One Simple Electoral College Reform

Most advocates of Electoral College reform in the United States call for the complete abolishment of the system—and a sole reliance on the popular vote to determine the winner of the presidency. But our founders established a democratic republic—not a pure democracy. The Electoral College was a compromise between those who wanted the president picked by Congress and those who favored a popular vote. Political scientist George Edwards III notes that the Electoral College was never considered the "perfect" solution: "They (the founders) were tired, impatient, frustrated. They cobbled together this plan because they couldn't agree on anything else." 

In our view abolishment of the Electoral College is not the answer. In fact, a small reform of the system would make it much more representative of the people's will than it currently is. The simple allocation of each state's electoral votes proportionally (instead of the current 'winner-take-all' system) would prevent the effective disenfranchisement of millions of American voters. It just isn't fair that a candidate with a simple majority of the popular vote takes all of that state's electoral votes—while the losing candidate's voters really have no impact on the election. 

For example, Joe Biden won about 47% of the vote in Texas in 2020—but he got zero electoral votes from the state. Under the proportional system, he would have received 18 of that state's 38 electoral votes—a result closely matching the popular vote. Conversely, Donald Trump won more than 49% of the vote in Georgia in 2020—and also got zero electoral votes. Under the new system, he would have gotten 8 of the state's 16 electoral votes. A simple reform, with a much fairer result for all.

The proportional Electoral College approach is clearly a much better reflection of the popular will than the current system. This one simple change—an approach (by the way) already taken by both Maine and Nebraska—would improve electoral representativeness and avoid the need to go to a popular vote system.