Comparatively speaking, the Electoral College is a unique way of choosing the executive, and the average American shows very little understanding of how the system works. What has become common knowledge in recent years is that electoral mismatches can and do happen where the winner of the national popular vote does not necessarily win the presidency. While this has only taken place five times, it has occurred twice in the recent past (2000 and 2016). The goal of Jay Wendland's book is to provide an alternative approach to how the Electoral College is constructed thereby making it much less likely that a mismatch would occur. Wendland argues that this proposal should be seen as a compromise between those who strongly support the Electoral College and believe that we should value the role of states in electing a president and those who believe the Electoral College is antiquated and that we need to move toward a popular vote (2).

To make this argument, Wendland begins the book by discussing the history of the institution and its status. Wendland begins (Chapter 2) by drawing from historical justification for the Electoral College found in Federalist Paper 68 and moves to modern defenses of the system. The strongest argument in favor is the Electoral College preserves the federalist instinct in our system and that it allows for a counterbalance for s