• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Sunday, January 24, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

If Black Lives Matter, the Electoral College Must Go

Benjamin Waddell by Benjamin Waddell
09/15/20
in Featured, Opinion
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The United States is a representative democracy, and in theory, everyone’s vote has the same weight.

But when it comes to electing presidents, minority votes are worth far less than white votes.

Here’s why.

Unlike other democratic nations, the United States selects presidents through the electoral college.

The electoral college consists of 538 votes: 100 for senators, 435 for members of congress, and 3 for the District of Columbia. Each state designates delegates or electors who cast their state’s electoral votes in favor of the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state. Regardless of the popular vote outcome at the national level, the first presidential candidate past 270 electoral college votes wins the election.

Electoral College and Popular Vote

The electoral college tally and the popular vote generally coincide. In fact, they have only gone in opposite directions 5 times.

But two of those instances have come in the last 20 years.

In 2000, Al Gore beat George W. Bush in the popular vote by 540,520 votes, and in 2016, Hillary Clinton finished 2,809,197 votes ahead of Donald Trump. However, ultimately, Gore and Clinton both failed to get past 270 electoral college votes, and thus, they lost the presidency.

US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump. Photo: Robyn Beck, AFP

Our grade school textbooks teach us that the electoral college was designed to balance power between rural states and urban states. But this is a myth. In 1790, 95 percent of the US population resided in rural areas, and thus, balance between rural and urban states was hardly a priority.

But slavery was.

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia representatives discussed a winner-takes all presidential model. But the South, where 36 percent of the population was enslaved, feared their residents would be at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the North. This led to the three-fifths compromise, which increased Southern representation in Congress by allowing Southern states to count slaves as three-fifths of a citizen. A related compromise ensured that each state, regardless of population, would have two senators.

Today, the electoral college best explains why — despite national approval ratings well below 50 percent — Donald Trump is our president.

Favoring Rural, Conservative, and White Voters

The electoral college systematically favors rural, conservative, and white voters. And as a result, every four years a unique combination of predominantly white conservative swing states in rural America determine who our next president will be.

The value of votes cast in rural states is substantially greater than votes cast in more populated, urban states.

For example, in 2016 urban states had 590,081 residents for every one electoral college vote. In contrast, in rural states each electoral college vote corresponded to just 393,293 residents. Thus, in Wyoming — where 84 percent of residents are white — there are only 187,875 residents for every one electoral college vote. Whereas, in California — where 62 percent of residents are minorities — there are 677,344 residents per every electoral college vote.

In effect, if you were to move from Wyoming to California, your vote would lose 66 percent of its value in presidential elections.

Migration of Minorities

The racial imbalance in the electoral college is largely due to the massive migration of minorities out of rural America. In the 20th century minorities left the countryside in search of more progressive places where they could sit in the front of the bus, go to school, start a business, access loans, and vote.

The biggest shift of this nature was the Great Migration, which involved the exodus of millions of Black people from the South between 1916 and 1970. According to the US Census, in 1900, 90 percent of Black Americans lived in rural Southern states, but by 1970, less than 50 percent did.

African Americans where not the only minorities fleeing rural America. After centuries of encroachment and ethnic cleansing, Native Americans left for the city in search of more stable living conditions.

Similarly, after losing their land and being rounded up into internment camps during WWII, many Asian Americans resettled in urban settings. And Latino farmers and ranchers were forced to sell their land and head for the cities after enduring decades of discriminatory lending practices in rural communities across the Southwest.

The mass exodus of minorities out of rural America should have penalized rural states by reducing their share of electoral votes. But it didn’t because regardless of who resides in a state, each state has two senators. As a result, the migration of minorities out of rural America simply diluted the influence of minority voices in national politics by continuing to overvalue white conservative voices in rural states.

Today, with minority voices stacked in progressive urban states, the electoral college systematically undervalues Black, Latino, Native, and Asian votes. And thus, if Black and minority lives are ever to truly matter, the electoral college must go.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Benjamin Waddell

Benjamin Waddell

Associate Professor of Sociology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado

Related Posts

President Donald Trump sits alongside Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, during a meeting on the opioid epidemic in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 12, 2019.
Opinion

Queen Rat Conway Swims for Safe Harbor: Too Little Too Late?

by Stephen J. Lyons
January 20, 2021
President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden at a COVID-19 tribute in DC on Tuesday.
National

In Washington, Biden Leads Tribute to 400,000 Covid Dead

by Staff Writer
January 19, 2021
Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020
Featured

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

by Lori Lennon
January 20, 2021
The filing was submitted by Justice Department lawyers on Thursday, January 14.
National

US Rioters Sought to ‘Capture and Assassinate’ Lawmakers at Capitol: Prosecutors

by Staff Writer
January 15, 2021
Biden proposes raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Business

Biden Unveils $1.9 Tn Economic Plan as US Recovery Buckles

by Staff Writer
January 14, 2021
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
Opinion

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear

by Peter Bloom
January 13, 2021
Next Post
Police officers in action during the Black Lives Matter demonstration in California

Wrongful Convictions: US Police Withhold Evidence in Many Cases

Smoke and flames rise from a forest area near Samos migrant camp.

Thirteen Detained After Fire Near Second Greek Camp

Recommended

A woman leaves after receiving the Covid-19 shot at the Al-Abbas Islamic Centre, which has been converted into a temporary vaccination center in Birmingham.

UK Imams Mobilize to Counter Covid Vaccine Disinformation

January 22, 2021
The EU's corruption watchdog has been investigating Frontex.

EU’s Frontex Says ‘No Evidence’ of Illegal Migrant Pushbacks

January 21, 2021
As members of the Covax facility, the poorest nations are expecting their first doses in February.

Covax: The Global Plan to Share Covid Vaccines

January 21, 2021
Vatican has vaccinated 25 people experiencing homelessness against the coronavirus.

Vatican Vaccinates Homeless Against Coronavirus

January 20, 2021
President Donald Trump sits alongside Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, during a meeting on the opioid epidemic in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 12, 2019.

Queen Rat Conway Swims for Safe Harbor: Too Little Too Late?

January 20, 2021
President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden at a COVID-19 tribute in DC on Tuesday.

In Washington, Biden Leads Tribute to 400,000 Covid Dead

January 19, 2021

Opinion

President Donald Trump sits alongside Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, during a meeting on the opioid epidemic in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 12, 2019.

Queen Rat Conway Swims for Safe Harbor: Too Little Too Late?

January 20, 2021
Medical personnel is given the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 corona virus vaccine at the Favoriten Clinic in Vienna, Austria, on December 27, 2020

The Vaccine Battle Highlights the Need to Communicate Science

January 20, 2021
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.

Threatening Democracy: The Choice Between Progress and Extremism Has Never Been So Clear

January 13, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.

American Democracy Will Prevail

January 13, 2021
Pro-Trump protester in front of Capitol Hill.

Riots at Capitol Hill: Darkness Before the Dawn?

January 8, 2021
Volunteers are given the Moderna vaccine on August 5, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan.

Who’s First-in-Line for the Vaccine? A Classic Problem in Medical Ethics

December 30, 2020
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post