DEBATING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

For some, it's an essential legacy of the founders' vision. For others, it's a relic enabling a tyranny of the minority.

As a compromise between electing the president by popular vote or letting Congress choose the chief executive, our Founding Fathers settled on the idea of using electors. Each state has as many electors as it has members of the U.S. House and Senate. Together, these 538 electors make up the Electoral College, which has one purpose: to choose the president every four years.

Electors generally are chosen by the political parties, though laws governing the selection process vary by state. Today, 48 states allocate their electoral votes to the winner of the statewide vote--a winner-take-all approach. Maine and Nebraska give two electors to the winner of the statewide vote, then apportion...