From the Book "How to Research Elections"
By Fenton S. Martin and Robert U. Goehlert (Congressional Quarterly, 2000)
(complete text of book is available online)

Electoral College

Abbott, David W., and James P. Levine. Wrong Winner: The Coming Debacle in the Electoral College. New York: Praeger, 1991.

Writing from the predisposition that the electoral college is innately undemocratic in its unrepresentativeness, the authors argue that the United States is on the verge of a constitutional crisis. The authors use the constitutional arrangements by which presidents are elected, electoral history, and current political trends to highlight the shortcomings of the electoral college. Abbot and Levine identify the primary shortcoming of the electoral college as its capacity to produce either the wrong winner or no winner. They contend that the United States is on the verge of such an outcome.

Berns, Walter, ed. After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1992.

This edited volume analyzes and describes the electoral college and how it operates in the process of selecting the president. The book then evaluates three elections (1800, 1824, and 1876) in which the electoral college selected a president who was not popularly elected. The book examines criticisms and proposed reforms to the electoral college and the general electoral process. Appendixes provide constitutional provisions regarding the electoral college, precedents, party rules, and the projected allocation of electoral votes among states until the year 2000.

Best, Judith. The Choice of the People? Debating the Electoral College. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996.

The author examines the electoral college as a method of selecting the president. Best's thesis is that the electoral vote system is the very model of our federal system. If the federal principle is legitimate, then it is just as legitimate in the selection of the president as in the selection of the Congress. If it is not legitimate, then it should be abandoned throughout the U.S. Constitution. Based on this logic and the analysis she develops in the book, Best concludes that the electoral college has endured because it is a mirror of and the ultimate expression of the federal system. Best also provides a series of readings on the subject, including statements by Gouverneur Morris and Daniel Patrick Moynihan; excerpts from The Federalist Papers 39, 51, and 68; relevant sections of the U.S. Constitution; and a report of the Senate Judiciary Committee on direct popular election of the president and vice president.

Glennon, Michael J. When No Majority Rules: The Electoral College and Presidential Succession. Washington, DC: CQ Books, 1992.

In light of recent third party challenges for the presidency the author examines and evaluates the electoral college as the institution that selects the president. The possibility of constitutional crises emerge when no clear majority of electoral votes is awarded among three or more presidential candidates. After an initial discussion about the function of the electoral college over time, the author discusses its origins, its function today, the legislature's role in elections, the courts' role, and the legitimacy of the current electoral system. Appendixes include the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. code regulating elections, Supreme Court cases regarding the process, and House rules.

Hardaway, Robert M. The Electoral College and the Constitution: The Case for Preserving Federalism. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.

The author presents an in-depth historical and analytical discussion of the electoral college. Hardaway examines how the electoral college fits into the electoral process and how it operates. He also discusses the origins of the electoral college in the Constitutional Convention, its institutional evolution as the electoral process has been refined, and how it has affected the outcomes of presidential races. The author concludes by evaluating the proposed reforms that accompany each election cycle and suggests that the electoral college be preserved as an institution of the American federalist system of governance.

Longley, Lawrence D., and Neal R. Peirce. The Electoral Primer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

The authors provide a basic and clearly written introduction to why the electoral college was created and how it works. They discuss how popular votes do not equal electoral votes. Longley and Peirce explain the strange quirks of the electoral college and the significance of its consequences.

Peirce, Neal R., and Lawrence D. Longley. The People's President: The Electoral College in American History and the Direct Vote Alternative. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

The authors examine how the president is elected. They illustrate the discussion with an analysis of the 1976 and 1980 elections. Peirce and Longley examine the historical development of the system, including the birth of the electoral college; the first elections (in 1792 and 1796); and the conundrum presented by the 1800 election, which led to the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment. Peirce and Longley discuss years of controversy, including the elections of 1924, 1876, 1888, 1916, 1948, 1960, and 1968; then they return to 1976 and 1980. Following the historical explication the authors offer a discussion of the mechanics of the present system, the major reform efforts of the past two centuries, and the decade of electoral reform politics from 1969 to 1979. They compare the direct vote plan with the status quo electoral college system.

Sayre, Wallace S., and Judith H. Parris. Voting for President: The Electoral College and the American Political System. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1970.

The authors examine the method used to elect the president and alternative systems of election. They begin with a summary of the debate over the electoral college system. Sayre and Parris discuss the historical setting and the present status of the system. They outline four major proposals for reform: the direct-vote plan, the automatic plan, the district plan, and the proportional plan. The authors examine each plan, focusing on the old problems it would help solve and the new problems it would create. Sayre and Parris conclude that the electoral vote system with the winner-take-all, state general ticket, is the best of the methods examined.

Yunker, John H., and Lawrence D. Longley. Electoral College, Its Biases Newly Measured for 1960s and 1970s. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1976.

The authors use a voting power approach to estimate the biases of the electoral college and other major reform plans. They derive new estimates for the 1960s and 1970s reapportionment. Yunker and Longley develop several methods of determining voting power. Some approaches use voter turnout data and other approaches are based on alternative definitions of pivotal voting power. A technical appendix deals with mathematical questions raised by different selection methods.

Reform

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Direct Election of the President. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1977.

This concise volume covers the proposal for a direct election of the president. The work reviews the historical development of the electoral vote system, the framers' intent, the rise and growth of political parties, and the Twelfth Amendment. The book includes criticisms of the direct election proposal and electoral vote systems.

Bickel, Alexander M. Reform and Continuity: The Electoral College, the Convention, and the Party System. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.

The author examines the electoral system and argues that, while reform may be necessary, radical changes in the system are not needed. Bickel examines the history, flaws, and effectiveness of three major elements of the system: the electoral college, the party convention, and the two-party system with its degree of accommodation for small third parties. The author primarily uses the 1968 presidential election to illustrate the faults and merits of the system. Appendixes cover constitutional provisions concerning the electoral college and proposals for changing them, a proposal for a national presidential primary election, antidiscrimination standards to be incorporated into rules of state Democratic parties, and a call for the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Breckenridge, Adam C. Electing the President. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982.

The author addresses the discussion about whether the electoral college needs to be replaced with a different system. The alternative programs for presidential selection that are under consideration include the Maine District Plan, the national popular vote plan, and other alternative proposals that have emerged during the 1970s. The author also evaluates the implications this debate has for constitutional stability and other political institutions.

Crotty, William J., ed. Paths to Political Reform. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1980.

This edited volume examines political reforms in a wide range of contexts. The first section examines the electorate, the public mood, the role of parties and issues, and how changes in all these aspects of the political system affect reform prospects. Crotty looks at efforts to reform the electoral college. Next the volume examines issues and institutions in contemporary reform, focusing on parties, primaries, Congress, and campaign financing. Finally, the general problems with reforms are discussed.

-----. Political Reform and the American Experiment. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977.

The author examines the problems that lead to political reforms and the political mechanisms that enable these reform efforts. Crotty first discusses the ramifications of each problem. He then develops background information on the issue and presents several potential alternative approaches to resolving some of the dimensions implicit in the question. The author examines problems, including registration and voting, campaign financing, and the reform of political institutions. He concludes with a discussion of the reform cycle, including the unanticipated consequences of reform, the role of the courts and Congress, and federal funding and regulation.

Dummett, Michael. Principles of Electoral Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

The author examines the issues involved in electoral reform. He examines the constituency principle that parliaments should exclusively comprise those elected to represent the constituencies. This principle is observed in many democracies, including Britain and the United States. If it is abandoned, Dummett argues, other and possibly better systems of representation may be more plausible. He then examines proportional representation and its alternatives. He looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the German constitution's method of evading the constituency principle dilemma. The author also considers other electoral system components, such as the single transferable vote and multimember constituencies.

Keech, William R., ed. Winner Take All: Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Reform of the Presidential Election Process. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1978.

This special task force report examines the potential for reform in the current presidential election system. The report focuses on the electoral college and the various proposed alternatives to it in the context of the needs of the American political system. Task force members who defend the current system acknowledge its defects but maintain that the existing system is worth preserving because it embodies certain important values. Opponents argue that these values do not compensate for the failure of the current system to guarantee that the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide will be elected to the presidency. The members ultimately propose to preserve the values cited by the electoral college supporters while making virtually certain that the candidate who receives the largest number of popular votes will be elected president--the goal of direct election supporters.

Longley, Lawrence D., and Alan G. Braun. The Politics of Electoral College Reform. 2d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975.

The authors argue that the direct popular vote method for electing the president reflects the will of the electorate. They examine the electoral college and prospects for proposed reforms. Longley and Braun show the gerrymandering of the one-man, one-vote principle of the electoral college and demonstrate that proposed proportional and districting plans are biased. The authors show that the direct vote plan does not create the biases and distortions inherent in other alternative proposals for a method of electing the president.

Zeidenstein, Harvey G. Direct Election of the President. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1973.

The author examines the argument that direct election of the president will have dire and dysfunctional consequences for the nation in general and for liberal groups in particular. Zeidenstein presents the charges against the electoral college as it currently operates, along with rebuttals against these charges. He outlines the case for direct election and other proposals for reform and analyzes the predicted dysfunctional consequences of direct election. He summarizes the conclusions drawn from his analysis and recommends change in the electoral system.