9. Defending the Electoral College -- Selectively

Recently, many Republicans have been defending the Electoral College as the best means for choosing a President. But I’ve noticed that they are not defending all aspects of the institution, but rather just those parts that seem to help out their preferred candidate.

• I don’t see Electoral College defenders suggesting that we go back to the original system of choosing Presidential Electors by state legislatures – because state legislatures would not have chosen Donald Trump.
• I don’t see people suggesting that the Electoral College go back to its original purpose of judging among the presidential contenders independently and rationally, regardless of popular appeal – because this method would not choose Donald Trump.
• I don’t even see Electoral College fans endorsing a compromise approach where the Electoral College would ratify the voters’ choice under normal circumstances, but would override the voters in rare cases where the popular candidate was not qualified – because this year clearly offers such a rare case. 
• And I don’t see anyone suggesting that we choose Electors by giving votes only to white males who own property, as was the case when the Constitution was ratified. Such a suggestion would certainly help Trump, but might not be viewed as politically correct – even among Trump supporters.

Rather, there are just two aspects of the Electoral College that its advocates seem to really like, both of which seem to benefit Republicans:

• They argue that the system of weighing the Electoral College in favor of small states is a good system, since it prevents small states from being dominated by the larger states (i.e. it lets a minority of voters decide).
• And they endorse  the winner-take-all system -- something not even contemplated by the authors of the Constitution -- whereby voters in evenly divided states have much more influence than voters in states where one candidate is preferred overwhelmingly.

So when we hear how great the Electoral College is, let’s consider which parts of it are great -- and why.