Influence of the Electoral College over Campaign Strategies

A detailed Summary of Influence of the Electoral College over Campaign Strategies

In What Ways Does the Electoral College System Influence the Campaign Strategies and Priorities of US Presidential Candidates? Outline the Criticisms that have been made of the Electoral College and how they can be overcome.

The process of electing a president in the US is not as simple as declaring the winner to be the candidate with the most votes. Each state is granted a number of Electoral College votes, which are to be awarded to the candidate that polls the most votes. The number of votes each state receives is determined by the number of seats it commands in the House of Representatives plus 2 for its senators, e.g. California receives 2 for its senators plus 52 for its representatives, giving it 54 Electoral College votes. Each state receives a minimum of 3 votes, even states with a very low population e.g. Alaska. The EC votes are then counted and the candidate getting 270 or above wins the presidential election. Understandably this election process has its strengths and weaknesses.

One of its main criticisms is that it can seriously affect the way in which a party campaigns in certain areas of the country. Because of the nature of the Electoral College system the winning party in a state receive

Because of the way EC votes are allocated it is possible for a candidate to receive the majority of the popular vote but not win the election, while the opponent gets the majority in the EC. This is because each state receives a minimum of 3 EC votes regardless of the population size, this makes vote allocation biased towards the smaller states. For example in California each vote is equivalent to around 550,000 people, whereas in Wyoming one vote is equivalent to just 150,000 votes. If candidate A were to win the majority of the large population states (California, Florida etc) but few small states and candidate B were to win most of the smaller population states (Alaska, Wyoming etc), then A would probably receive the majority of the popular vote while B would probably get the majority of EC votes and would therefore win the election. Such a scenario occurred in 1876 and 1888 and almost happened in 1960, 1968 and 1976.

Although both systems could work just as well as the current system they too have their problems. If either alternative were to be introduced it would be rejected by one group or another, even though all groups are probably unhappy with the current system. So unless something is devised that will satisfy everyone it looks as though the Electoral College is here to stay.

The first alternative would be to introduce a direct popular vote, where all the votes cast would be counted up and the winner would be the candidate with the majority. If no candidate received over 40% then there would be a play-off election between the two candidates who received the most votes. The advantage of this system would be that there could be no repeat of the 1879 and 1888 elections. It would also allow every voter a vote of equal value, so that people living in highly populated states would have a vote that was the same as those people living in low populated states. The disadv

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