I've been arguing with a friend about that scintillating subject of the Electoral College. Here's your history lesson for the day. The Electoral College is part of the Constitution, The original purpose was to make sure that 'qualified voters' were the ones selecting the President and Vice President. Remember in 1787 very few people could actually vote. As a rule of thumb you had to be white, male and own a certain amount of property to vote.
Even white males didn't have universal suffrage until 1848. Former male slaves were given the vote after 1865, with those votes effectively taken away in the South after the end of Reconstruction in 1877 with the passage poll tax laws, physical intimidation, and other tricks to keep blacks from voting. Women weren't given the right to vote until 1920 after a long and arduous campaign lasting decades.
Whoever wins the popular vote for President in a state selects the Electors for that state. However, qualifications for Electors is set by each state. There is one elector for each member of the House of Representatives and one for each Senator. (Additionally, the District of Columbia has three Electors.) Most states have 'winner takes all Electors' except for Nebraska and Maine who can split their Electors but usually don't. Currently, there are 538 electors. It takes the vote of 270 Electors to win the Presidency/Vice Presidency. The Congress chaired by the Vice President certifies the election on January 6th.
Those are the facts. Here is the reality: States from the very beginning could decide who gets to vote - that's in the Constitution. In the late 1700's and early 1800's some states removed the property ownership requirement; some let black men with property vote; one let widowed women vote. A few states even had universal male suffrage way in advance of 1848. The two party system was less entrenched than it is now. Electors were a way of establishing the two party system.
Practically speaking, the infrastructure of the United States for 100 years was woefully lacking especially prior to the advent of railroads. There were very few passable roads. The majority of travel was by water using rivers. (It's no accident that settlements occur at crossings of rivers.) It took a long time for information about the election of the President/Vice President to be disseminated and to know who won.
Therefore, a small group of people (the Electors) from each state are dispatched to Washington D.C. and the Electors report their votes (not the popular vote) to Congress, and the outcome of the election is certified on January 6th. The insurrection and take over of the Capital on January 6, 2021, was all about trying to disrupt the certification of the election
So, it's voting in November, travel to Washington, Electors counted, election outcome certified January 6th, and the winner of the election was then sent via the Electors back to each state so everyone would know who actually got elected. It's no wonder that the inauguration of the new President wasn't until March. As the country continued to push Westward, it could take months for everyone in the country to know the outcome of the Presidential election. (The inauguration of the new President wasn't moved to January 20th until 1937 when the miracle of radio made the dissemination of the vote a matter of a few days.)
My argument is it's time to dump the Electoral College. It's now possible to win the popular vote by millions of votes and still lose the election based on the Electors still deciding who will be President. (Hillary Clinton got 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump, and she lost the election.) How is that possible? In simple terms, large blocks of Democratic and Republican voters and their Electors cancel one another out and suddenly the election is being decided by a handful of states. The media has designated these states as the 'battleground states' and how they vote is how the election is decided based on their Electors. It doesn't matter if you win or lose the popular vote. The Electoral College is distorting one person/one vote. We can know the outcome of the election almost instantly. In the 21st century we don't have to wait for the Electors to tell us.
Here's the rub: It takes a ratification of 2/3rds of the States to approve an Amendment to the Constitution. It took decades for everyone to be able to walk up to a polling place and vote in the United States. The outmoded Electoral College is taking away your vote! It's time to amend the Constitution and have the President elected by the popular vote of the people. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
