As Election Day nears, we are hearing the usual discussion about
the Electoral College and whether it is an outmoded system for
choosing the nation's chief executive. With the possibility of a
very close election, the margin of victory could turn on a small
number of state or electoral votes. Four times in our history,
the latest being in 2000, the presidential winner received fewer
individual or popular votes than did the loser. A study by MIT
showed that, mathematically, it is possible that two candidates
could each get 49 percent of the popular vote yet one candidate
could end up with zero electoral votes and the other with 538 or
any other combination in between. So how did this all come
about? Framers of the Constitution like James Madison were
concerned that "majoritarianism," if left unchecked, could be
harmful to minority groups. To prevent this, the framers divided
authority among the three branches of the federal government.
They saw the new government as a nation of states, not a nation
of autonomo