Despite the multitude of differing opinions, I think we can all agree on one thing concerning this election: it has been crazy. However, rather than iterate everything that has already been spread across the internet, I want to steer attention away from our 2016 candidates and towards the voting process itself.
The United States presidential election process may be one of the most complicated ways to elect a leader. Rather than allow a legislative body to elect our president, or (which seems natural) the voting public, the United States has in place an institution called the Electoral College. Our Founding Fathers created the Electoral College in part to the Constitutional that, in their day, served to solve several problems that voting held in the nation. One such problem was the difficulty of communication between states. How would people learn about the ideas of the possible candidates when letters were the main form of communication? Wouldn't they be likely to vote for a candidate from their state? Another problem was slavery within the Southern states. These states wanted to count slaves within their population for a vote while denying slaves suffrage.
Problems such as these, along with others, ushered in the idea of the Electoral College. Under the Electoral College, the United States people do not choose our presidents through a national popular vote, but rather through a panel of electors the people vote for on a statewide basis. Seemed reasonable for the time period, right? So why do we still use this archaic process in the year 2016? Also, why are there so many objections to this system?
The Electoral College works on a state-by-state basis. Each political party votes on electors to represent them, usually at their state's party convention or by the state's party committee. Since the electors are voted on by each political party, they are usually influential party members, or party leaders. These electors then pledge their vote to a certain candidate, almost always the candidate corresponding to their party allegiance.
Each state is awarded a certain number of electoral votes that equals the two US Senators for that state in addition to the number of US Representatives that state has (based on population). After the national popular presidential election in November, certain electors vote according to who won the election in his or her respective state. For instance, if the statewide popular vote in South Carolina was Republican (as it usually is) only the Republican electors would go on to vote for the President. This happens since the Electoral College operates under a “winner-take-all” strategy. Going back to the example, if a Republican candidate wins the statewide vote in South Carolina, only Republican electors vote for the President, thus wiping out all Democratic or third party votes.
The only states that do not cast their electoral votes under this method are Maine and Nebraska. They operate under the District System, which awards one vote to the winner of the vote in each congressional district, while awarding the remaining votes to the winner of the popular statewide election. Excepting Maine and Nebraska, this “winner-take-all” idea generates the existence of swing states, or states that do not reliably vote for either Democratic or Republican candidates. Some examples of swing states include Florida, Colorado, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. To win the election, candidates need a majority of votes, or currently 270 votes.
Seems a little complicated, doesn’t it? In fact, the complicated nature of our voting process is one of the critiques against it. While there are other critiques against our voting system, I will go in depth with them in my article next week. For now, I leave you with some questions. Have you ever chosen the electors who cast their votes for the whole nation? Does the winner-take-all idea stifle the votes of many people in each state? Under the Electoral College, how much does your vote really count?
Here are some links in case you want to read more on the Electoral College:
www.eac.gov
