With the 2022 elections over and the next one two years away, Congress, states and voters should look for ways to restore trust in the electoral system. An obvious goal is to make presidential elections as straightforward and transparent as possible. A good start would be to replace the least-understood element of presidential elections: the Electoral College.
Trust in presidential elections has followed a predictable pattern in recent years. Voters trust the current system when their candidate wins and distrust the outcome when their candidate loses. The “big lie” former President Trump spread relating to the 2020 election has made distrust epidemic.
It hasn’t helped when most Americans vote for one presidential candidate only to see the office go to the opponent. Distrust in an election can reach a fever pitch, including insurrection, as we saw on Jan. 6, 2021.
What’s wrong with the Electoral College? In 1787, during the Constitutional Convention, the founders spent 22 days debating how America should choose its presidents. They held 30 votes before settling on the Electoral College.
Subverting majority rule is only one of its problems. The Brennan Center for Justice calls the system one of the most undemocratic elements of governance in the United States. It explains:
- The Constitution’s framers wanted to thwart direct democracy because they were uncomfortable giving so much power to the people.
- The Electoral College was meant to protect the influence of slave states.
- It gives “disproportionate voting power” to citizens of smaller states. For example, Wyoming’s voters have four times the influence of California’s voters.
- The Electoral College marginalizes tens of millions of voters in solid red and blue states.
- It’s theoretically possible a candidate could win the presidency with only about 23 percent of the national popular vote.
- To collect electoral votes, presidential candidates don’t pay much attention to states with smaller populations.
However, replacing the Electoral College with another system would require a rare constitutional change. Nearly 12,000 constitutional amendments have been proposed since 1798, but only 27 have succeeded. More than 700 of the unsuccessful amendments were to change or abolish the Electoral College.
On the other hand, there may be more motivation now. The big lie has generated momentum to alter to process of choosing electors in ways that make the process even less democratic and fair. Some state legislatures want the power to pick their own electors, overriding those determined by voters — precisely what Trump tried to have some states do before Congress could certify Joe Biden’s win in 2020.
There is a workaround to amending the Constitution. The Pew Research Center found last summer that 63 percent of American adults favor scrapping the Electoral College and choosing presidents with the nationwide popular vote: 80 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents felt that way, compared to 42 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning adults. Although less than a majority of Republicans preferred the popular vote, their support has grown from just 27 percent after the 2016 election, Pew found.
The workaround involves two steps. First, Congress should finish passing the bipartisan bill the House approved in September to prevent a repeat of what happened in January 2021 when Congress attempted to certify President Biden’s victory. The bill would make clear that the vice president’s role is merely ceremonial and require that states send Congress election results that accurately reflect the decisions of their voters. At last report, a similar bill in the Senate was sponsored by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, indicating it could win enough votes to pass there.
The second step is up to voters. They should pressure their states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), an initiative launched in 2006. States join by passing legislation that awards all their electors to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote — rather than the state. Where legislators are reluctant, citizens in states that allow referenda can put membership in the compact on the ballot in the next election. The people of Colorado did that after their legislature failed to approve the compact.
The compact would take effect when its member states control at least 270 electoral votes — the majority of the nation’s 538 electors. So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia have joined, representing 196 electoral votes. In several other states, one of two legislative chambers has already approved the compact.
There may be additional ways to help the American people trust elections, but greater transparency is the first step. We can argue about ballot boxes, early voting, absentee voting, voting hours, voter identification and so on, but the most fundamental reform is to elect presidents with a process the people can understand.
William S. Becker is co-editor and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” a collection of more than 30 essays by American thought leaders on topics such as the Supreme Court’s perceived legitimacy. Becker has served in several state and federal government roles, including executive assistant to the attorney general of Wisconsin. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House.