The most recent declared Democratic candidate for president to dismiss the Electoral College as an anachronism thwarting the will of the American people is Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

“We can’t say it’s much of a democracy when twice in my lifetime the Electoral College has overruled the American people,” Mayor Pete said.

We can’t say much for Mayor Pete’s grasp of basic civics in referring to the 2016 election of President Donald Trump and the 2000 election of George W. Bush, both of whom obviously won in the Electoral College but lost the mythical national popular vote. That’s because America is not a direct or pure democracy, which often results in mob rule, but rather it's a constitutional republic. The Electoral College is a reflection of that fact.

There is no national popular vote, because every four years America holds 51 separate elections – one for each state and the District of Columbia – in choosing a president. Think of the election in terms of the World Series. The baseball team that prevails in four games is declared the winner, not the team that scores the most runs overall; same with the United States of America.



The Electoral College produces many benefits for those willing to look. It forces presidential candidates to appeal transregionally and focus on ever-changing swing states. Relying solely on the total popular vote would see candidates ignore most of the country in favor of populous areas. In the 2016 election, the Electoral College functioned exactly as intended by preventing Hillary Clinton’s 6-million-vote margin of victory in California and New York from cancelling out her 3-million-vote loss in the 48 other states.

Furthermore, the Electoral College produces a certainty of outcome, with the winning candidate’s share of the Electoral College invariably exceeding his or her share of votes.

Runoff elections in presidential contests are prevented by the Electoral College. The state-by-state method of electing a president acts like the watertight compartments of a ship by containing any electoral shenanigans to a given state. Imagine the Florida debacle in the razor-thin 2000 presidential election writ large.

The quest to abolish or neutralize the Electoral College – see the controversial National Popular Vote movement – is a solution in search of a problem. There have only been five cases where the winner of a presidential election lost the so-called national popular vote. The other three cases were elections in the 19th century, which means the Electoral College is 53 for 58 in terms of the winner of the election taking the Electoral College and the nationwide collective vote tally.

The real reason Mayor Pete and other Democrats want to end or go around the Electoral College is due to the fact the most "qualified person ever" to run for president was defeated in 2016 by a former reality television star who picked up presidential politics as a hobby the previous year.