[EM] In defense of the Electoral College (was Re: Making a Bad Thing Worse)

[Markus Schulze]

Dear Chris Benham,

I wrote (7 Nov 2008):

> In my opinion, the electoral college has two
> advantages to the popular vote.
>
> First: It gives more power to the voters in
> smaller states.
>
> [In the USA, the Senate is significantly stronger
> than the House of Representatives.
>
> For example: To appoint a Cabinet member or some
> other federal officer, the President needs the
> approval of the Senate, but not of the House of
> Representatives.
>
> Therefore, a deadlock between the President and the
> Senate would be more harmful than a deadlock between
> the President and the House of Representatives.
> Therefore, it makes sense to elect the President
> in a manner that corresponds more to the election
> of the Senate than to the election of the House
> of Representatives.]

You wrote (7 Nov 2008):

> Presumably then you would favour abolishing the
> general presidential election and instead fill the
> office by a vote among the members of the Senate.
>
> That would further greatly reduce the chance of a
> deadlock between the President and the Senate, and
> also save a lot of time and money.

A frequently used argument against the electoral
college is that it gives more power to the voters
in smaller states.

However, I don't think that this is an important
argument since the composition of the Senate
favours the voters in smaller states even more and
since the President needs the approval of the Senate
for most of his decisions. Therefore, a popular vote
of the President without a reform of the Senate
would rather only lead to more deadlocks between
the President and the Senate than to more equality
between the voters.

Markus Schulze