How America Chooses Its Presidents addresses in a simple manner the
whole spectrum of issues relating to the Electoral College from the
perspective of its logical foundations. This is the first book to
question the applicability of the Presidential Succession Act, a
Federal Statute, in certain extreme but possible situations. The
book argues that the act may not protect the country from election
stalemates.
Today, 50 states and DC rather than a college of electors award
electoral votes in presidential elections. This appears to violate
the one state, one vote principle, the constitutional norm
governing the electing of a President by states, since a states
electoral vote quota is based on the size of its population.
Despite the counting of the nationwide popular vote since the 1824
election, its tally does not have any constitutional status, since
the popular vote in every state is no more than a means for
determining the winning slate of presidential electors in the
state.
The winner-take-all principle of awarding electoral votes makes
many states safe for either major party candidate. This narrows
election campaigns to a battleground minority of the states and
contributes to keeping more than 40% of the electorate uninterested
in voting in presidential elections.
Abolishing the existing election system in favor of a direct
popular presidential electionby means of a constitutional
amendmentseems unlikely. Seventeen small stateswith five and fewer
electoral votes eachhave no reason to voluntarily surrender the one
state, one vote principle in electing a President in the House of
Representatives, as well as the chance of having a say in the
Electoral College. The book analyzes a controversial proposal to
circumvent the small states by introducing a direct popular
presidential election without a constitutional amendment and argues
that this proposal is unlikely to prevail either.
The book proposes a modification of the existing election system
to allow the country to choose a ticket carrying two mandates that
the electorate can give in the electionfrom the nation as a whole
and from the states and DC as equal members of the Union. If any
two tickets carry one mandate each, the number of electoral votes
won by each ticket helps determine the election outcome. If neither
a majority of voting voters nor a majority of 51 members of the
Union favor any ticket, the Electoral College mechanism takes over
as a backup, and if it fails, the election is thrown into the US
Congress.
The book, written for a general readership, provides an overview
of original election rules, determined by Article 2 of the US
Constitution, and contemporary ones, determined by the Twelfth
Amendment.
Understanding the book does not require any special knowledge,
making it accessible to people of all walks of life at any age. At
the same time, the readers of How America Chooses Its Presidents
will undoubtedly improve their ability to think logically, making
them more critical of statements about the Electoral College and
about election campaigns.
General
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