Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

ABA Legal Fact Check: A brief history of the Electoral College (Infographic)

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//November 3, 2020//

ABA Legal Fact Check: A brief history of the Electoral College (Infographic)

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//November 3, 2020//

Listen to this article

With labels like a “swing state to watch” and a state “where the White House will be won,” the 2020 presidential candidates are eager to claim Wisconsin’s votes — both popular and Electoral College.

The Electoral College formally elects the U.S. president. Most states, Wisconsin included, have a “winner-take-all” system where all its electors’ votes go to the candidate who wins the popular vote. Wisconsin has 10 of the 538 total Electoral College votes.

The method has resulted in candidates winning the presidency without winning the popular vote, which happened for a fifth time in 2016 with the election of President Donald Trump.

More than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress over the past 200 years to change or eliminate the Electoral College, but none has become law because of constitutional hurdles.

A number of 2020 Democratic candidates support eliminating or reforming the Electoral College, but the party’s nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, does not, according to the Washington Post.

As the state and the country await the results of the Nov. 3 election, the American Bar Association is offering a brief legal history of the Electoral College and its place in U.S. politics.

The infographic below illustrates highlights from the ABA’s history of the Electoral College.

Click images below for full resolution

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests