A Debate On The Electoral College

Good Luck! My esteemed opponent has analyzed the electoral college and found it wanting. He believes it to be an inefficient formality. He offers two contentions to support his resolution: 1. "The Electoral College [EC] makes votes unheard. " 2. The EC gives some regions more representation than their population warrants, and others less. I will begin by correcting Con's analysis on what the EC is and what the EC is not. Then I will then refute his two contentions. Finally, I will offer a brief conclusion. (Note: I reserve the right to offer new arguments in round two) --------- Con believes that the main purpose of the modern EC is to echo the popular vote of its consituency. To a degree he is correct, this is a major function of the EC, but not the only one. The United States is a Federal Republic. A Federal Republic is a collection of sovereign states that give up certain aspects of their autonomy to form a larger 'union', or 'Federation'. [1] Therefore, when electing the Head of State for a Federal Republic there is more to consider than regional population. A state needs to be adequately represented in order to benefit from being a member-state of a Federation. The EC ensures that smaller, less populated states receive the same benefits as the larger ones. Without the EC smaller states such as Wyoming or West Virginia would receive even less federal consideration than they do under the current system. Politicians would have little reason to visit the mid-western states, and even less reason to give them the same benefits of union that larger states like New York and California enjoy. ------------ Claims: 1. The EC makes votes unheard (a,b,c). 2. The EC leads to overrepresentation and underreppresentation. Rebutals: 1. a) My young opponent claims that the voices of some citizens voting for the losing candidate go unheard (in cases where the winner of the popular vote loses the EC vote). I find a different interpretation to be more accurate. Their voices do not go unheard, rather the voice of the states Does get heard. b) This is not an argument in favor of reforming the EC. This is an argument in favor of conducting the federal census more often. We have the technology to make this more feasible today than we did when the census was instituted in the mid 1800s. c) Con is correct in his historical analysis. However, he offers no explanation as to why the election going into the House of Representatives is a bad thing that suggests that our election methods should be reformed. 2. . If someone were to look strictly at the popular vote then Con would be correct in this claim. However, as I have discussed above, there are more things to take into consideration. This nation was founded both on the sovereignty of the people and the sovereignty of separate states. The two branches of congress were created with the same principle as the EC. It apportions some of the representation based on population (House of Representatives) and the rest based on statehood (two votes for each state in the Senate). This gives smaller states like Wyoming the same representational proportion quoted by Con in Congress for the very same reason that the EC takes both measures into consideration - to ensure that the smaller states have some say in the Federal government. Therefore it would be more accurate to say that these states are given a base level of power to make their existence in the federation worthwhile than it would be to say that its citizens exercise more 'power' than others. ------------- CONCLUSION The United States of America was founded with two things in mind: the sovereignty of the people and the sovereignty of the separate states. These principles are reflected in the apportionment of Congress and the apportionment of the Electoral College. Both of these institutions ensure that the more populace regions like the Northeast and the West Coast do not dominate the less populace ones. A base level of power is necessary in order for all states to enjoy the benefits of union. 1. . http://en.wikipedia.org...