In this post I am going to use a different format than what I have used  in the past,  in that I am going to use this post to provide a brief lesson on the process used in the United States to elect the president and vice-president.  My goal in this post, as it has been with every one in the past, is that of  developing young people and providing information that can help them be all they were made to be.  Since the youth of today are going to be the future voters and, in some instances, political leaders of tomorrow, it is important for them as well as  for  adults to understand how elements of the political process works in our country.  If nothing else, it is my hope that this post will serve as a lesson in history and political science.

As I began to research the process of electing a president and vice president of the United States, I was amazed at how little I understood about how this happens and my role as a voter.  The information has helped me and hopefully it will do the same for all who reads it.

We know that the 2016 presidential election left a number of people scratching their heads and raising concerns about whether or not their vote really matters when it comes to electing the two top leadership positions for our country.  Some were left wondering why is it that one candidate can get over 2 million more votes from the general population but still not win the election —  with the victory going to the person getting the majority of the “electoral college votes”.

My thought was “the electoral college”  —- who are they and how do they decide who will be president and vice-president of our country? I decided to find out by focusing on the following questions.

 

1.  When I cast my vote, I’m I really voting for the   Presidential/Vice-Presidential Candidate?

I came to the conclusion that the answer to this question for me is “Yes” and “No” but I am going to let you decide for yourself after reading the following information.

When we placed our check by the presidential/vice-presidential candidate of our choice on election day in November, we were actually voting for a slate of “electors” in our state who represents  the political party of our chosen candidate.  If we voted for the republican candidate, then we were actually voting for the slate of republican “electors” in our state and vice versa for the democratic candidate.    Each state’s electors is what makes up the national “electoral college” in the United States.  If your chosen candidate got the majority of the general population votes in your state, then the  state’s slate of electors for that candidate’s political party would be able to place their votes (as part of the electoral college) for that candidate on your behalf.   Therefore,  you are not voting directly for the candidates but instead voting indirectly for the candidate through your state’s slate of electors.  The only way a candidate’s political party electors, in a particular state, can cast a vote is if that candidate wins the majority of the general population votes in that state.

You are voting for the presidential/vice-presidential candidates on the state level  but on the national level your vote is only considered if that candidate wins the majority vote in the state as that is the only way their political party’s slate of electors can cast a vote for them (on your behalf) as part of the electoral college.

 

2.  Who are the electors and how are they chosen?

 

• Their Creation

 The process of using an electoral college to decide the presidency and vice presidency of the United States, was established years ago, in 1787, by the founding fathers and made part of the U. S. Constitution.  It was created as a compromise to appease those who wanted the president and vice-president to be chosen by the general population and those who wanted the choice to be done by Congress.    It was felt, back then, that the general population was not knowledgeable enough about the issues facing the country to leave such an important decision to them and that a more elite and knowledgeable group of individuals needed to make the decision on their behalf.  What that has culminated into today is our present day “electoral college”.

 

• Present Day Makeup

All 50 states plus the District of Columbia is represented in the electoral college.  The number of electors representing  a  state is in proportion to the number of senators and representatives that state has in the nation’s capital.   Since each state has 2 senators, they are automatically allowed 2 electors.  The additional electors for a states is dependent on the number of representative they have in Congress.   For example, since California has 53 representatives in Congress they get 53 additional electors in the electoral college for a total of 55.  For a state like Vermont, they have a total of 3 electors ( 2 for the 2 senators and 1 additional elector as they have 1 representative in the Congress).

The District of Columbia is not considered a state.  As a result, the  23rd Amendment was made part of the constitution  in 1961 to make it possible for the District of Columbia to participate in the presidential election and to have electors in the electoral college.  Currently, the District of Columbia has 3 electors (this represents 2 for the senator count and  an elector to reflect the lowest state representative count, which is currently 1).

Today there are 538 electors that make up the nation’s electoral college.  This corresponds to the 435 representatives in the House of Representatives, 100 senators in the Senate  and the 3 electors for the District of Columbia.

 

• Choosing Electors in Each State?

Every four years, during the presidential election, each political party chose individuals to serve as electors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia according to the number of electors that state is allowed.     Each political party is allowed to chose electors to represent their party for that state (ex.  in  Vermont, the democrats will chose 3 electors and the republican will also chose 3 electors).

Electors are usually chosen or appointed because they are loyal to a particular political party and may have served in some capacity in their party.   When a person is chosen, they are for the most part making a pledge to their political party that if their party’s candidate gets the majority of votes for their state, then the elector will place their vote for their party’s candidate who won in their state.  This is what is referred to as the “winner-takes-all’ pledge.   This is a pledge the electors makes on the state level as they are not bound by the  U.S. Constitution to honor that pledge and they can actually chose to cast their vote for any candidate of their choice.  However, in the  past most electors have chosen to honor the pledge they make to their party and do cast all of their votes for the candidate of their party if that person gets the majority of the general population votes in their state.   If they fail to abide by that pledge then they are dubbed as “faithless electors” and may be subject to fines by their state.

