Current System Keeps States in Charge of Our Elections: The Electoral College preserves needed checks and balances.

• Author: England, Trent

The Electoral College ensures that our national politics stay national.

It keeps states in charge of election administration and contains disputes within individual states. Under our current system, there are no nationwide recounts, and presidential appointees do not run presidential elections. Eliminating the Electoral College, or nullifying it with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, would eliminate these benefits and radically change American politics.

The first draft of the U.S. Constitution--the Virginia Plan--proposed that Congress choose the president. The Constitutional Convention rejected this parliamentary model. The delegates wanted an independent executive and real separation of powers. Some suggested a direct election, but that too was rejected. The Electoral College was the result of a compromise, just like Congress and the Bill of Rights.

At the Constitutional Convention, the primary concern of delegates opposed to direct election was that big states would dominate presidential politics. By using a two-step election process, the Electoral College prevents one region, or a handful of major metropolitan areas, from controlling the White House. Support must be geographically distributed around the country in order to win enough states to capture an electoral vote majority.

This was particularly important after the Civil War. The nation remained divided, and Democrats became dominant in the south. A combination of intense popularity with some voters and violent suppression of others allowed Democrats to receive the most popular votes in 1876 and 1888 even though they lost the Electoral College and thus those elections.

While some whined about the Electoral College, smarter Democrats set about the hard work of reaching out and building a broader coalition. They focused on voters in the north and in the new western states, especially those being ignored by Republican political machines. Their outreach to immigrants and Catholics rebuilt the Democratic Party. It also helped break down sectional divides and heal the nation.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which 15 states have joined, would eliminate incentives to build a nationwide coalition. Geographic diversity would be irrelevant in the election. And with no runoffs or minimum threshold to win, a national public vote would encourage fringe parties and spoiler candidates, leading to winners with smaller and...