An Electors' Convention

After the several states choose their electors, an Electors' Convention chooses the next president. In this environment, populism and tyranny are impossible: to become the next president, one of the electors will need the skills of negotiation and compromise.

The convention works because of how the electors are chosen in the first place. Under the Hamilton Method, each state allocates its electors proportionally, so no single party is handed a national majority. With no majority to fall back on, the electors are forced to deliberate.

The Hamilton Method

The Hamilton Method splits up a state's electors by first giving each party the whole number of electors its share of the vote earns, and then awarding any leftover seats to the parties with the largest remainders. It is proportional representation with a touch of competition for the final seats.

Because electors are chosen locally and proportionally, political influence is dispersed across the country. With thousands of possible electors, no elector candidate can wield concentrated power on the national stage, and money, mass media, and foreign intelligence services have little ability to sway the result. The single national contest that populist and tyrannical rhetoric depends on is effectively eliminated.

No Majority

When the electors assemble at the seat of government, the Hamilton Method will have prevented any party from achieving a majority of the electoral vote. The electors are therefore forced into deliberation. To be chosen as the next president, one of them must build a coalition of 270 electors through negotiation and compromise.

This is the heart of the system: a president emerges not from a national popularity contest but from a deliberative body that must reach consensus. Populism and tyranny, which rely on swaying a mass electorate, have no purchase in a room that runs on coalition-building.

Key Points

• Elections are local within each state; the national presidential election is eliminated.
• Electors are allocated proportionally by the Hamilton Method, so no party is handed a majority.
• The convention creates a deliberative environment where compromise and negotiation are required.
• Populism and tyranny are ineffective.
• No money is required to hold the convention; campaigning for elector remains, but it is decentralized.
• With thousands of potential electors, foreign intelligence services, mass media, and social media cannot concentrate their influence.