In my last piece I explained America’s governmental organization as a system of “checks and balances”. In this article I will explain the “safety net” of the Electoral College as yet another system of American style checks and balances. I am writing this as not everybody has the same interest in American History I have.
To begin, most people probably know we live in a democratic nation under a Constitutional Republic where we vote for people we want to hold political offices. They think of the old expression, “The majority rules,” and they figure whoever gets the most (popular) votes, gets into office. But when it comes to our very highest office, the Presidency, that person is actually elected by the Electoral College.
The Electoral College was a negotiated settlement for electing the President at the end of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It came about as slave states wanted to increase their voting power as slaves could not vote and were only counted as 3/5 of a person for purposes of the census and legislative representation and taxation. This compromise method was reached after other proposals, including a direct election by popular vote (as proposed by Alexander Hamilton and others), failed with the slave states.
Originally, the idea of an Electoral College was created because the thinking was the average 18th century voter was too uneducated to make a sound decision about who should be President each election cycle. So, rather than having every person’s vote count, the founding fathers felt it wiser to have educated delegates known as Electors from each state choose for the voters instead.
Another theory that was part of the Electoral College logic was it could be a failsafe system as back in the day communication was very slow and a significant span of time existed from the time a Presidential campaign began, to when it concluded on Election Day, to when the elected person was sworn in as President to our highest office at inauguration. The question arose, “What if, for some reason, it came out after the election that the person who got the most votes was unfit for office? What then?”
The thinking was as varied as outstanding criminal warrants, to problems related to mental fitness, or even the winning candidate being some foreign plant such as from Great Britain who we had just defeated. It was generally agreed that this ounce of prevention could well be worth the pound of cure.
For example, let’s say, back in the day, some guy was running for our highest office and he had a son with a duffle bag. This duffle bag was left on the horse of the son at the local blacksmith shop. On or about the time of the General Election it was found that this duffle bag contained evidence the father, running for our highest office, had taken money from a foreign adversarial nation for reasons unknown. It would be reasonable for the Electors of the Electoral College to not elect this guy to our highest office per Article II, Section 4 of our Constitution.
“Article II, Section 4: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
One could imagine an investigation or inquiry being held between the November election and January inauguration to ascertain the facts of the matter so nobody was denied due process. But, in the end, if the father connected to “the duffle bag from hell” was a person of questionable repute, not to be trusted to run our country, the electors would vote for his opponent regardless of who got the most votes.
One can also imagine that in those horse and buggy days the news traveled very slowly. You can also imagine when news of the “duffle bag from hell” came out days later, some 53% of those who voted for this questionable candidate would say something like, “I am sure glad the Electoral College corrected my vote. I had no idea!”
While there is no Constitutional provision or Federal law requiring electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in 21 States, 29 States do require their electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote by State laws (of faith) but these laws may not be valid since Electors are part of a Federal election and not a State one.
Choosing Presidential Electors is a two-part process. First, political parties of each State choose slates of potential electors. Second, voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting ballots. Each State gets a set amount of electors based on census population counts. There are 538 electors requiring 270 for a Presidential candidate to win office. Electors are generally not paid but some states pay a small daily stipend and travel expenses. Electors cannot be somebody who currently holds an elected office.
Currently all States use the popular vote results of the November General Election to decide which political party chooses the individuals who are appointed Electors.
Historically, President Donald Trump was the most recent one of just 5 of our 58 Presidents to win the election by Electoral College votes and not the popular vote. In 2016 Hillary Clinton did well in big cities and populous states like California and New York, but Trump had victories in battleground swing states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan taking the election.
CONCLUSION:
This Tuesday we had our Primary Election in my state. I actually had a woman ask me after she voted, “What was up with those three people that had the name of (TRUMP) after their names?” I told her, “They are the Electors of our area of the state who are to vote for President Trump in the Electoral College. You don’t really vote for him, they do.” This exchange offered yet another example of how our education system fails our nation these days.
So why is the Electoral College so important and worth retaining?
Perhaps this plea of yesterday by former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski testifying before a House subcommittee illustrates it best. (March 20, 2024)
“My biggest appeal to everyone in this room is I wish you would spend the time focusing on the fact that the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated the White House with the United States of America through the Biden family.
I don’t say that lightly. It’s not a joke. I was willing to die for this country, as was my father, and both my grandfathers and my brother. This is serious, serious stuff. We should be asking how that happened.
Take the Biden name and the Biden family completely out of it. How did the Chinese Communist Party infiltrate the White House and the United States of America? Let’s start there, focus on those facts: what they did, how they did it, why they use money, why they use private enterprises instead of military stuff … that is huge to our national security.”
Today we do not have slow news delivered by horse and buggy. We have propaganda parading as news to a scripted agenda which is even worse!
Copyright © 2024 by Mark S. Schwendau
