CIVIC LESSON: ELECTORAL COLLEGE

A CIVIC LESSON – THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
This election cycle and result was the craziest one in my lifetime!  It is surprising when the person who gets the most votes does not win!  Clinton leads by 2% of the popular vote!   Unfortunately, several times in history the victor of the popular vote did not become the President-elect. It first happened in 1824 when Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but John Quincy Adams became President. In 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes became president even though Samuel Tilden had more popular votes. And in 1888 Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison despite winning the popular vote.Some of you will remember 2000 when Al Gore lost to George Bush. It seems to be happening more frequently and will continue unless the electoral college is done away with or altered!

As I discussed the elections with several people, I was surprised at how little people actually knew about the electoral college process. What happened to education and civics lessons? Apparently, either civics is no longer taught, or some have forgotten what they learned.  Many just need a refresher and it gets more complicated when a tie occurs.  We need to go back to basics of education including civics and get away from teaching to the ‘test’ but that is another discussion for another day.

So I decided to try to provide a basic civics lesson to review some history!  First it is important to note that when our Constitution was written, only white property-owning men could vote.  No women, no blacks, just white men.   Some conservative white men have recently said  they would  like to reinstate  that only property owners could  vote.  Yes some would have us go back in time two hundred years!

Secondly,  in the 1800’s news traveled slowly often by pony express; there were few newspapers, no internet, twitter or Facebook.  People in rural areas didn’t have access to much news to learn what was happening. Many were uneducated at that time in history as public education was not mandated until 1920!  In some ways rural America hasn’t totally changed except for television and the internet.  Although I respect farmers (my ancestors were farmers) and the simpler lifestyle at times,
I feel that rural Americans still have less access to diversity of people and some are less educated than people in cities. Many have probably not seen a homeless person, reaped the benefits of union membership, or shopped/traveled to a variety of places(except Walmart). It appears many of them watch FOX (faux) News and Rush Limbaugh.

So back to history, our founding fathers didn’t really trust the uneducated population of the time to decide the Presidency. In fact, “The Founding Fathers created the electoral college because they were “afraid of direct Democracy,” according to FactCheck.org.”   Alexander Hamilton, who authored (and coincidentally is a popular musical now) the electoral college, later proposed that it should be changed (which we know never happened). “Alexander Hamilton thought the electors would make sure “the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” (I would argue that is the current scenario!  So his original intention was for an elite group to make the final decision about who would be President and that continues today.

The electoral college is outlined in the Constitution. It is composed of a group of electors who decide the outcome of the election. Each state gets a number of electoral votes based on population which is updated at each census. This group meets to vote on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December (crazy formula too).  This year it is December 19.  It takes 270  electoral votes of 538 to win.  Each state gets a minimum of 3 electoral votes and only seven states have that few; even Washington, D.C. has 3 votes. It is identical to the number of senators and representatives in Congress.

In the past electors have not always voted for the candidate with the most popular votes in their state, however, it has never affected the final result of an election to date. More than a dozen states do not have laws stating that an elector must vote with the popular vote but usually the electors are chosen as party loyalists. One elector in Texas, Christopher Suprun, has said he will not vote for Trump but he will only vote for another Republican choice. In my state of Colorado, our electors should vote for Clinton based on popular vote but are also vowing to go with another choice possibly someone who none of us voted for. Only a couple of states have electors that can split the votes between candidates. We could see a unique scenario this year!

So what happens if the ‘college’ is tied or no one gets to 270 votes?  Then the election is tossed to the House of Representatives with each state having one vote. Senators would then get to elect the Vice-President by one vote each. This could be interesting especially with the recount being done in several states. In history, Thomas Jefferson was chosen in 1800 over his running mate Aaron Burr by votes in the House. In 1824, there was a 4-way split, and as stated above John Quincy Adams was chosen. If there is a tie this year, the newly-sworn-Congress of 2017 would be the ones voting. Would the newly-elected representatives vote for the person who won the popular vote in their state? It could end up in a 25-25 deadlock.

What if there is a second tie? The 12th Amendment states “if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them,  before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall  act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.”  That was updated later in the 20th amendment to be the Vice-President-Elect. The Vice-President-Elect is chosen by the Senate in a separate process, so if it is controlled by the Dems, Tim Kaine could become President. If there is a deadlock in the Senate too, then the Speaker of House, Paul Ryan could become President.  This could get interesting! And there is  still a race in Louisiana for the Senate that is getting little coverage.
Now we await the final decision by the electoral college on December 19.  Some of us hope  for a miracle.  Yet those electoral delegates could do something even more unusual…pick someone for whom no one even voted!  Why even have elections, if a small group gets to make the final decision? How Democratic is that?   Rallies will be held around the country that day in dispute of this process.   I also oppose delegates to the conventions voting against the popular vote in the state (that happened in Colorado this cycle too where we chose Bernie and our delegates voted for Hilary).

To me this system is antiquated and no longer necessary!  My suggestions:

  1. Dismantle the electoral college.  Some argue it gives smaller rural states more
    say. But if the vast population is in the cities I still think the population as a whole
    should determine the outcome. As with all other countries, the popular vote elects the President! Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no swing states too? I continue to sign petitions and hope that more states will come on board to get rid of
    the electoral college.
  2. Holding the elections  on a Tuesday is another antiquated practice (presumably began because they didn’t want
    it held too close to the Sabbath). Why not a Saturday now when less work is disrupted?
  3. Why not require nominees to visit all 50 states during their campaigning?
  4. Shorten the election cycle to just a few months! 3-6 maximum!   1-2 years is way too long!  We get sick of it and it turns off voters so that they don’t even want to vote.
  5. Public financing. Get big money out of politics!  Small donors are possible; Bernie Sanders has proven that!
  6.  Only 2 debates after the nominees are chosen about a month apart. Fact check during the debate and show it on the screen when someone says something that is untrue!
  7. Require all candidates provide their tax returns before the conventions.
  8. More than 2 parties.  The Constitution does not favor any number of parties. We need more choices and they should all be included (at least the top 4) in the debates.
  9. Truth in advertising.  No lies!   We need to support good media (like Free Speech TV)  Fact check things on Facebook.
  10. Remember your vote counts. Get involved. Be part of the rallies and discourse.  It is not a time to remain silent.
    For more information about the Electoral College, please visit the Federal Register’s U.S. Electoral College webpage.

One Comment

  1. Sandy, Thanks for this post. I’d like to add 2 things about the Electoral College and the 2-party system.

    Creation of the Electoral College led directly to the formation of political parties, so the political elites from different states could collude. When the Electoral College is terminated, political parties will lose their power to dominate elections and government.

    Note: The US Constitution does not mention parties.

    Look into the National Popular Vote movement. NPV is a practical way to make the Electoral College irrelevant, by agreement of state legislatures.

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