Electing the President

I venture to guess that a lot of Americans don’t really understand that electoral votes and the Electoral College actually elect the president. The President of the United States of America is not elected by the popular vote. Surprise! The way this works is a little complicated, but it goes something like this. We have an election, a presidential election. Citizens in each of the 50 states go out and cast their ballots for President. Each state has a designated number of electoral votes determined by the number of each state’s U.S. Senators and the number of its U.S. Representatives combined.  Each state’s designated number of electoral votes can change every 10 years with the U.S. Census and the change in population in that state which affects the number of U.S. Representatives they have. Have I lost you yet? Try this:

State Electoral Votes = # of U.S. Senators (2) + # of U.S. Representatives (determined by U.S. Census every 10 years based on population)

During the campaign for President, the candidates of each party pursue those states with the largest numbers of electoral votes since the candidate with the largest number of Electoral Votes…wins.  Now to win the electoral votes in each state, the candidate has to win the popular vote in that state. The winner of the popular vote takes all the state’s Electoral Votes or rather the actual people chosen as “electors” by their respective parties during the state primaries. If the Democratic candidate wins the state’s popular vote then those Democratic “electors “ chosen by the state’s Democratic Party get to vote at the Electoral College…after the popular election is over. This group of chosen people gets to choose the President (except in the resent case of Bush v. Gore before the U.S. Supreme Court where the Court got to choose because the vote was so close.) How are you doing? Still with me?

So this is how most Presidential Elections are decided state by state…winner takes all in each state. Now there is a movement afoot to change how this system works.  In states with Republican Governors and Republican controlled state legislatures, Republicans want to change the winner take all rule and split up the states allotted Electoral votes by districts that they have gerrymandered to favor Republican votes. As I understand the plan, it works something like this:

State A = 5 Electoral Votes

Dist. 1 (Rural Area 100 Rep v 50 Dem =Rep Wins)

Dist. 2 (Rural Area 100 Rep v 50 Dem =Rep Wins)

Dist. 3 (Rural Area 100 Rep v 50 Dem =Rep Wins)

Dist. 4 (Urban Area 100 Rep v 1000  Dem =Dem Wins)

Dist. 5 (Urban Area 100 Rep v 1000  Dem =Dem Wins)

Results:

Popular vote: 2150 Dems v 500 Reps = Dems win

New Electoral Plan: 3 Reps v 2 Dems  (State Electoral  Votes are Split favoring Reps)

With this new way to elect a President by splitting Electoral Votes in these states it would be possible for a candidate to win the popular election in a close vote, but lose in the number of Electoral Votes needed to become President. Remember, it is the electoral votes that count. Analysis of the recent Presidential Election using this new system would have resulting in Romney winning the Presidency even though Obama won the popular vote.

Perhaps it is finally time to elect our President by a straight popular vote by all voters across this country. If one political party gains the ability to manipulate the vote in their favor, do we still have a Democracy?

Food for THOUGHT…