September 15, 2022 - Santa Monica, CA - In the wake of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Congress has introduced bipartisan legislation that would update the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Lawmakers are seeking to establish clear directives on who can submit a state’s electors, the role of the vice president in presiding over the electoral count, and limitations on the ability of state legislatures to override a state’s popular vote.
With the flurry of legislation and a Pew Research Poll showing increasing support for selecting the president by nationwide popular vote, the A-Mark Foundation’s deep dive into the origins and function of the Electoral College offers a starting point for the discussion, available at electoralcollegeinfo.org. A new A-Mark quiz on the electoral college helps people understand just how much they know about it.
Although the term “Electoral College” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution, the elector concept is covered in Article II, Section 1.
Electors are apportioned by population. But an analysis of state population vs. the number of electoral votes shows that some states have more representation than others. Each of Wisconsin’s three electoral votes corresponds to 189,433 people, amounting to 258% of the national average. Californians get the least state elector power because the state has 678,945 people per electoral vote, which is 72% of the national average.
One reason that people debate the legitimacy of the Electoral College is that five candidates have won the presidency despite losing the popular vote (8.5% of US presidential elections): John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, George W. Bush in 2000, and Donald Trump in 2016.
In addition to an overview of how the Electoral College was established, the A-Mark Foundation’s website explores rules for electors, pros and cons of using this method, alternative voting options, and laws on faithless electors (electors who do not cast a vote as pledged).
The A-Mark Foundation is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)(3) private operating foundation that has researched, funded, and disseminated factual reports to advance education, discussion, and debate since 1997. A full roster of the Foundation’s research may be found at amarkfoundation.org, including its website examining the 2020 presidential election.