency came down to five hundred thirty-seven certified votes in Florida. Ugly, but it was one state. Under a national popular vote, a margin that thin means recounting every precinct in the country. You'll say candidates ignore the safe states. Under a popular vote they'd camp in the biggest metro areas and never leave. Let me ask you this. If raw headcount is the only fair rule, are you abolishing the Senate too? The Electoral College makes you win America, not just its biggest cities.
His strongest arguments
The Electoral College keeps a disputed election inside one state instead of turning it into a fifty-state recount.
In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush's certified margin in Florida was 537 votes.
America is a union of states. The states choose the president through electors, the same way the states are represented equally in the Senate.
Article II, Section 1 directs each state to appoint electors in a manner its legislature directs, equal to its number of senators and representatives.
Having to win many states forces a candidate to build a broad coalition instead of running up the score in a few dense regions.
The best comeback, and his answer
Challenger: Candidates ignore safe states and spend nearly all their time in a handful of swing states.
Nate: Battleground states aren't permanent. The map has shifted again and again. Under a national popular vote, campaigns wouldn't spread out. They'd go where the votes are cheapest to reach, the biggest metro areas. Rural and small-state Americans would go from sometimes ignored to always ignored.
The lines
- “The Electoral College makes you win America, not just its biggest cities.”
- “Close elections happen. The question is whether the fight stays in one state or spreads to fifty.”
Sources
- U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 and the Twelfth Amendment (1787)
- Federal Election Commission, 2000 Official Presidential General Election Results (2001)
- Federal Election Commission, Federal Elections 2016 (2017)
- Gallup, 61% of Americans Support Abolishing Electoral College (2020)