The Process of the Electoral College

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute once again discusses the electoral college. According to him we participate in the electoral college because of two reasons. The first being because we have a legal obligation to do so, as stated by the Constitution and state laws. The second is because it is a tradition in our political culture. We have been practicing this for so long that even when there are calls to change the process to a popular vote we still stick to the electoral college. He brings up the idea of the “unit rule”, which simply means that the candidate with the most popular votes in a particular state receives that state’s electoral votes. What I found to be very interesting is that this practice of “unit rule” is not in the Constitution. In every state, besides Maine, the “unit rule” was first a tradition that eventually became part of state law. Since this video was aired in 1989, it was very ironic to hear that as Vice President George Bush would be presiding over the ceremony which would announce his own presidential victory. This situation last happened in 1837.