The Electoral College Is Important Because It Reflects the Will of the States

We have a direct democracy: Senators, representatives and members of the Electoral College are all elected directly by the people. They do not, however, elect the president directly. This is a feature of the kind of government we have chosen from the beginning in which the states are important subsidiary (in some instances, primary) units of government.

Sometimes there will be a divergence between who is chosen by the Electoral College and who wins the popular vote, and that disparity can act as a caution to the elected president. But when the elected president's party controls the House and Senate, caution is less likely.

Even after a civil war and two world wars, the states control a large measure of the laws, administration and finance that have an impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. The states have their own political cultures, personalities and traditions which persist in spite of our far more transient population, an interconnected national economy and national news media.

In order to reflect this mode of governance, the interactions between the national government and the states in important matters often utilize the local units and personnel. The notion is that the states are not simply administrative units of the national government or its local offices. In that context it is quite appropriate that the head of state is elected state-by-state, albeit by popular vote in each state. That way at the most focused democratic moment, every four years the candidates and parties must take the states into account.

And sometimes it will happen that, as this year, there will be a significant divergence -- millions of votes -- between who is chosen by the Electoral College and the winner of the overall popular vote. Sometimes that disparity can act as a caution to the elected president, but where the House and Senate are in the hands of the elected president's party that caution is less likely to operate.