Electoral College favors the interests of the two dominant parties. In 1992, Ross Perot won 19 percent of the people’s votes and zero electoral college votes.

Isn’t There a Problem Here? Critics of the Electoral College system, of which there are more than a few, point out that the system allows the possibility of a candidate actually losing the nationwide popular vote, but being elected president by the electoral vote. Can that happen? Yes, and it has.

A shift of a handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in five of the last 12 presidential elections. The second-place candidate was elected in 2000 (Bush was appointed as President by the Supreme Court, although Gore won the popular votes), 1888, 1876, and 1824.

The 538 total electoral votes are a combination of the 435 U.S. representatives and 100 senators from each state. Three additional votes are given to the District of Columbia. The Republican and Democratic parties from each state select their own electors who essentially vote on party lines. “They’re usually party loyalists with pretty strong ties to their party,” said Paul Goran, an SIUC professor in political science.

A negative aspect of the electoral college is that it makes a most state’s vote an all-or-nothing event. This means that if one happens to live in a state where one party is considerably more popular than the other, then minority party votes in that state really don’t matter much.

Many people do not vote simply because they feel they already know the outcome of the state (Electoral College) vote. But a percentage basis would bring these people out, and ultimately increase the woeful national voting percentage.
Political analyst Lou Jacobson today listed 19 battleground states for the 2008 presidential election. The remaining 31 states are listed as either “safely Democratic” or “safely Republican.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, the states have exclusive and plenary (complete) power to allocate their electoral votes, and may change their state laws concerning the awarding of their electoral votes at any time. Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of the state’s electoral votes would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538).

(October 6, 2007 - The National Popular Vote Association announced that its bill has 366 sponsors in 47 states for the 2007 state legislative sessions).

A potential compromise to this would be a percentage apportionment of the state’s electoral votes. For instance, Party A wins a state by a 60-40% majority over Party B. If the state has 20 electoral votes, Party A wins 12 while Party B wins only 8.
This would also create a more widespread interest in the election process, since all states would be kept in play.