Since the 2000 presidential elections, the Electoral College has been widely criticized as a flawed system. With Al Gore winning the popular vote, George W. Bush walked away the victor– winning the required 270 electoral votes needed to be declared winner. While there are some obvious flaws with the system, the Electoral College is a key democratic institution in our country.

I have seen many reasons why people claim the Electoral College to be undemocratic. The most persuasive, but inaccurate, reason was the idea that the system was created as a derivative from the three-fifths rule, prior to the Civil War .

The truth is that some states had universal suffrage (such as Massachusetts). The real restriction to voting of blacks came from literacy tests, property ownership requirements and religious requirements.

The system was created in response to the demographics of the United States at the time. The nation, was composed of 13 states, that had only 4 million people. National campaigns were limited by communication and transportation issues.

In addition, small states were eager to get their fair share of power. Without the electoral system, small states had little (if any at all) ability to influence national policy.

The system enables political stability by indirectly mandating a two-party system. Unfortunately, special interests are a major part of our republic. I think that having multiple political parties would actually augment the power of special interests. While interest groups only have to convince one party to see their agenda pushed, in a multiparty system, only a small percentage of certain parties would have to be lured by their lobbying to get their agenda pushed.

The elections in Florida proved to be a chaotic mess in 2000. In a close popular vote, such as 2000, the recount would have turned nationwide. For example, while Al Gore won by slightly under 1.3 million votes in California and was awarded the entire set of Electoral Votes from California, a close election would prompt the state to recount every ballot to ensure that he actually did win by that majority.

In the electoral system, a recount in California would be unnecessary, but in a direct election, California (as well as every other state) would have to be recounted in the event of a close election.

Since elections are always relatively close, the chaos created by a direct election would be infinitely larger than that of our current system.

The framers of our Constitution worked endlessly to find a righteous system of checks and balances that would also protect the minority against tyranny of the majority. While there are incidental flaws in our institutions, our Constitution is the finest living document in the world.

A skeptical person should realize that the Electoral College is one of the Constitution’s ways of ensuring our democratic freedoms.