By Calvin Bruhns
The best way to change the controversial Electoral College system is to amend the Constitution – a tough task since it requires two thirds of Congress and three quarters of the states – or to hold a second constitutional convention, says George Mason University historian Rosemarie Zagarri.
“[That] opens up a whole new can of worms but it is a possibility,” Zagarri recently told a UC Santa Barbara audience in a lecture that was part of the Organization of American Historians’ initiative Historians’ Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump.
Many critics believe the Electoral College system is obsolete, given current populations and voting patterns. Donald Trump was the 5th president to be elected without having won a majority of the national popular vote.
Zagarri said the method for electing the president was hardly debated during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and there have been demands for its reform since the beginning.“The Electoral College is one of the most unpopular, least-understood institutions in our country today,” she said.
Her lecture, titled The Murky Past and Contested Future of the Electoral College, was co-sponsored by the departments of History, Political Science, Black Studies, as well as The Capps Center and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Zagarri began by recapping the ratification of the US Constitution at the Philadelphia convention, still a tumultuous time in the country following the war for independence, which happened less than a decade earlier.
“The rhetoric over the Constitution became quite heated”, she said, as the states were struggling to stay together as a union. The sides arguing over the design of the new government employed hyperbolic language to reinforce their views, some calling the Constitution “the rock of our political salvation,” others calling it “a homebred monster.”
But she noted that little of the discussion was focused on the Electoral College. “There was a debate about the office of the presidency, but not about the method for electing the president,” Zagarri said. She added that the founders wanted the president to have a strong executive power while preventing another King George III, by using a strong system of checks and balances to keep power in check.
“I think some people today may need to revisit this period and be reminded of that.” Zagarri said, to laughter from the audience. About the Electoral College, she asked: “How could a system that was so uncontroversial at the time of its founding become such a hotbed of controversy today?”
Zagarri said that after the Articles of Confederation were passed, there was very little contact between the people of the United States and the new government that united the states, which had little power to tax or regulate interstate commerce, nor authority over military deployments — a response to having been governed by Great Britain. The Constitution, she said, was an experiment at the time.
Since then, and throughout American history, there has been an inherent dissatisfaction with the Electoral College system and many calls for its reform, most often after controversial or unpopular elections. When the political parties are in direct conflict, the topic of reform becomes stronger, Zagarri said. When the parties work in a more cooperative relationship, people tend to regard the Electoral College more as a quaint, archaic institution.
Zagarri described a bill currently circulating through the states that seeks more direct proportional representation in the election of the president. The ultimate goal of the bill is to guarantee the White House to the presidential candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill was created by John Koza, co-founder of National Popular Vote, an organization that is working to eliminate the influence of the Electoral College.
The most recent state to sign the bill was Nevada, making it the 15th state to push for change. The 15 states that have so far signed on have a total of 195 electoral votes. Once enough states join together to guarantee the national winner 270 electoral votes, the pact for the alternate system can take effect. But enforcing a new system could prove difficult without congressional approval, Zagarri said.
She closed her talk by urging all of us to educate ourselves about the Constitution so we know what our options are. “The framers created the Constitution for ‘We, the People.’ We are the people for whom this union has grown,” she said. “And in this fraught and dangerous moment in our history, know your Constitution.”
Calvin Bruhns is a 4th year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Film and Media Studies. He is a Web and Social Media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.