Counting the vote: an interactive study of electoral college reform
Abstract
With each presidential election comes talk of a fundamental and significant
change to our democracy. Every four years brings about discussion between
political pundits and casual conversation between office coworkers. All this talk
is about reforming, or in some cases dismantling, the Electoral College.
Over the past several decades, numerous proposals to reform the Electoral
College have been advanced. Adopting any one of these proposals would
certainly have far-reaching effects on our future, but what about our past? What
would have happened in 1960, for instance, if instead of the winner-take-all
method of assigning electoral votes, a district method were in place? Would
Kennedy still have won? Or how about in 2000, if a proportional method were
used, could the mess in Florida have been prevented?
This thesis seeks to answer those questions. Divided into three main sections,
this thesis explains what the Electoral College is and how it works, details several
proposals to reform the system, and allows users to explore how a reform
proposal could have changed the outcome of a past presidential election.
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