Electoral College Pros and Cons

The President and the Vice President of the United States of America are elected by the Electoral College. The Article Two, Section One of the United States Constitution established the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of electors from each State and it meets once every four years to choose the President and the Vice President of the country. There are different sections of the society, who would want direct elections to elect the President and the Vice President of the country. On the other hand, there are also some sections, who are staunch supporters of the Electoral College. Having said that, let's see the Electoral College pros and cons.

What are the Pros and Cons of the Electoral College?
In the pros and cons of the Electoral College debate, we will start with the pros of the Electoral College.

Pros of Electoral College
The Electoral College enables the system to protect the interests of the rural communities and smaller States, as against those of the urban centers, large States or densely populated areas of the country. The Electoral College makes sure that a candidate who has broadly distributed appeal based on the geography of the country, makes it to the highest offices in the country.

The other argument in favor of the Electoral College is that, if the election is a closely fought one, it is easier to recount. In such a condition, only one large State votes can be recounted, instead of the votes of the entire nation.

Other than the convenience part, the most important argument given by the supporters of the Electoral College is that, it is a symbol of 'federalism'. It is important to note, that the various States in the United States are not merely administration units, but semi-sovereign entities. At the same time, it is noteworthy that the United States is not a direct democracy, but a federal republic.

The other point in the Electoral College pros and cons is that due to the Electoral College, the two party system can function, else there would be multitude of political parties, which can cause disintegration of the country.

Due to the winner takes all allocation of votes system in the Electoral College, even a small margin of victory appears much larger. Hence, the victory is more conclusive and legitimate. At the same time, the other advantage of the Electoral College is that in case of fraudulent votes in a particular State, it does not swing the balance in favor of a particular candidate, as it affects only the votes of that State. The fraudulent votes are neutralized by the large chunk of legal votes cast all over the country.

Cons of Electoral College
Having seen the pros in the Electoral College pros and cons, let's turn our attention to the cons of the Electoral College. The opponents of the Electoral College are of the opinion, that the small States are like 'swing States' and pose a problem in the elections.

The advocates of direct election are of the opinion, that direct elections would give every citizen of the country equal vote, irrespective of the State he lives in. This would prevent the imbalance in the weight of a potential vote given by the voters in the smaller and less populated States.

The other argument, which comes up against the Electoral College, is that there have been cases, where the loser of the popular vote became the President. The losing of the popular vote by the candidate is also called disenfranchisement of the people.

In case of a closely fought election, the exact number of seats of a party in the House of Representatives becomes a crucial factor in deciding the outcome of the election. Increasing the strength of House would tilt the balance in favor of the bigger States and the advantage of the smaller States would lessen.

The other con in the Electoral College pros and cons is that, there is a possible role of the Electoral College in depressing voter turnout. This argument is because each State is entitled to the same number of electoral votes, immaterial of its voter turnout. There are no incentives given to the States, which encourage voter participation.

If there is a close battle between the two contestants, there is a possibility of the election being rigged. There is also, always a chance of disloyal or bribed electors tilting the balance in favor of a particular candidate.

We have just seen Electoral College pros and cons. Looking at all the pros and cons of the Electoral College, it is indeed very difficult to decide, which system would work better than the other.