On November 3rd, eligible North Augusta High School students and teachers will have the opportunity to vote in the 2020 general election, where they will vote for the office of President of the United States. However, this election may be the last that is based on the Electoral College. For years, United States citizens have been advocating for the abolishment of the Electoral College, arguing that it goes against basic principles of democracy and leads to a very politically polarized nation; they say that the United States should instead utilize a Ranked-Choice Voting system.
So, what does a Ranked-Choice Voting system look like? Well, let’s imagine you are voting in an election where your favorite candidate is candidate B and your least favorite is candidate A. So, when you walk into the voting booth, you would mark candidate B as your first choice, then mark candidate C as your second choice, and finally mark candidate A as your third choice. When the votes are tallied, candidate B gets the least number of votes, so your candidate is out of the running and your vote goes to candidate C. After candidate B has been eliminated, the votes will be recounted, and the candidate that ended up with the most votes would win. This process can be repeated as many times as necessary until a single candidate has a majority.
To get the full scope of this issue, two North Augusta High School history teachers were interviewed. Those were Mr. Rick Gill and Mr. Paul Vance, who, as most at North Augusta High School know, have two very different political ideologies. Here is what they have to say:
Historically, why is there an Electoral College?
Mr. Gill: “Because the founding fathers realized, at the start of this country, we could be in a situation where big states would dominate smaller states or the majority of states. It was a system to ensure, in that time, big states like New York and Virginia would dominate smaller states like New Jersey and Delaware. In other words, the states would be on an equal footing, more or less.”
Mr. Vance: “Well historically there was an Electoral College because the framers did not really trust the average voted to pick a president. Because, if you think about it they had limited access to information, there is no internet, of course, TV, radio, even newspapers were limited. So how would the average person have enough information to pick, responsibly, who the president could be? So, instead, we have this group called the electoral college who [ picked who] the president was.”
Those against the Electoral College believe it violates basic principles of democracy. Do you believe this to be true?
Mr. Gill: “No, I think its total nonsense. What was the case back when the founding fathers came up with this idea is exactly the same idea now. I do not [want] this country dominated by California, New York, Texas; what have you. I think it’s even more important to maintain that idea.”
Mr. Vance: “Yeah, it definitely does. It definitely violates what pure democracy would be, but it was kind of intentional that it was not a pure democracy. The farmers were afraid of having tyranny of the majority.”
In your opinion, what is the likely hood that Ranked-Choice Voting will replace the Electoral College?
Mr. Gill: “Not any time soon, but who could have forecast 2020, COVID and everything else? So, I think that you have to understand changes could occur.”
Mr. Vance: “Very little, it’s in the constitution so in order to change the constitution, you would need a new amendment. And that would mean 2/3rds vote from both houses of congress, then 3/4ths of state legislator would also have to agree.”
Do you think the electoral college is contributing to the increasing political polarization in America?
Mr. Gill: “I don’t think it’s the Electoral College. No. I think it’s the media, I think it’s big money interest, I think it’s too many people over my age controlling everything”.
Mr. Vance: “It could be one of the factors. I don’t think it’s the main factor, I think that’s social media probably. Really just media in general, our news sources are more and more polarized. But no, it is probably not one of the main causes of our polarization.
If we switched voting to Ranked-Choice Voting, do you think we would see a rise in 3rd party candidates getting elected into offices?
Mr. Gill: “Possibly, yes. And I don’t see that as a negative.”
Mr. Vance: “Rank Choice voting would probably increase the likelihood of some 3rd party Canadettes getting elected into offices, but I think we would still overwhelmingly see democrats and republicans.
Is it a reasonable argument that the Electoral College has led to minority rule?
Mr. Gill: “I don’t think that the case. I think there are some other factors involved here, that people really need to look at.”
Mr. Vance: “Well, the way it’s designed, we certainly could have a minority of voters that get to pick the next president. We saw that in 2016, where Hillary Clinton got almost 3 million more votes, nationwide than Donald Trump. You also saw that in 2000, where Al Gore got half a million more votes than George W. Bush. So, it definitely can happen.”
Voting is an important part of democracy, and the election date is upon us. Faculty, staff, and students of North Augusta High School are encouraged to exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Photo Credit: Ann Marie Partl
Pictured: Mr. Vance
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