Presidential Elections and Majority Rule

The Rise, Demise, and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College

By: Edward B. Foley

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

The Electoral College that governs America has been with us since 1804, when Thomas Jefferson's supporters redesigned it for his re-election. The Jeffersonians were motivated by the principle of majority rule. Gone were the days when a president would be elected by acclamation, as George Washington had been. Instead, given the emergence of intense two-party competition, the Jeffersonians wanted to make sure that the Electoral College awarded the presidency to the candidate of the majority, rather than minority, party. They also envisioned that a candidate would win by amassing a majority of Electoral College votes secured from states where the candidate's party was in the majority.

For most of American history, this system has worked as intended, producing presidents who won Electoral College victories derived from state-based majorities. In the last quarter-century, however, there have been three significant aberrations from the Jeffersonian design: 1992, 2000, and 2016. In each of these years, the Electoral College victory depended on states where the winner received only a minority of votes.

In this authoritative history of the American Electoral College system, Edward Foley analyzes the consequences of the unparalleled departure from the Jeffersonians' original intent - and delineates what we can do about it.

©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor

Premise is faulty but research is good

This book is highly factual and well researched, with a goodly amount of supporting facts regarding historical records of presidential elections and actionable steps states could take to ensure their electors go to the majority candidate. He correctly points out that the electoral college redo by constitutional amendment in 1803 did not necessarily take into account emergence of third party candidates which dilute voting so that candidates that do not have a true majority can garner all electoral college votes. He thus says that candidates like Clinton in 1992, and bush in 2000 were not true “majority of majority” winners. He call majority of majority—meaning garnering majority electoral college votes from true majority state wins—as jeffe