| Topic: Voting | ‹ Back Next › |
The Electoral College Doesn’t Care about Your S.A.T.’s.By CJP | November 4, 2008
 The good news is that the voters do tell the Electoral College who they WANT to be president when they go to the polls on Election Day, and that person usually becomes the president.  One notable exception came in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote and George Bush won the Electoral College to become the 43rd president.  It was all perfectly legal and exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind when they compromised between having the people choose the president (too low-brow?) and Congress pick the president (too scary). The process starts when we all vote.  Those votes are counted and sent to the Electoral College, the 538 “electors” from each state who pledge to vote as the popular vote in their states direct.  Members of the College then meet on December 15th to cast their votes and draft “Certificates of Vote” for each candidate to send to Congress.  Congress will meet in a joint session on January 6th to count the votes, and a new president will be sworn into office in January.  Want to know more about the college, like where to apply?  Read all about it at the National Archives and Record Administration.  |
We hate to be the ones to burst your bubbles, especially on Election Day, but a lesser-known fact about America’s tender democracy is that the president is not technically chosen by the people:  The president is chosen by members of the Electoral College. | ‹ Back | Next › |
3 Responses to “The Electoral College Doesn’t Care about Your S.A.T.’s.”Comments |
November 4th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Not to be a conspiracy theorist here, but I’d be reticent to say of the 2000 election “It was all perfectly legal and exactly what the framers of the Constitution had in mind …” To this day, there remains controversy over those hanging chads and whether every vote was actually counted. So while the Electoral College process itself might be legal and legit, I wouldn’t go there about the 2000 election.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Yes, Florida controversy aside, of course.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
The major shortcoming of the current system of electing the President is that presidential candidates concentrate their attention on a handful of closely divided “battleground” states. In 2004 two-thirds of the visits and money were focused in just six states; 88% on 9 states, and 99% of the money went to just 16 states. Two-thirds of the states and people were merely spectators to the presidential election. Candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or worry about the voter concerns in states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind. The reason for this is the winner-take-all rule enacted by 48 states, under which all of a state’s electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who gets the most votes in each separate state.
Another shortcoming of the current system is that a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. This has occurred in one of every 14 presidential elections.
In the past six decades, there have been six presidential elections in which a shift of a relatively small number of votes in one or two states would have elected (and, of course, in 2000, did elect) a presidential candidate who lost the popular vote nationwide.
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections.
The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill comes into effect, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The bill is currently endorsed by 1,181 state legislators — 439 sponsors (in 47 states) and an additional 742 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes — 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
See http://www.NationalPopularVote.com