There are many good and sufficient reasons why the U.S. should keep the present Electoral College system. Many have already been mentioned on this blog. Let me discuss one that has not had as much attention as others. The electoral college is a way of giving power to small states. Without it, California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Florida and just a few others would tend to dominate the popular vote. For example, consider the voting system in Israel, which offers nation-wide proportional representation for the Knesset, its parliament. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv dominate. The Prime Minister is the leader of the party that has amassed 50% of the vote or more; if no one party succeeds, then by a coalition of smaller parties.
What is wrong with applying such a system to the U.S? In a word, it would pretty much completely obliterate any influence of the smaller states. Any why is that a worry? Because the U.S. laboratory of 50 different entities would no longer be in play. Want to obtain some empirical evidence about the effects of the minimum wage? Then allow each state to set its own level, or none, and then we may study the effects of different policies. Want to know which rules of the road reduce deaths the most, deal best with traffic congestions? Then Then allow each state to set its own regulations, and we have a shot at determining which best achieves these two goals. Now, admittedly, this sort of federalism has all but disappeared from the present scene, thanks to a series of past Supreme Court decisions. But eliminating the Electoral College will only push us further down this particular precipice. No, hopefully Present-Elect Trumps Supreme Court picks will turn us back in the direction of states’ rights, but a big boost in that direction will be the retention of the Electoral College.
4:55 pm on December 17, 2016
