South Carolina and the Electoral College

South Carolina’s delegation to the Constitutional Convention voted against the final version of the Electoral College, one of only two state delegations to do so.

Remixed from source and own work. Graphic based on 1976 Electoral College results.

When we look at South Carolina’s history, there is very little reason to think those delegates voted against South Carolina’s interests in opposing an Electoral College. Unlike New York, South Carolina usually has not been a battleground state, and hasn’t had a lot of power within the system by most measures.

There are two reasons for this: First, South Carolina has a more homogeneous set of economic and cultural interests than most states, which tends to put South Carolina on a political fringe relative to the country as a whole. Second, South Carolina has been a very consistently medium-sized state, and most of the battleground states are larger than average. The result is that South Carolina has only been a hotly-contested battleground once, in 1876.

1876 election. Every state won by Rutherford B. Hayes (red) was critical, along with three disputed states and a single disputed elector from Oregon. South Carolina was arguably the pivotal state, with the closest margin.

1876 was an exceptionally contentious election, featuring widespread fraud and lingering uncertainty over vote totals. We do not know, nor will will ever know, whether Republicans or Democrats earned more votes in the presidential race in South…