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Attendees look at a map of the U.S. electoral college during the Republican National Convention (RNC) near the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
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The Debate That Gave Us the Electoral College

John Dickinson's contributions to the Constitution continue to reverberate today.
by Jane E. Calvert via Made By History on October 18, 2024
Drawing of the Constitutional Convention, by John W. Winkler.
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Strange Political Bedfellows

The origins of the Electoral College are entwined with slavery, but not in the way that recent accounts have suggested.
by Mark McKibbin, Denver Brunsman via HNN on October 9, 2024

The Electoral College and Slavery

It's easy to get this one wrong.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on May 24, 2024
A drawing of George Washington surrounded by seals representing the states.

The Constitutional Convention Debates the Electoral College

How the founders settled on the system we love to hate today.
by Jason Yonce via Journal of the American Revolution on November 5, 2020
A close up of an electoral map from Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States

The Electoral Punt

It can be hard to know what the Founders intended when they didn't know, either.
by Jonathan W. Wilson via Contingent on September 30, 2020
People in formal wear sitting in chairs, listening to a person behind a desk

Will We Ever Get Rid of the Electoral College?

The system that is nobody’s first choice.
by Michael Kazin via The Nation on September 22, 2020
Legislators at the podium during a joint session of congress to tally presidential electoral votes in 1969.

How the Electoral College Was Nearly Abolished in 1970

The House approved a constitutional amendment to dismantle the indirect voting system, but it was killed in the Senate by a filibuster.
by Dave Roos via HISTORY on August 3, 2020

A Definitive Case Against the Electoral College

Why the framers created the Electoral College — and why we need to get rid of it.
by Sean Illing, Jesse Wegman via Vox on July 21, 2020

The Corrupt Bargain

Eric Foner reviews two new books that make the case against the Electoral College.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on May 21, 2020
Crowd of people at the counting of Electoral College votes in the U.S. Congress.

The Electoral College’s Racist Origins

More than two centuries after it was designed to empower southern white voters, the system continues to do just that.
by Wilfred Codrington III via The Atlantic on November 17, 2019

The Electoral College Was Terrible From the Start

It’s doubtful even Alexander Hamilton believed what he was selling in “Federalist No. 68.”
by Garrett Epps via The Atlantic on September 8, 2019
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James Madison Responds to Sean Wilentz

Madison's Notes of the Constitutional Convention answer a current argument on the Electoral College.
by Alan J. Singer via HNN on April 7, 2019

Here’s Every Defense of the Electoral College — and Why They’re All Wrong

Most of the arguments for preserving our insane system are morally odious, unsubstantiated, and/or factually incorrect.
by Eric Levitz via Intelligencer on March 20, 2019

The Electoral College Conundrum

There’s no consensus on abolishing the Electoral College, which has countered the popular vote in two of the past five presidential elections.
by Parker Richards via The Atlantic on November 23, 2018
2016 electoral college map.

Original Sin: The Electoral College as a Pro-Slavery Tool

Slave states gave us the Electoral College; we should get rid of this vestige of the so-called peculiar institution.
by Paul Finkelman via Los Angeles Review of Books on December 19, 2016

Slavery, Democracy, and the Racialized Roots of the Electoral College

The Electoral College was created to help white Southerners maintain their disproportionate influence in national governance.
by Christopher F. Petrella via Black Perspectives on November 14, 2016
"We the People" collage.

Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?

Some scholars say that it’s to blame for our political dysfunction—and that we need to start over.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on September 23, 2024
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Electing the President, 1840-2020

Most election maps emphasize the candidates and parties who won the Electoral College. This project shifts the focus to voters, revealing a more nuanced story.
by Robert K. Nelson, Riley D. Champine, Nathaniel Ayers, Chad Devers via American Panorama on August 1, 2024
John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

A Trump-Biden Tie Would Be a Political Nightmare — But Maybe a Boon to Democracy

The political upheaval of 1824 changed America. The same could happen in 2024.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico on May 16, 2024
Then President Donald Trump, right, and Joe Biden, then the Democratic presidential nominee, during the U.S. presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22, 2020.
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The Biden-Trump Rematch May Mark the End of an Era

Over the course of U.S. history, presidential rematches have signaled momentous political upheavals.
by Bruce J. Schulman via Made By History on April 4, 2024
Discolored painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Here Are 10 Shockingly Radical Things the Founding Fathers Said

The Founding Fathers made startlingly progressive statements that didn’t make it into popular history.
by Jon Schwarz via The Intercept on July 4, 2023
Scale, with pile of U.S. states weighing down one end, and the U.S. on the other.

How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy

Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land?
by Andrew Marantz via The New Yorker on June 5, 2023
Drawing of a voting booth on top of a gerrymandered district with a saw cutting the floor out from under it.

American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic

The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system—they are the system.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on August 15, 2022
Black and white portrait of Joseph Lane in his suit.

What if Joseph Lane of Oregon had become President in 1861?

How would the presidency have looked under Joseph Lane, a Democrat, as opposed to Abraham Lincoln?
by Max Longley via Emerging Civil War on August 14, 2022
Collage cramming extra seats into the House of Representatives.

How The House Got Stuck At 435 Seats

After 110 years, a look at the benefits — and drawbacks — to expanding the chamber.
by Geoffrey Skelley via FiveThirtyEight on August 12, 2021
Picture of the "Words That Made Us."

Context and Consequences

On Akhil Reed Amar’s “The Words That Made Us,” a new history of America’s constitutional conversation.
by Joel Seligman via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 3, 2021
Census taker's bag from 1980

Immigration Hard-Liner Files Reveal 40-Year Bid Behind Trump's Census Obsession

The Trump administration tried and failed to accomplish a count of unauthorized immigrants to reshape Congress, the Electoral College and public policy.
by Hansi Lo Wang via NPR on February 15, 2021
A red, white, and blue star over a cropped portrait of James Madison.

America Must Become a Democracy

The authors of the Constitution feared mass participation would unsettle government, but it’s the privileged minority that has proved destabilizing.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on February 15, 2021
Broadside showing the Louisiana Returning Board entitled "The Political Farce of 1876," published by Joseph A. Stoll, c. 1877.

Undecided Candidates

An excerpt from the diary of presidential hopeful at the outset of the contested election of 1876.
by Rutherford B. Hayes via Lapham’s Quarterly on November 3, 2020
A political cartoon of one hand holding another down on a gun.

“If Anybody Says Election to Me, I Want to Fight”

The messy election of 1876.
by Jon Grinspan via Perspectives on History on October 19, 2020
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