By Jordan Mann
The presidential election is just around the corner. Do you know how a president is elected in our democracy? It may not be what you think.
We spoke with Concordia’s Assistant Professor of Political Science William Pierros about the system. Pierros has an MA in Political Science from Northern Illinois University and an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis MO; he is presently working on his post graduate degree at the University of Southern California.
The Electoral College has been with us since the start of the nation and is ingrained in the constitution. The elections in 1796 and 1800 exposed flaws in the system leading to the passage of the twelfth amendment which revised the system to its present form.
The basic mechanics
Each state is awarded a number of electors based on their representation in congress. One elector for each member in the House and one elector for each senator, the District of Colombia gets three electors. All but two states, Maine and Nebraska work on a winner take all basis, the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state wins all the electors from that state. Maine and Nebraska award electors by the popular vote majority in each congressional district with the two remaining electors going to the candidate with the most state wide votes.
The constitution states “no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.” Those are the only prohibitions; anyone else can be an elector. Political parties in each state choose a slate of electors; the system of how the electors are chosen varies from state to state. The final electors are determined by the popular vote for president in each state.
The electors meet a couple months after the general election and cast their votes for president. The votes of the electors, not the popular vote determine who will become the next president.
Why do we use this crazy system?
Why not just use the popular vote? “The framers of the constitution were very sort of wary of the masses and their ability to choose a good president. What if we had this democratic experiment and the people elect somebody that’s terrible? The electoral college is like a governor switch to prevent the passion of the masses from making a bad decision” Pierros explained.
Originally, electors did not have to follow the popular vote. So, if the voters chose someone they thought was terrible the electors could just choose someone else. That never happened but there were cases of electors not voting the way the public wanted. Many states have passed regulations designed to force electors to remain faithful and vote according to the popular vote. However, no faithless elector (electors who do not vote as they have been pledged) has ever been prosecuted and there have been faithless electors. The most recent was in the 2000 election when an elector abstained from voting. There have never been enough faithless electors to alter the outcome of an election… so far.
According to Pierros, “it’s a good plan, it’s not perfect and it works until it doesn’t.” The last time it did not work was the election of 2000 when the Electoral College did not reflect the popular vote. In 2000 George W. Bush became the President of the United States of America even though the majority of the voting public chose Al Gore to be President.
The problem is the system cannot be changed without a constitutional amendment. Lately our government can barely pass a budget, forget about a constitutional amendment.
Get out and vote
We are stuck with the Electoral College but do not let that dissuade you. The majority almost always decides who the next president will be. The right to vote is often taken for granted and far too many Americans fail to exercise their right. This is an important election, get out and vote.