There are two states that do not follow the “winner-take-all” protocol and that is Maine and Nebraska.  In these two states, the overall winner in the state will receive 2 votes and the winner of each congressional district in the state will receive 1 vote.

States may choose who will serve as electors in their state via the following methods:

• their state political party convention
• their state political party central committee
• their state governor’s office
• their state political primary.

Anyone can serve as an elector as long as they are not a senator, representative or someone holding an office of trust or profit under the United States.

For the most part, the general public does not know who is representing them as an elector in their state.

Once the entire presidential election process is over, the electoral college is dismantled and the process for it’s creation starts over again in another 4 years for the next presidential election.

 

3.  If the general public does not directly elect the president, how is it that a candidate can be declared a winner on election night?

The truth of the matter is that the media and others are making an assumption as the general population votes are tallied in each state.  The assumption is that if a particular candidate gets the majority of the general population votes for a state then that candidate will be granted all of their party’s elector votes for that state because of the “winner-take-all”  pledge.  So if a republican presidential/vice-presidential candidate wins the majority of the general population votes in Mississippi (which has 10 elector votes) then it is assumed that the republican candidate will win all of the  10 republican elector votes.  ***Keep in mind:  Only the slate of electors for the winning candidate’s party will be casting their state’s votes in the national electoral college.

In actuality, the state electors will not cast their actual vote until the 1st Monday after the 2nd Wednesday in December following the November election date.    So for the 2016 presidential election, the actual vote of the electors will not be cast until December 19, 2016.    State electors (representing the political party of the winning candidate in their state)  will meet in their respective state capitol and each will place one vote for the presidential candidate and one vote for the vice presidential candidate.

Each governor’s office in the 50 states and also the District of Columbia will then submit their elector votes to the president of the Senate (who is the vice-president of the U.S.  — Joe Biden) no later than 9 days after the electors cast their votes ( by December 28, 2016).  On January 6, 2017, the president of the Senate (Joe Biden) will meet with a joint session of the Congress and during that meeting each state’s elector votes will be counted and the results announced as to who is the winner of the president and vice-president office.

If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, then the House of Representatives will elect the President from the 3 presidential candidates, who received the most electoral votes.  The Senate will elect the Vice-President from the 2 vice-presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.

 

“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.”                                        Tom Stoppard

 

 

 

 

 

A Breakdown of how the Electoral College’s Votes Were Cast for the 2016 Election

Below is a  break down of each candidate by the states they won the majority of the general population votes.  In parenthesis is the number of electoral votes for each of those states.

Hillary Clinton

California(55)   Colorado(9)     Connecticut(7)     Delaware(3)      District of Columbia(3)    Hawaii(4)   Illinois(20)     Maine(3)     Maryland(10)       Massachusetts(11)      Minnesota(10)         Nevada(6)   New Hampshire(4)   New Jersey(14)     New Mexico(5)       New York(29)      Oregon(7)        Rhode Island(4)   Vermont(3)      Virginia(13)     Washington(12)        ——–      Total 232

Donald Trump

Alabama(9)            Alaska(3)           Arizona(11)           Arkansas(6)           Florida(29)             Georgia(16)       Idaho(4)            Indiana(11)       Iowa(6)         Kansas(6)        Kentucky(8)         Louisiana(8)      Maine(1)     Michigan(16)        Mississippi(6)        Missouri(10)         Montana(3)       Nebraska(5)        North Carolina(15)         North Dakota(3)         Ohio(18)       Oklahoma(7)         Pennsylvania(20)       South Carolina(9)  South Dakota(3)             Tennessee(11)         Texas(38)        Utah(6)       West Virginia(5)      Wisconsin(10)     Wyoming(3)    ——–    Total 306

 

In order to win the presidential/vice-presidential position, candidates must receive at least 270 elector votes.

Something To Think About!

In the end each person has to decide for themselves if— in our country where you have a “Government of the People, by the People, and for the People” — whether the people are truly given the opportunity to chose who will lead them.

We can safely conclude that the United States does not take the cumulative total of all people in the country who voted for a particular candidate  and allow that majority total to be the deciding factor for who will lead the top office in the country (U.S. President and Vice-President).

 

4.  Are there any countries who do allow the actual majority popular vote to decide who will lead their country?

Some of the countries who total the votes from all of their citizens and allow the majority vote to be the deciding factor for electing their leader are Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Finland, France, Haiti, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Phillippines, Poland, Russia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan, Turkey and Venezuela just to name a few.