Reforming national electoral system requires thinking outside the lines

In the wake of our ongoing election melee, many international observers are surprised that the United States continues to cling onto a seemingly archaic system such as the Electoral College. Even in England, where there is a deep respect for archaic traditions such as the monarchy, editorialists lambast the United States for its irrational attachment to dysfunctional electoral systems.

A commentator in The Times of London referred to the Electoral College as "the swollen appendix of the American body politic" that needs to be removed. The United States, long seen as the primary engine for global innovation and change, is now derided as a Luddite that is attached to outdated electoral and constitutional machinery. Such opinions are also shared by 60 percent of Americans, who have long felt that the Electoral College should be abolished.

Faced with such derision abroad and criticism at home, it is imperative that we restore our national dignity by modernizing our constitutional machinery. In doing so, we should be humble enough to learn from the experiences of other consolidated democracies. We should also take advantage of this "constitutional moment" to solve problems that are more deep-rooted than just the simple tallying of presidential votes. After all, as Uruguayan ambassador Héctor Gros Espiell puts it, the United States has "lost its virginity when it comes to judging other countries; no country can consider itself master or dictator in electoral matters."

There are several solutions to modernizing our constitutional machinery, ranging from minor ones such as eliminating the Electoral College to major ones such as adopting a parliamentary system of government. What I would like to see is a middle-range solution that does not necessitate abolishing the Electoral College. This solution, if properly implemented, would eliminate once and for all the disproportionate power given to states with small populations. It would also reduce the likelihood of "tyranny of the majority" in states with relatively homogeneous populations. Finally, my solution would also have the added benefit of improving mechanisms of representation and governance in large states such as California and Texas.

What, then, is this miracle solution? It is not to eliminate the U.S. Senate. Such a solution would be too radical, and it would solve only the first problem of disproportionate representation. To address all of the problems mentioned above, we need nothing short of a fundamental reorganization of American states. Instead of freezing state boundaries as they were incorporated into the Union, we should consider redrawing state boundaries in order to optimize the process of representation and governance. We should also, whenever possible, pay attention to natural boundaries and regional economic systems.

What would such a reorganization look like? First of all, we can expect to split up California into at least three parts — northern California, the central valley and southern California. San Franciscans already regard themselves as from a different state than Los Angeles; splitting up the state would only formalize the (non)-relationship. We could also expect an amalgamation of all those rectangular states in the Midwest. No more North Dakota or South Dakota — we can just call it "Dakota." Ditto for North and South Carolina ("Carolina"), Virginia and West Virginia ("Virginia"). It would also make sense to amalgamate New Mexico and Arizona; Colorado and Utah; Wyoming and Montana; Mississippi and Alabama. Finally, we can carve out metropolitan areas that presently cut across different states, creating the states of Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia. Such a reorganized map may be objectionable to some, but details are always negotiable.

A comprehensive plan of state reorganization may sound radically destabilizing, but it has been implemented successfully in other democracies. India, the world's largest democracy, has reorganized its states several times in order to solve the problems of representation, administration and economic efficiency. Just last week, as the United States was sliding into a mini-crisis over double-punched ballots in Florida, India quietly carved out a new state from its most populous state.

We would do well to heed the global call to drop our irrational attachments to archaic institutions. As this "constitutional moment" opens before us, we must reappropriate the mantle of global innovator by instituting a fundamental reorganization of the American states. S. Karthick Ramakrishnan is a politics graduate student moving from Holden, Mass., to Huntsville, Ala. He can be reached at karthick@princeton.edu.