Aim: To what extent does the electoral college meet the objectives envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution?

The Electoral College "Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress." Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution

Number of Electoral Votes # of Representatives in the House + # of Senators in the Senate For Example: New York has 29 members in the House of Representatives, and 2 Senators (as do all states). 29 + 2 31 Electoral Votes

How Electors Are Chosen In each state, the political party chooses a number of electors equal to that state’s number of electoral votes. For Example: In New York State: The Democrats choose 31 Electors who promise to vote for the Democratic candidate The Republicans choose 31 Electors who promise to vote for the Republican candidate The Libertarian Party chooses 31 Electors who promise to vote for the Libertarian candidate And so on…

Electoral College Map

Therefore: When you vote on Election Day, you are not voting for the Presidential candidate You are voting for the political party who has nominated the Candidate that you want to be President. For Example: New York has 11,200,000 registered voters In the 2000 Election: Democratic Party: Al Gore: 4,107,697 Republican Party: George W. Bush: 2,403,374 Green Party: Ralph Nader: 244,030 Reform Party: Pat Buchanan: 31,599

Thus: The Democrats received the majority of the popular vote in New York The 33 Electors* chosen by the Democratic Party in New York cast their ballots for Al Gore. It works like this in each state. *The Number of Electoral Votes in New York has changed to 31

How to Win: To win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of the Electoral Vote. Currently: 270 of the 538 total Electoral Votes. If no one candidate wins a majority (i.e. there are too many candidates that split the vote), or if there is a tie, the vote goes to the House of Representatives, who will then elect the President.

What did the Framers intend? When the Constitution was established, The Framers felt that choosing the President by popular vote would cause too much controversy The people were too widely scattered to make informed decisions The people would be loyal to local interests, and would not make decisions in the best interests of the nation In short, the Framers did not trust the people to vote directly for President The Framers intended that the electors from each state would be “the most enlightened and respectable citizens,” and they would act as “free agents.”

Faithless Electors: Throughout American History, there have been 156 “Faithless Electors” - Electors who did not vote for whom they were supposed to

Popular Vote vs. Electoral Vote It is possible for a candidate to receive a majority of the popular vote and still lose the election in the Electoral College. Densely populated states may swing the popular vote in favor of the candidate who does not receive an electoral majority. For Example: California has a population of 36,132,147 and 55 Electoral Votes. If a candidate receives a majority of the votes in California, they get 55 Electoral Votes, regardless of how many people actually voted. If 20,000,000 people in California all vote for one candidate, he gets 55 Electoral Votes If 10,000,000 people in California all vote for one candidate, he gets 55 Electoral votes

U.S. Population Density

2000 Election By State

2012 Election by State

Questions: What didn’t the Framers envision happening soon after George Washington left office? Do you feel that the Electoral College is Democratic? Why or why not? What advantages can you see to having the Electoral College?

Aim: What controversies has the electoral college caused?

Political Parties Complicate the Issue: Originally, each elector was to cast two ballots for President. The candidate who came in first would be President, the candidate who came in second would be Vice President.

The Election of 1796 John Adams (Federalist Party) was elected President, and his arch rival Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican Party) was elected Vice President.

The Election of 1800 Things got worse. The Electors voted for their party’s nominees for President and Vice President, but each vote counted as a vote for President Thus, Thomas Jefferson, the Presidential Candidate, and Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s running mate, received a tie in the Electoral College. The House of Representatives soon after elected Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice President

More Controversies The 12th Amendment fixed the problems of the previous elections by requiring that electors vote specifically for President and Vice President. This did not eliminate the possibility of Electoral controversies.

The Election of 1824: The contenders were Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, plus two other candidates. No single candidate received a majority in the Electoral College, although Jackson won the popular vote. The election went to the House of Representatives, who elected John Quincy Adams. Adams then named Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, as Secretary of State. Jackson supporters complained of a “corrupt bargain.” Jackson was elected President in 1828 and 1832.

Election of 1860: Abraham Lincoln won the election with a clear majority of 180 electoral votes. The nearest candidate, John Breckenridge won 72 electoral votes. In third came, John Bell's Constitutional Union party with 39 votes. Stephen Douglas came in fourth with 12 electoral votes. South Carolina immediately seceded upon Lincoln's victory. No Southern States had voted for Lincoln, and they therefore did not consider him their President.

The Election of 1876 After the Civil War, the Southern States were still under military occupation by the Union during Reconstruction. The election was between Rutherford B. Hayes (R) and Samuel J. Tilden (D). There were disputed electoral returns from several Southern States. Tilden had 184 of the 185 Electoral votes needed, and a majority of the popular vote. the election was not won until the Southern returns could be figured out. The Electoral Count Act of 1877 created a special panel to sort out the controversy Hayes was elected President in return for removing Union troops from the Southern States Reconstruction was officially ended here, and the freed slaves were left to the mercy of Southern racists.

The Election of 1888: Benjamin Harrison won 233 Electoral Votes Grover Cleveland received 168 Electoral Votes In the popular vote, Cleveland had 5, 537, 857 to Harrison’s 5, 447, 129.

The Election of 2000 Al Gore received a majority of the popular vote with 51,003,926 George W. Bush received 50,460,110 popular votes. However, after contested results in Florida, and various ballot controversies, George W. Bush was elected President with 271 Electoral votes to Gore’s 266.

In Florida: The 25 Electoral Votes in Florida were needed by each candidate to win the election. If Gore won Florida, he would win the election If Bush won Florida, he would win the election The vote in Florida was too close to call.

That didn’t stop the Media: In an effort to be the first to report, the news media prematurely named both Bush and Gore as winners at different times. The news media also incorrectly reported that the polls in Florida were closed, when they were still open.

Ballot Controversies:

Photo of Palm Beach Ballot

Punch Card Ballots

“Hanging Chad” Were Often Disqualified

Examining The Hanging Chad

Overvotes:

Voter Scrubbing: Names of eligible voters were “scrubbed” or eliminated from voter lists because they were determined to be convicted felons. In 1999, the rules for eliminating convicted felons from voter lists were relaxed, making it easier to eliminate names that closely resembled the names of convicted felons. Many minority voters were disenfranchised as a result of this process

Jeb Bush As Governor of Florida, many have accused George W. Bush’s brother Jeb, of using his influence to give Bush an advantage in Florida.

Florida Recount: Gore requested a manual recount in four counties in Florida. The recount was controversial because of the length of time it would take to complete it, as well as which votes should be counted in certain circumstances (hanging chad, overvotes). In the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore (2000) – In a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court halted the Florida recount, with Bush in a 537 vote lead.

The 5 conservative justices sided with Bush, while the 4 liberal justices sided with Gore. People argued that the election was in effect decided by the Supreme Court, and not by the people

The Election Ends: Bush received Florida’s 25 Electoral Votes, and was declared the winner.

Al Gore went on to grow a beard and focus on global warming. He later won an Academy Award for a PowerPoint presentation on the subject.

Conclusion: What should have been done in the 2000 Election? Come up with a solution and predict an outcome. Which was the worst incident of election controversy in American History? Explain. What can be done to prevent election controversies in the future?