Lies, Damned Lies, and the Electoral College

(Factual correction from Conall: I misspoke and said the census is taken every year. I meant to say every decade!) In this episode, Emerson and Conall discuss the history and function of that much-discussed institution, the Electoral College. We analyze why it was adopted as a compromise measure by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 (and how the most important author of the Constitution, James Madison, favored a popular vote for electing the president). We also note that the Electoral College does not, in fact, protect small states and that it incentivizes presidential campaigns to narrowly focus on a dozen or fewer states in general election campaigns - in a country of 50 states, most states get ignored by campaigns in the general election owing to them not being competitive. In the last month before the 2016 election, for example, Hillary and Trump spent the vast majority of their time in just a few states: FL, OH, MI, PA, NC - all with populations of 10 million or more. Florida, the perennial swing state, is the 3rd most populated state in the country! Finally, we discuss the prospect of abolishing the Electoral College, remedies for accomplishing this, and what that would change about conducting presidential campaigns.