Why the Electoral College Exists

2016 Electoral Population Numbers

 

Electoral College Map

 

This information was taken after the 2016 election, but most of it is still accurate now.

  1. There are 3,141 counties in the United States. Trump won 2,626 of them. Clinton won 487.
  2. There are 62 counties in New York State. Trump won 46 of them. Clinton won 16.
  3. Clinton won the popular vote by approx. 1.5 million votes.
  4. In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump. (Clinton only won 4 of these counties; Trump won Richmond) Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country.
  5. These 5 counties comprise 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles.
  6.  When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to even suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election.

Large, densely populated Democrat cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, etc) don’t and shouldn’t speak for the rest of the country.
And this, is WHY you have a Electoral College. It's a safety net so that EVERYONES vote counts.

 

Update-- In response to some comments: The safety net prevents either high or low population areas from having too much power over the other. There are two alternative options to the Electoral College based on the structures of Congress and the Constitution:

  1. Population based with either a pure popular vote or electors apportioned by population (as is argued by some Dems). This results in highly populated areas having disproportionate control and likely fail to meet the needs of low population areas.
  2. State equality based where each state gets an equal number of votes. This leads to disproportionate control by low populated states and likely fail to meet the needs of high population areas.

The Electoral College is the balance between the two. A "both/and" option. Each state has votes according to their members in Congress. Power is divided between the chambers of Congress with equal state representation in the Senate and population representation in the House. Executive power is divided the same through the Electoral College.

-- Found on Quora

Page Last Updated: 17 April 2025