Classroom Publication

In 2000, George W. Bush was elected President of The United States, though he lost the popular vote to Democratic Candidate Al Gore. Bush won through the accepted official election process in the United States, the electoral college.

 Under the electoral college, voters indirectly cast their vote for President and Vice President through electors in each state who pledge to vote for the winning presidential candidates of each state. The number of electors for each state equals the number of U.S. senators and representatives each state has.

The election method of the electoral college was adopted during the constitutional Convention in 1787. The United States is the only nation to have this type of election process.

The electoral college has come under vast scrutiny for not being the fair way to vote for a president. Many believe the popular vote should be used to decide the president.

"It is essentially unpopulist," said Christopher Arterton, dean of the graduate school for political science at George Washington University. "Both campaigns concentrate on marginal states, ignoring those voters in states that are heavily red or blue."

"The obvious downside is that it is possible to have results like 2000 where a candidate gets more votes and loses," said Dr. Steven Billet, director of legislative affairs at the graduate school of political management at George Washington University. "Another problem arises when candidates tend to focus all their efforts on competitive states and do little campaigning in so-called "safe" states."

There have been four elections in U.S. history where the popular vote winner lost the election for president, 1824, 1876, 1888, and most recently in 2000 when Bush beat Gore.

 "A constitutional crisis is waiting to happen," said David Canon, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The process for resolving a deadlocked electoral college is flawed."

A bill called the "National Popular Vote Bill," has been created to try to make the popular vote the official method for electing a president. On the National Popular Vote Bill's web site, it explains the bill as, "The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia)."

Currently four states have passed the bill, Maryland (10 electoral votes), New Jersey (15 electoral votes), Illinois (21 electoral votes), and Hawaii (4 electoral votes).

Some experts don't believe in changing the election process from electoral college to being decided by the popular vote.

"It confines election problems to a single state," said Herb Weisberg, a political science professor at Ohio State University. "Imagine what a national recount would be like!"

Experts also believe that the current process of the electoral college won't be changed anytime soon.

"I don't think it will be abolished," said Weisberg. "Both large and small states benefit from the current system too much to vote for change."

"It would take a Constitutional amendment which is hard to achieve," said Arterton. "Especially one that deals with the distribution of political power."

"I do not believe that the system will change any time soon," said Billet. "Given the other problems we face, election reform will not make it onto the agenda."

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