This column originally appeared in the Williston Observer on September 25, 2008.
Back to (Electoral) College
Every four years, we Americans go back to college - the Electoral College. The Electoral College is important because despite conventional wisdom, it is not presidential candidates that we will vote for in November but instead the members of this exclusive college.
Officially, the President is chosen not by the people but by the states, and each state has as many votes as it has members of Congress. All states get at least three electoral votes - one for each Senator and Representative. Vermont, then, only gets three. California, by contrast, has 55.
These elector counts are how commentators can tell you how many electoral votes a candidate needs to win the election. There are 100 Senators and 435 Representatives in Congress, for a total of 535 electoral votes. Add three more for Washington, D.C., for a total of 538. You need half plus one to win outright, or 270.
It is these electors you are selecting when you cast your ballot in November, not the exact candidate, though each political party chooses its electors. In most states, including Vermont, the slate of electors that garners the most votes will vote in the Electoral College. The electors from the other parties get to watch from home like the rest of us.
After the electors all vote, the votes are bundled up and mailed off to Congress, where they are eventually opened and tallied, and a winner is officially declared.
This year, Election Day falls on November 4. Elector Day, when the electors gather in their state capitals to cast their votes, is December 15. Finally, the Congress will count the votes on January 6.
Most of this process is pro forma after Election Day. Though electors are not technically bound to vote for the candidate they are pledged to, they almost always do; and unless an elector goes against the grain, the reading of the votes in Congress is no surprise.
Why so convoluted a system? Why do we not just vote for the presidential candidate directly? The answer goes back to the great compromises the Framers made when they wrote the Constitution back in 1787.
The Electoral College does a few things. The biggest effect it has is to protect the smaller states, like Vermont, from the whims of the larger states. For one thing, large-state favorite sons can only get as many electoral votes as their state has; for another, because of equal suffrage in the Senate, smaller states have disproportionately large voting power in the College.
Another effect is our quadrennial reminder of the power of representative democracy. Just as we elect Senators and Representatives to weigh our demands with those of the nation, we elect electors to weigh our vote with the choices available. Even if the Electoral College always ends up voting as expected, there is always that slim possibility they could change their collective mind.
I have vacillated on the issue of the Electoral College over time, from supporter, to detractor, to compromiser.
As a resident of a small state, I am happy that my vote counts for more than a New York vote or a California vote. I am, however, uncomfortably happy, this being the equivalent of electoral schadenfreude.
The populist idea is a straight national popular vote. After the election debacle of 2000, I cringe, though, at any national plan. If there is dispute about the national vote, do we mandate Florida-style recounts in all 50 states? Would this grind the process to a halt?
Undoubtedly we could work something out, where recounts are by precinct or district or state, but still the prospect of needing a national recount is plausible. At least with the Electoral College as it is now, a recount in New York or New Hampshire does not necessitate a recount here.
A promising compromise is an interstate compact whereby, once enough states to total 270 or more electoral vote have signed on, those states would change their laws to select the slate of electors for the winner of the national vote, regardless of the state vote.
In any case, it is too late for change now, so the Electoral College process is going to go forward at least one more time. So, revel in our little electoral idiosyncrasy, and as homework, try to find out the names of the electors you'll be voting for when you cast your vote on Election Day.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Conventional Wisdom
This column originally appeared in the Williston Observer on September 11, 2008.
Conventional Wisdom
Last week, the convention phase of the 2008 campaign season ended.
The Democratic Party could not have asked for a better convention. All of the heavy hitters got to have their time on stage, if not in the spotlight of prime time.
The Clintons buried the hatchet and hopefully Senator Hillary Clinton's call for her supporters to back Barack Obama will not go unheeded. In the coming weeks, it will be interesting to watch as Clinton campaigns for Obama throughout the country.
Joe Biden came out swinging, as everyone expected him to. He called the President to task for the policies of the last eight years, and wondered along with us what John McCain would do any different.
Wrapping up, the convention moved outside, and Barack Obama gave a speech to a packed house and a huge television audience. The TV cameras sought out the Obama supporters who were moved to tears by his speech, and it wasn't hard to find several in the crowd.
The outdoor venue was a risk. What if the campaign couldn't fill the stands? What if the television audience didn't tune in? What if the weather took a turn for the worst?
To this last point, Stuart Shepard, a cohort of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, exhorted his listeners to pray for rain. Though Shepard apologized for the comment, saying it was made in jest, the incident must have still made worries bubble up in organizers' minds.
The weather, though, cooperated, and so did the audience, both in Denver and at home. Nothing, it seemed, was going to lessen the impact of the convention at its close.
Nothing, that is, except for a couple of storms.
The first metaphorical storm was started by McCain himself, when he picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Never before do I recall seeing so much interest in a vice presidential pick.
Palin has excited the Republican base like no other pick could have, and has grabbed the attention of many who otherwise wouldn't have care one whit about the choice. Whether you were a political junkie, a GOP stalwart, or an apolitical Us Magazine reader, all minds were on Palin.
I have seen buttons in the Internet extolling "Palin Power" and quipping "Palin - Read My Lipstick". One, with only half-hearted tongue-in-cheekness, switches the ticket's names to "Palin/McCain".
Ironically, Palin is now blessed with the same kind of celebrity that McCain had criticized Obama for last month. Any comment, Paris Hilton?
