Electoral College

In November of the year 2000, Vice President Al Gore (Democrat) received 543,892 more popular votes than did Texas Governor George W. Bush (Republican), thus winning the U. S. presidential election.  Gore was inaugurated the following January 20th to become the 43rd president of the United States of America. 

Part of the above is not true.  Gore was not inaugurated as president.  Bush was.  Gore did not win the election even though he did receive more votes than Bush, popular votes that is.   Unfortunately for Gore, Bush received the majority of the electoral votes, 271 to 266.  Why this mismatch between popular votes and electoral votes?  What is the Electoral College, where the electoral votes are cast, all about?   

In Brazil, there is no Electoral College.  The candidate with a majority of the popular vote becomes the president of the Brazilian Republic.  If there is initially no candidate with a majority, there is a second round of voting with only the two top candidates from the first round, thus insuring that one will receive a majority.  So why is the USA different?

Under the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, "The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President...and transmit (list of votes) sealed to the seat of government of the United States...The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed." 

The way the U. S. system works, which ever candidate for President receives the most popular votes in each of the fifty states (even if not a majority), the Electors pledged (but not legally bound) to vote for that candidate will cast their electoral vote in the Electoral College where the actual election takes place.  Thus, there is not a national election in the United States, but fifty state (plus the District of Columbia) elections.

Those who wrote the Constitution in the 1780s were worried about giving the people the power to directly choose their president.  Perhaps they could be too easily duped by the promises of a candidate.  President Lincoln allegedly said that "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time." Thus, the Electoral College system was intended to act as a safeguard.  It was also intended to give smaller, more rural states more influence in the election process.  

There are 100 Senators and 435 Representatives in the U. S. Congress.  As such, there are a total of 535 Electoral Votes allocated among the 50 States.  The District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) does not have any Senators, nor does it have a voting member in the House of Representatives.  However, under the Twenty-Third Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated 3 Electoral votes, making it equal to the number allocated to the smallest state in the USA.  Thus, there are 538 electoral votes; a majority would be 270, the number necessary to elect a president of the United States of America.

It is fair to say that 103 (100 for the Senators and 3 for D.C.) out of the 538 Electoral votes (about 19%) are unrelated to the relative size of the population of the fifty states.  Furthermore, the winner take all system in each of the states (except Maine and Nebraska) also diminishes the significance of receiving the most popular votes nationally.   

And what if there is a tie, 269-269?  And what if a third-party candidate wins some electoral votes, thus preventing either of the major party candidates from winning a majority?  That is the subject of another blog post. 

As a result of the election this past Tuesday, the 8th of November, Donald Trump received 306 (including Michigan) electoral votes (a majority) and will be inaugurated on January 20, 2017 as the 45th president of the United States of America. 

On the other hand, similar to the year 2000, Secretary Hillary Clinton, his Democratic Party opponent, received 2,654,370 more popular votes than Trump (on election night 2012, Trump tweeted that the Electoral College was a "disaster for a democracy"), but lost the election.  It is interesting, but perhaps meaningless, to note that in six out of the last seven presidential elections the Democratic Party candidate received more popular votes.  The exception being 2004.  However, as we have seen, twice during this period a Republican overcame that disadvantage to win the presidency in the Electoral College.    

I hope for the best for my country over the next four years under President Trump.