There has been a lot of
talk lately about the Electoral College in Presidential elections. Naturally,
some of this is sour grapes because for the second time in 5 elections, the
candidate with the most votes did not win the election. First in 2000 when Al Gore
got more of the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, and again this year when Hillary Clinton got nearly 2.5
million more votes than Donald Trump but lost the electoral vote.
This years election has
been very charged up with protests all across the country, and even some
celebrities put out an ad telling Republican electors to be “heroes” by not
voting for Trump. The press, naturally, has been calling it a non story but
reporting it every day for the past two weeks and the pundits have included
it in their nightly programs and the
Sunday news shows. The results ended up with Hillary losing four votes and Trump gaining two votes.
The electoral college is
made up of 538 votes. These are real people. They are chosen in both parties in
the election. The 538 are the total of the numbers in the House (438) and the
numbers in the Senate (100).
Those electors are
supposed to vote the will of the people but they are not required to by federal
law. The group that is chosen is based on who won the state in the election.
For example. Michigan has 16 electoral votes. Trump had roughly 10,000 more votes
in Michigan than Hillary, so he won the state. The electors chosen to vote came
from the Republican side. However, in California, Hillary got more of the
popular vote so she won the 55 electoral votes for that state. California then
sent the 55 electors from the Democrat party to do the voting. There are two
states that divide up their electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska, which divide
their votes by congressional district.
The Electoral College was
created at the Constitutional Convention and has had several changes since.
There were problems that the Electoral college were supposed to solve. First
they wanted the President to be chosen by the Congress. They backed off on that
because the Congress could be made up of a class or select group of people. If
we look at how hard it is to remove incumbents from office it made sense not to
have the President chosen by Congress.
Then it was suggested that
he be chosen by the citizens. This became a problem because heavy populated
areas would be choosing the President and the smaller states or sporadically
populated would be left out. The southern states didn’t have the population that
the northern states had. They wanted their slaves counted for their population,
despite them claiming that slaves were property rather than people.
Even in the north, small
states such as Delaware and Rhode Island have small populations and wouldn’t
have the same weight in a Presidential election. Then Roger Sherman of
Connecticut came up with a compromise called the Connecticut Compromise. The
Electoral College was born.
There could also be a
problem if a person were elected but died before taking office or a person with
bad character. As an example, Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with
Aaron Burr. At the time Burr was the sitting Vice President. But imagine if he
had just been chosen the new Vice President, but not yet in office at the time
of the duel. Had Burr been charged and convicted of murder, he’d be the
incoming Vice President as a murderer.
While the electors are supposed
to vote based on the will of the voters and how they voted in their state, they
are not required to by federal law. However, the states have enacted laws that
make it nearly impossible for them to vote any other way.
This is in direct contrast
to the purpose of the electors. While they are supposed to vote for their
candidate, there are legitimate reasons for them to have that ability to choose
someone else. Imagine if Hillary had been elected this year. Also imagine that
a day or two after the election the Justice Department indicted her for the
personal server and subsequent loss of state secrets, which many thought she
should have been. This would be a reason to not put her in office. While not
convicted, this could be reason to prevent her from becoming President.
The protests this year are
due to people’s impression of Trump that is mainly press driven (more to be
written on this at a later date) among other things. We have had Presidents and
candidates that have used drugs (Obama admitted it), alcohol (Bush admitted to
it), sexual assault (Clinton didn’t admit to it, but settled the lawsuit for
$850,000 and loss of his license to practice law), and others.
Maine and Nebraska may
have the best plan for the electoral voting by having them count according to
how each congressional district votes with the additional two awarded to the
winner of the state. That would not have gotten Hillary to the needed 270
though.
Another way may be to apportion
the electoral votes based on the popular vote in each state. Michigan was won
by Trump by just 10,000 votes. Had they given out the votes based on popular
vote, Michigan’s 16 votes would have been split 8 for Hillary, 8 for Trump.
Going through each state
and dividing up the electoral votes by percentages received of the popular
vote, Hillary still doesn’t win. It would be closer, but she still doesn’t win.
The count would be 272-266 in favor of Trump. It would only be worse for
Hillary using the Maine/Nebraska method of districts and the winner gaining the
extra two votes.
The difficult part of any
system is to find people that will honor their word and their reason for what
they are doing. Think about it. There were 19 Republicans that started this
process and in the first debate, Bret Baier asked the candidates to raise their
hands if they were not committing to back the eventual winner of the Republican
nomination. There was one person in mind that it was asked for. Donald Trump.
There was one person that raised his hand. Donald Trump. Every other Republican
pledged to back the eventual nominee regardless of whom it would be. A week or
so later Trump made the pledge too. Ted Cruz wouldn’t honor his pledge. Even at
the convention, he was booed off the stage for not backing Trump. Carly Fiorina
never publicly backed Trump. Jeb Bush didn’t until very late. John Kasich never
backed him and stayed in the race up to the convention despite being
mathematically eliminated and then wouldn’t attend the convention even though
it’s in his home state.
This only proves that the
founding fathers at the Constitutional Convention were right. Trump is not one
of the good old boys of government so he wouldn’t have been elected if Congress
was to choose. Yet, on the matter of the honoring his word, Trump did. He didn’t
commit to something at first. But he did later when he was reasonably sure. He’s
also proven it after the election. He
said he’d save the jobs at Carrier or they’d pay a tax. Before even being
inaugurated, he saved nearly 1,000 jobs at Carrier by getting them to change
their mind about moving their operation to Mexico.
States punish electors if
they don’t vote the way that they are supposed to vote. Yet, the voter’s job is
to do just that under extraordinary circumstances. This election though, should
not have had the electors changing their votes. The surprise is that while the
media was playing up that protestors were protesting Trump, four of them
switched from Hillary.
The left is calling for
the end of the Electors. Electors are called for in the Constitution. The one
thing that that shows is that the second amendment was in danger from Hillary
Clinton. To the liberals, the Constitution is only worthwhile when it benefits them. In reality the Constitution is a document that puts restrictions on government and protects the people. The left
exists to put restrictions on the people. Most certainly in the case of eliminating the second amendment and the
Electoral College.
You’re welcome to comment.
Brett
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