The Electoral College can still save America
A commentary by the Publisher of FAIRisFAIR.org
Vol. I, Issue 2November 2004
Things look pretty bleak for America right now.
Many people were hoping the election would reverse the trend of a declining quality of life; of growing budget deficits and a looming fiscal crisis; of increasing worldwide animosity towards America. They hoped for a new president. They hoped for someone who would renounce the Bush administration's policies on torture; someone who would end the Guantanamo Bay concentration camps; someone who would restore law, honor and dignity to the country. Unfortunately, given the initial election forecasts by the major news agencies, things don't look very good.
But there's still hope.
During the 2000 presidential election, the media made it painfully aware that the U.S. President is not elected by the people, but by the Electoral College. We're all familiar with the election night television coverage -- news anchors sit in front of a giant map of the United States with each state showing a different number (the number of Electors for that state). As the results come in, the states on the map are assigned a color (red or blue) -- and the winning candidate automatically gets the votes for that state.
It's all just an illusion.
The real process isn't automatic at all. The Electors aren't a metaphor. They're real, live people. In reality, every one of those “special” votes is cast by a person. And just like in every other election in America, the people are free to vote for whomever they want (well, except in Michigan and North Carolina1).
On the Monday following the second Wednesday in November, the Electors of each state meet in their state capitals and cast their votes for president and vice president2. The votes are sent to the President of the Senate who reads them before both houses of Congress on January 6th.
The Electors can be chosen in a variety of ways, sometimes by their party, sometimes by direct election, but they're not always bound to vote for their party's candidate. Indeed, vote switching has happened in the past; and while the Supreme Court has upheld the right of political parties to require formal pledges from Presidential Electors (Ray v Blair, 343 US 214)3, only two states, Michigan and North Carolina, have laws that require the Electors to vote for the candidate who won the state.
The founding fathers designed the Electoral College to save the country from itself. In the event of a mass coercion, widespread disenfranchisement, or just plain poor decision making, the Electoral College has the ability to write the wrongs of the national election by installing a president better suited to the task of governing the country. This Electoral College has that rare opportunity.
Not since Herbert Hoover, has the country witnessed such an abysmal failure of a president. George W. Bush managed to take the strongest economy in a generation and reduce it to rubble -- creating massive unemployment and a spectacular collapse of the stock markets. America gained the sympathy of the world after the September 11th attacks, and yet Bush managed to find a way to turn it into worldwide emnity. Once the land of the free, now we're the land of the enemy combatant.
The Electoral College can write the wrong of the 2004 presidential election and restore the faith of the people by installing a leader who is good for the country. A leader the people so sorely need. John Kerry stands as one of this country's greatest patriots. He served his country -- in war and in protest. He served in our courts and our legislatures. He is the embodiment of an American hero -- and in this hour, we NEED a hero.
The Electoral College can still save America, if it has the will.