The question of whether the Electoral College makes sense or not really boils down to this: Is it fair that a candidate who fails to win the popular vote can still win the election, as George Bush did in 2000? In the Electoral College system, citizens vote for 538 statewide "electors," who gather six weeks after the election and decide how to apportion their state's votes. A state's number of electors is determined by the state's population. A presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House.

Proponents of the Electoral College argue that the system guarantees an elected president has substantial country-wide support. Voting rights activists and some lawmakers say that the system actually marginalizes the influence of many smaller states, and that a popular vote would be more fair.

MORE FROM NOW

The Evolution of the Electoral College

EXTERNAL LINKS

Electoral College Homepage at the National Archives

National Popular Vote

Slate: Deformed Reform
The cure for the Electoral College that is worse than what ails us