The Electoral College and Political Equality
The Electoral College and Political Equality
This chapter argues that the electoral college does not provide a straightforward process for selecting the president. Instead, the process can be extraordinarily complex and has the potential to undo the people's will at many points in the long journey from the selection of electors to counting their votes in Congress. Congress may find it difficult to choose justly between competing slates of electors. It is even possible, although highly unlikely, that a state legislature could take the choice of the electors away from the people altogether. Yet the chapter contends that the electoral college poses an even more fundamental threat to American democracy, by violating political equality.
Keywords: political equality, American democracy, Congress, popular votes, electoral votes
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