Why Do We Have the Electoral College? CNN's John King Explains the 'Compromise' That Got Us Here (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Courtesy of CNN

Courtesy of CNN

Five hundred and thirty-eight Electoral College votes will soon be divided between this year’s presidential nominees, and for CNN’sJohn King, the countdown is on.

The network’s chief national correspondent, 61, operates CNN’s groundbreaking “Magic Wall” touchscreen that helps viewers visualize polling data as results are returned. He has covered 10 presidential election cycles in his career, learning the ins and outs of the nation’s unique electoral process.

In the United States, the presidential candidate with the most votes does not necessarily win the election. To secure a victory, a candidate must earn more than half of the support of the Electoral College, which requires 270 electoral votes. Each state is allotted a certain number of votes in the Electoral College, based on population, and whoever wins the state’s popular vote wins its electoral votes.

The Electoral College system is controversial, giving a few battleground states disproportionate power in determining the next president. This year,Kamala HarrisandDonald Trumphave spent the bulk of their time in the seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — working hard to court their support.

With the election drawing to a close, PEOPLE checked in with King — who is, at this point, an electoral map expert — to discuss the history of the Electoral College, how it impacts political campaigning, and whether it could ever get abolished. Read on for our conversation, which was edited for length and clarity.

CNN anchor John King works the “Magic Wall” at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty

Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty

Why does the Electoral College exist? What was the rationale for how we ended up with it in the first place?

The Electoral College was founded because the founders — the guys in wigs — couldn’t agree on how to elect a president. And because we were coming out of King George and the monarchy and the oppressive British rule and the authoritarian king, they were afraid to let the popular vote carry the election because they thought that an angry populist would come along and sway the masses and the people would make a mistake. And so they were abandoning a monarchy, but they didn’t fully trust democracy. And that’s how we got the Electoral College a long, long time ago.

What are the arguments for keeping the Electoral College in this modern era?

So the argument against getting rid of the Electoral College is that people would only campaign in the big population centers, and that rural America or small-town America — even within a big state — maybe the small towns would get ignored. Or think of a place like Texas: a presidential candidate, they’d only go to Dallas and to Houston. I get that.

Former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Tucson, Ariz., on Sept. 12, 2024.Justin Sullivan/Getty

Justin Sullivan/Getty

And what is the argument for abandoning the Electoral College?

The argument for the other side, to eliminate the Electoral College, is seeking democracy in its purest form. But there’s no such thing as a democracy in its purest form, really, in terms of big countries. The Electoral College was a compromise, and how we pick a president will probably always have to be a compromise.

The Electoral College is kind of like gun control. It’s kind of like the Second Amendment. “Well, in 1780-something, somebody wrote that down, how dare you want to change it in 2024?” It seems a little ridiculous. It’s not my job to say what the outcome should be, but I do find it kind of ridiculous that we can’t have conversations about these things and let people come to the table. If you think it’s wrong, show me your way. And if you don’t have the votes for your way, are you willing to talk about what– could there be some hybrid?

Both sides have good arguments, but trying to see if there’s any way to compromise is something that is just impossible at the moment because of the polarization.

A joint session of Congress meets to count the Electoral College vote from the 2008 presidential election.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

You’ve talked to a lot of undecided voters around the country this year. Does this topic ever come up for them? Is the electoral system something that has been mentioned, in terms of whether it affects their likelihood to get out and vote?

Not whether or not they’re even going to vote.You do sometimes hear from hardcore Democrats, people who are very committed Democrats, “Why do we still do it this way?” And you can understand that because a few times in recent history, the person who won the popular vote has not won the presidency.

In our more recent history, that would beAl GoreandHillary Clinton, and those were rather contentious. Not only did they lose the election and won the popular vote, but they were both really contentious elections. Right? 2000 was the hanging chads in the Supreme Court and 2016 wasTrump. And so Democrats are more passionate at the moment about this because of their recent memories.

I don’t ever remember meeting a voter who says, “The Electoral College is my driving issue,” or “I’m not going to vote.” I’ve never heard people get that worked up about it. But passionate, committed Democrats do bring it up sometimes.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a Wisconsin campaign rally on Oct. 17, 2024.Andy Manis/Getty

Andy Manis/Getty

What would it take to abolish the Electoral College?

If Harris wins the popular vote and Trump wins the presidency, so that’ll be what, three times in 24 years? Three times in 24 years, a Democrat has won the popular vote, but lost the election. That will, I think, put something that is an interesting conversation into a very contentious front-and-center issue.

And you do see with the national popular vote movement, there are people in the States trying to do this. And none of them have reached the tipping point yet. But whether it’s ranked choice voting, whether it’s nonpartisan primaries, there’s a basketful of political reform ideas bubbling up in different places around the country, born out of a common discontent or dismay with the way things work or don’t work right now — and the Electoral College is one of those conversations.

What does it take to push that from a conversation to actually being acted upon? That part, I don’t quite know. I haven’t had enough time to think about it and study it, but I do think you see a bunch of these reforms. One man’s reform is another man’s poison, I guess. And so part of the question is, what would it take to get them to a tipping point?

source: people.com