Only a real storm seemed able to draw attention from Hurricane Sarah, and Mother Nature obliged with Hurricane Gustav. As the storm bore down on the Gulf states, the Republicans did the right thing and toned events down for the first day of their convention.
A former Democratic National Committee chair, Don Fowler, turned Shepard's words around on him, saying that Gustav "demonstrates God is on our side." Ill-timed and in extremely poor taste, Fowler issued his own apology for his comment while the Obama campaign likely was thinking "thanks for nothing."
But Gustav passed and Palin took to the stage on Wednesday, marking her real debut to the nation. After briefly going over her life story and establishing her conservative bona fides, she turned into an attack dog, issuing one-liners against Obama, the "angry left," and the "liberal media elite." After the convention closed, these zingers became staples of the McCain/Palin stump speeches, and the fact checkers revealed many of them to be outright lies.
Finally, Thursday was McCain's night to shine. As he described his time in a Vietnamese prison, I found myself unabashedly misty-eyed. His courage in the face of adversity makes me proud to have served under the same flag. Of course, the biography was followed by a speech that was big on applause points but short on any detail for his plans for the country.
No matter. In the end, the conventions got some of their highest ratings ever. Nearly 40 million viewers watched Obama, Palin, and McCain, with McCain drawing the highest numbers of all.
Take a deep breath. There are a few weeks before the next phase, the debates. With the race as tight as it is, they could play a key role. I await the one-on-one confrontations excitedly.
-----------------------
I would be remiss not to mention the anniversary we commemorate today. Never forget those who died on September 11, 2001, and never forget the troops who have sacrificed life and limb, and continue to do so, every day since.
Conventional Wisdom
Last week, the convention phase of the 2008 campaign season ended.
The Democratic Party could not have asked for a better convention. All of the heavy hitters got to have their time on stage, if not in the spotlight of prime time.
The Clintons buried the hatchet and hopefully Senator Hillary Clinton's call for her supporters to back Barack Obama will not go unheeded. In the coming weeks, it will be interesting to watch as Clinton campaigns for Obama throughout the country.
Joe Biden came out swinging, as everyone expected him to. He called the President to task for the policies of the last eight years, and wondered along with us what John McCain would do any different.
Wrapping up, the convention moved outside, and Barack Obama gave a speech to a packed house and a huge television audience. The TV cameras sought out the Obama supporters who were moved to tears by his speech, and it wasn't hard to find several in the crowd.
The outdoor venue was a risk. What if the campaign couldn't fill the stands? What if the television audience didn't tune in? What if the weather took a turn for the worst?
To this last point, Stuart Shepard, a cohort of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, exhorted his listeners to pray for rain. Though Shepard apologized for the comment, saying it was made in jest, the incident must have still made worries bubble up in organizers' minds.
The weather, though, cooperated, and so did the audience, both in Denver and at home. Nothing, it seemed, was going to lessen the impact of the convention at its close.
Nothing, that is, except for a couple of storms.
The first metaphorical storm was started by McCain himself, when he picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Never before do I recall seeing so much interest in a vice presidential pick.
Palin has excited the Republican base like no other pick could have, and has grabbed the attention of many who otherwise wouldn't have care one whit about the choice. Whether you were a political junkie, a GOP stalwart, or an apolitical Us Magazine reader, all minds were on Palin.
I have seen buttons in the Internet extolling "Palin Power" and quipping "Palin - Read My Lipstick". One, with only half-hearted tongue-in-cheekness, switches the ticket's names to "Palin/McCain".
Ironically, Palin is now blessed with the same kind of celebrity that McCain had criticized Obama for last month. Any comment, Paris Hilton?
Only a real storm seemed able to draw attention from Hurricane Sarah, and Mother Nature obliged with Hurricane Gustav. As the storm bore down on the Gulf states, the Republicans did the right thing and toned events down for the first day of their convention.
A former Democratic National Committee chair, Don Fowler, turned Shepard's words around on him, saying that Gustav "demonstrates God is on our side." Ill-timed and in extremely poor taste, Fowler issued his own apology for his comment while the Obama campaign likely was thinking "thanks for nothing."
But Gustav passed and Palin took to the stage on Wednesday, marking her real debut to the nation. After briefly going over her life story and establishing her conservative bona fides, she turned into an attack dog, issuing one-liners against Obama, the "angry left," and the "liberal media elite." After the convention closed, these zingers became staples of the McCain/Palin stump speeches, and the fact checkers revealed many of them to be outright lies.
Finally, Thursday was McCain's night to shine. As he described his time in a Vietnamese prison, I found myself unabashedly misty-eyed. His courage in the face of adversity makes me proud to have served under the same flag. Of course, the biography was followed by a speech that was big on applause points but short on any detail for his plans for the country.
No matter. In the end, the conventions got some of their highest ratings ever. Nearly 40 million viewers watched Obama, Palin, and McCain, with McCain drawing the highest numbers of all.
Take a deep breath. There are a few weeks before the next phase, the debates. With the race as tight as it is, they could play a key role. I await the one-on-one confrontations excitedly.
-----------------------
I would be remiss not to mention the anniversary we commemorate today. Never forget those who died on September 11, 2001, and never forget the troops who have sacrificed life and limb, and continue to do so, every day since.
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