Electoral College - Letter to Mom
Dear Mom,
I thought I would attempt to explain how the presidential election really works in this country. I did some research and was shocked at how little I knew about the process and even worse how little the press explains it. After a lifetime of reading about politics, you and I should understand this better!
With Trump refusing the concede and trying to overturn the election count, it is important to have a rudimentary understanding of how this thing works.
So here goes my attempt to make it clear. Stick with me because it can get boring.
But first, open your pocket Constitution to Article II, Section 1, Clause 2. (I know this is the highlight of your day)
The Electoral College was established by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution and modified by the 12th and 23rd Amendments.
Because the white male Founders (think Hamilton and Madison) didn’t trust the people because they could turn into an angry mob, they created the Electoral College. This is a unique method for indirectly electing the president of the United States. Think of it as a kind of “adults table’’ at Thanksgiving. The electors are the adults. We voters are the children.
The Electoral College consists of 538 members, one for each U.S. senator and representative, and three additional electors representing the District of Columbia. Each state has a number of electoral votes equal to its congressional delegation, and each state legislature determines how its electors are selected.
When you voted for Biden on Dec. 3, you didn’t really vote for Biden. You voted for “electors’’ who will in turn vote for Biden.
Let’s keep going. Under the Electoral College, Vermont has three electors because we have two senators and one House member. In New Jersey where you live, you have 14 electors because of your two senators and 12 House members.
These electors are appointed at party conventions in each state in the spring and summer before the election. (I did not know this) So in each state, both political parties elected a slate of electors.
When you voted for Biden/Harris, you were actually voting for the 14 Democratic “electors’’ in NJ. I voted for my “slate’’ of Democratic electors in Vermont. My Republican neighbors voting for Trump were supporting the Republican slate of electors. In some states the names of the electors actually appear on the ballot.
When Biden won New Jersey, the Democratic electors were chosen by the voters. The Republican electors were cast aside. In a state like Ohio, which Trump won, the Republican electors were selected and the Democratic slate was cast aside.
On Dec. 14, those electors will gather at every Statehouse in the US to vote for president. In the states won by Biden/Harris, the electors will vote for that ticket. In Trump states, the electors vote for that ticket. Can’t believe I never knew that. I actually know one of the electors in Vermont. Her name is Kesha Ram. She is a newly elected state senator from Burlington.
Once Kesha and her fellow electors cast their ballot on Dec. 14, those ballots will then be sent to Washington, DC. I haven't yet figured out whether they are mailed, emailed, Pony Expressed or what. The Trump people, with their distrust of mailed ballots and love of all American culture around 1948, probably want them driven to DC in an armored truck.
Guess who receives the ballots in Washington, DC? The president of the Senate, who is also the vice president of the U.S., your favorite person: Mike Pence! (Elections matter).
Side note: You might remember that agonizing scene in 2000 when Al Gore, as the vice president, had to preside over the Electoral College vote tabulation to secure his own defeat. That is what Pence (irony) will have to do.
Don’t worry about neo-nazis and Rudy Giuliani stealing the ballots. Copies of the ballots go also to a federal judge and the National Archives and the secretary of state in each state.
But before that - and this is important - on Dec. 8, all election disputes must be resolved. This is the key date if - like most Democratic bed wetters like me - you are worried that Trump will steal the election. And this is basically Trump’s deadline to try and overturn Biden’s election.
After Dec. 8, it’s really over.
Once the electors cast their ballots on Dec. 14 in each state capitol, said ballots must be received in DC by Dec. 23. Note that under the Constitution and federal law, there is no penalty for missing this deadline. So if you are worried about anti-Biden yahoos driving the ballot truck off the road and into a tunnel where Trump people will switch the ballots, this is the time to worry.
The ballots arrive at the Capitol and are given to Mike Pence, who then presides over the counting and his own removal from office, a weird and incredible payback from the Gore moment. That takes place on January 6.
Then it's off to Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Clear as molasses right? Happy Thanksgiving.
Sources and thanks -
David Silberman, High-Bailiff-elect, Addison County, VT
Vermont Secretary of State’s office
Vermont Senator-elect Kesha Ram
