Hello Class

I've been reading way too much on the American election lately. So let's take a break from the politics to talk about the political science. It's time for Toby to be a Social Studies teacher. Today's lesson: The Electoral College.

As you all know, the US President is not elected by the popular vote, rather the mysterious electoral college, a group of 538 Freemasons and Skull-n'-Bones-men. Here's how it works:

• There are 538 Electors, divided among the states. Each state gets an Elector for each Congressman and Senator they have. D.C. also gets 3 Electors. Small states therefore get proportionally higher voting power (since each state has 2 senators).
• The Electoral College was created to emphasize the power of the States in the federation. You know, like a Triple-E Senate.
  
• The Electors from each state cast their vote on Dec 13th. The Electors are actual people who cast actual ballots. Even though they are chosen carefully by the states (and 26 states have enforcement laws) there is always the chance that an Elector will vote differently than they are "supposed to." In 2000 a D.C. Elector spoiled her ballot. In 1988 a West Virginia Elector voted for Lloyd Bentsen instead of Michael Dukakis. In 1976, an Elector from Washington voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford. So Nader could even get an Electoral vote!
  
• Generally the candidate who wins the popular vote gets all of a state's electoral votes (e.g., if you win 52% of the vote in California you get all 55 Electoral votes). Maine and Nebraska have provisions to split their votes, however, but they have never done so. On election day Colorado voters will vote to change their states regulations to split their 9 Electoral vote based on the popular vote. Had this been the method in the last election, George Bush would have only won 5 of Colorado's 9 votes and Al Gore would be the President. The interesting thing is that this change will take effect for this Presidential election. If Colorado is a swing state this brings up the alarming possibility of this law being challenged and the President once again being chosen by the Supreme Court.
• On January 6 Congress meets to tally the Electoral College votes. Here's an interesting bit of trivia: A candidate must have a majority, not just a plurality of electoral votes to win. If a candidate does not have a majority, the (newly elected) House elects the president from among the top 3 candidates and the Senate elects the VP! So, for example, if Kerry gets 269 Electoral votes, Bush gets 268, and Nader (or someone else) gets 1, then the President will be chosen by the House! In 1824 Andrew Jackson won both the popular vote and the Electoral College but the House chose John Quincy Adams. Frankly I'd love to see President Kerry and VP Cheney...

And you thought the constitutional monarchic responsible government parliamentary democracy was weird...