Electoral College Debate

From the Hauenstein Center:

Join Grand Valley's Hauenstein Center on Thursday, April 24, 2008, for a debate on the electoral college. The debate will take place at 7:30 in the Loosemore Auditorium, Pew Campus. RSVP.

The Constitution says,

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.... The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons.... The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President....

Is the design still necessary? Or -- 180 years after Andrew Jackson ushered in America's Democratic era -- is the system an anachronism of an earlier age?

Gary Gregg II will argue in favor of the electoral college. Gregg is Mitch McConnell Chair in Leadership at the University of Louisville, where he is also Director of the McConnell Center for Political Leadership. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Presidential Republic: Executive Representation and Deliberative Democracy (1996), Vital Remnants: America's Founding and the Western Tradition (1999), and Securing Democracy: Why We Have an Electoral College (2001).

Burdett Loomis will argue against the electoral college. Burdett is professor of political science at the University of Kansas and former director of the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy. He is author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Choosing a President: The Electoral College and Beyond (2002), Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy (2002), and The First Shots of the Culture Wars: Politics, Institution, and Change (forthcoming).