COMMENTARY: The racially problematic Electoral College

Greenville News
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There has been great debate about the Electoral College, especially after this past election. It is the second time in less than 20 years that a president has won the national election while losing the popular vote. Of course, the last time was in 2000 with George W. Bush who lost the popular vote by a little over half a million votes. However, this past election the gap was much wider with Clinton gaining almost 3 million more votes than Trump. This, itself, is problematic. However, an aspect that may not be considered when looking at the Electoral College is the racial injustice inherent in its founding and how it currently takes electoral power away from minority voters.

Will McCorkle

The common narrative is that the Electoral College was created to protect smaller states. There is some truth in this; however, the historical rationale is a little hazier. A stronger motivation may have been to protect the power of Southern states who wanted their slaves to count in the size of their representation. In a straight popular vote, slaves could not vote, therefore more power would go to the Northern non-slave states. In the Electoral College system, states like South Carolina could get 3/5 representation from their slave population. Of course, the disturbing irony is that these states would be working against the good and wishes of the slave population. Historian Paul Finkleman puts it this way, “The system was explicitly designed to protect slavery. One hundred and fifty years after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, this pro-slavery provision lurks in our political backyard, like some horrible monster, waiting to spring on us to undermine the very notion of democratic government in the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.”

Not only are the historical origins of the Electoral College problematic, in the modern era it gives more power to rural and white voters and less to urban and minority voters. The reason behind this is that each state, no matter their total population, gets a minimum of 3 electoral votes. The number of electoral votes is equal to the amount of Senators and Representatives from each state. This can lead to some quite disturbing inequalities. For example, it takes about 700,000 New York residents to equal 1 electoral vote as compared to a little under 200,000 residents in Wyoming to equal 1 electoral vote. That means that a voter in Wyoming has more than 3 times as much power in their vote as one in New York.

This becomes a racial justice issue when one considers who primarily lives in these more rural states compared to more populous states like New York, Florida, Texas, and California. These smaller, rural states are almost completely made up of white residents. On a national scale this means that the average black voter only has 95 percent as much power as the average white voter. For the Hispanic population, it is even worse, with each voter only having 91 percent as much power as each white voter. Though it could be argued that this racial disparity is not intentional, it nonetheless is a reality.

In a country that just a few decades ago blatantly barred minorities from voting, the disparity that the Electoral College creates should be an outrage. There are many other racial issues with our election system including the corrupt gerrymandering which takes away power from minority voters in states like North Carolina and South Carolina and the voter suppression that was on full display this past election. The Electoral College should be stopped for many reasons that have nothing to do with race. First and foremost, it is an undemocratic system. It also greatly discourages electoral participation outside of the few contested swing states. However, the fact that it is also a racially unjust system should leave no doubt that it should be abolished. This is especially true since our two main political parties are so heavily divided on racial lines. We cannot hold to the values of “liberty and justice for all” and continue with such a racially problematic system. We cannot speak to values of democracy and equality abroad while denying them at home. 

William McCorkle is a Ph.D. student in social studies education at Clemson University. His email address is

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