Going to Electoral College
As election day approaches, there’s been renewed interest in the Electoral College, that odd creation of the U.S. Constitution providing for election of a president not based on who wins the popular vote, but on who gets the most electoral votes. Each state gets electoral votes based on its number of representatives in Congress. Thus, states with smaller populations ( Wyoming, Alaska, etc.) get 3 electoral votes — one for each of their two senators, and one for their member of the House of Representatives. California, with 53 representatives ( but still just two senators) gets 55. And so on.
There are various theories about why the Constitution uses this system. Some have argued that, in the 1780s, in a largely rural country where most people rarely traveled far from their homes, people residing far from cities would not know enough about the men (and they were always men) seeking office to make an informed decision. So instead, the Founders decided that voters would choose electors, and those electors (presumably being more knowledgeable about the candidates) would be better able to make an informed selection.
So only these electors are chosen by the voters in each state. And then the electors actually cast the vote for president.
What the Founders clearly did not foresee was the rise of political parties. The original language of Article II called for the president to be the person who received a majority of the electoral votes. And the vicepresident? That person was the runner-up! So imagine: President Barack Obama…and Vice-President Mitt Romney. Or President Donald Trump…and Vice-President Hillary Clinton. The traditional Thursday lunch between these two officials would undoubtedly have become a lot more interesting.
Because of the difficulties this provision caused in the election of 1800 — only the fourth one following the Constitution’s ratification — the Twelfth Amendment changed the system somewhat. Even by 1800, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates were already running together as a “ticket”; the Amendment enshrined that in the Constitution itself.
But the president was, and still is, chosen by electors, who now are designated by each political party with candidates on the ballot. In most states, getting a plurality of the vote is enough to entitle that party’s candidate to send his (or her) slate of electors to the state capital.
Thus, in 2020, if Donald Trump gets the most votes in a state, the Republican slate of electors will meet in the state capital; if Joe Biden wins a state, his slate of electors will instead go to that state’s capital to cast electoral votes. The electors meet on the Monday after the second Wednesday of December, in each state’s capital. (Thus, the “Electoral College” never meets as a body; instead, there are 50 different gatherings in state capitals, plus one in the District of Columbia.)
The votes are then put in a ballot box — a vote for president, and one for vice-president — which are shipped to the House of Representatives. By federal law today, they are opened before a joint session of Congress on January 6th and the votes tallied. The person with the most electoral votes becomes president; the person with the most votes for vice-president is elected to that office.
And what if no one gets a majority of the votes? This has only happened twice — once in 1800 (leading to the 12th Amendment) and once in 1824. But if it does, the House selects the president from among the presidential candidates, and the Senate chooses the vice-president.
And even is where the process really gets crazy. The entire House doesn’t vote; instead, each state gets one vote. Each state’s delegation therefore “caucuses,” takes a vote, and whichever candidate wins that vote gets the “state’s” vote.
For states with one representative, it’s simple; Alaska or Wyoming’s single House members just votes. But the 53 representatives from California and the 36 representatives from Texas each also cast…a single vote apiece.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, the senators choose the vice-president. But unlike the House, the senators vote as individuals, not one-vote-per-state.
Democrats currently control the House by a wide margin, but most of that majority is concentrated in large states like California, New York, and Illinois. Twenty-six of the state delegations (most of them in the rural West) are controlled by Republicans, making it likely that, unless some of the state delegations end up tied, or there’s an internal shift following the 2020 election, the House could well re- elect the current president.
This system already created problems in the 18th century. But it would be hard to devise a more jerry-built, unwieldy, and antidemocratic system for the 21st.
For states with one representative, it’s simple; Alaska or Wyoming’s single House members just votes. But the 53 representatives from California and the 36 representatives from Texas each also cast … a single vote apiece.