Battleground states are those where the outcome of the election is believed to be uncertain, compared to “safe” states, where the winner of the state is believed to be certain. If you click on the graphic above, you can explore for yourself the significance of the battleground states. Which states must each candidate win to ensure victory in the presidential election?
But why do candidates focus so much of their attention on this handful of states instead of the whole country? Doesn’t this make the voters of Michigan more important than the voters of California? The answers to these questions come back, as so much in American politics today does, to the creation of the Constitution during the Early Republic period we are studying this week. As constitutional scholar Jack Rakove explains in the video on Globalyceum (Video: The Electoral College), the framers of the constitution believed that the President of the Republic ought to be able to win national support, not just the support of heavily populated states. So, they created the Electoral College to give each state the same representation to elect the President as they had representation in Congress. A Presidential candidate must win a majority of the votes of the Electoral College to win the election (more than 270).
This system has held for many years, but it can create a situation where a presidential candidate can win the electoral college but not the popular vote. This famously occurred in the Presidential election of 1876, resulting what became known as the “Compromise of 1877,” where the Republicans kept the Presidency and gave up protecting African Americans in the southern states after the Civil War, as well as in 2000, when President Bush won a disputed election despite losing the popular vote.
As explained in the Globalyceum Contemporary Issue, “The Future of the Electoral College After 2016,” this issue has gained more attention after the election of 2016, where President Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote by almost three million votes. Many political analysts predict the same could occur if President Trump wins reelection in 2020. In your discussion posts for this week, consider what this might mean for the future of battleground states and the electoral college. Some questions to consider:
- What are the battleground states for this election and how have these changed over time?
- Why do we have “battleground states?”
- What was the intention of the framers of the Constitution when they created the Electoral College?
- Do you think we should abolish or amend the Electoral College? Why or why not?
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