So, today, election day.
I bet you think you voted for a president…..and you would be wrong! Sorry. We do not live in a democracy. The popular vote does NOT determine the winner. We live in a Representative Constitutional Republic. On election day we vote for “electors,” not the president! They are a group of 538 people who represent the voters and they elect the next president (continue reading to see how this works).
Their authority comes from Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. Each state has a different number of electors. It is determined by adding the # of Congressman and Senators. So Texas, for example, has 2 Senators (as do all states) and 38 Congressman for a total of 40 electoral college votes. Currently there are 100 Senators, 435 Congressmen, plus 3 Congressmen for DC for a total of 538…..270 wins! Wait, it gets worse.
How are electors chosen? Each state legislature appoints them. Usually, they are influential people, donors, or party leaders. When the popular vote is counted and certified in each state, whoever gets 50.1% gets all the electoral college votes. The electors, then, report it to the state legislature who will then report it to a joint session of congress at a later date. The sitting VP then certifies the election and, at that point, we finally have a president elect….tada.
So far we’ve learned that we don’t really vote for a president and the president is not elected on election day….what a country!!
Why was this system chosen? In 1787 when the Constitution was being written, a popular vote was almost impossible because of poor communication and the size of the country. Anyway, Congress did not want a democracy and the public did not want Congress to choose the president. Remember, there was no executive branch at this point. The founders were trying to figure it out.
The electoral college was created as a compromise. Large states liked it because they had most of the control. Small states liked it because it gave them a voice and leverage in
close elections. What if there is a tie…269/269? The House of Representatives
decides with each state getting 1 vote. The Senate chooses the VP (it actually
happened in 1824). Any change in this system would require a Constitutional
amendment.
