Equalizing the Will of the States and the Will of the Nation

Abstract

AbstractThe current election system is quite complicated, and many Americans prefer a simple system they can understand. Today, the “winner-take-all” method of awarding state electoral votes makes the will of the states matter and the will of the nation as a whole irrelevant in electing a President. Any direct popular election would make the will of the nation as a whole matter and the will of the states irrelevant. Thus, replacing the current system with a direct popular election would mean replacing one extreme approach to electing a President with another. This chapter presents the author’s plan to improve the current election system, which keeps the Electoral College, but uses it only as a back-up election mechanism. The plan would provide the same principle of equal representation of the will of the nation as a whole and the will of the states in electing a President that exists in Congress in making any bill a Federal law. Under the author’s plan, direct popular elections of a President and a Vice President would determine the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole, and the states would be considered as equal members of the Union. Since the plan uses the current election system as a back-up mechanism, the chapter proposes a new method for awarding state electoral votes that may turn interested “safe” states into “battlegrounds.”KeywordsAutomatic planGallup pollsDirect popular electionFederal System PlanModified election systemNational Bonus PlanNew method for awarding state electoral votesPresident of an electoral majority in the Electoral CollegePresident of the peoplePresident of the states“Pseudo-electoral” votes