The Electoral College forms an instrumental part of the US election process. Established in 1787, it has its roots in slavery and the political strategies of Southern states. The system was created to balance power between large and small states, but it allowed the South to magnify its political influence by counting enslaved people as part of the population.
The Compromise of 1787
During the Constitutional Convention, delegates debated how to elect the president. Northern delegates, generally opposed to slavery, argued for a system based solely on the population of free individuals. But the Southern delegates sought to increase their political clout by counting enslaved people as part of their population. This desire led to a compromise known as the “three-fifths compromise,” where each enslaved person would be counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of representation in Congress.
The Electoral College Structure
The structure of the Electoral College is directly influenced by this compromise. Each state is allocated electors based on the total number of its congressional representatives – both senators and representatives – which is determined by its population. By counting three-fifths of the enslaved population, Southern states were able to inflate their representation, granting them disproportionate power in the selection of the president.
Virginia, for instance, with a substantial population of enslaved individuals, controlled a significant share of electoral votes. This arrangement not only benefited slaveholding states in presidential elections but also reinforced their political dominance in Congress.
Consequences
The implications of this political structure was huge. It helped maintain the power of slaveholding states and contributed to the conditions that led to the Civil War. When Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the expansion of slavery, won the presidency in 1860, Southern states felt their power was diminishing and chose to secede from the Union.
Since its inception, the Electoral College has resulted in four presidential candidates winning the popular vote but losing the election, with Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000 being the most significant instance. This has led to calls for reform over the years, with ten Democratic states joining a popular vote movement to ensure that the candidate with the most votes wins.
In 1969, the House passed a constitutional amendment to replace it with a national popular vote, but Southern senators blocked it to preserve their political advantages.
