Nov 2, 2008 1:38 pm US/Mountain
Electoral College Helps Colorado Remain Relevant
Good Question: How Does The Electoral College Work?
Written by Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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CBS4's Alan Gionet found that many people don't understand the Electoral College.
CBS
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Good Question, a regular part of CBS4 News at 10 p.m., is an opportunity for Alan Gionet to drill past the basic facts of a story and give it some depth & perspective. See more Good Question reports.
He's sick of it all, said the man from Missouri we found at DIA.
"Pretty much cause I voted a week ago." But it ain't over until you-know-who sings and that won't come until Tuesday night -- probably.
If you were breathing in 2000 you remember how the election hinged on the outcome in Florida.
Planeloads of lawyers and political operatives descended upon the state to argue over the ultimate outcome of a 537 vote victory for George W. Bush in Florida. Nationwide Bush lost the popular vote by over 550,000 votes, but won the presidency. Why? The electoral college.
Florida's 25 electoral votes (it has 27 this year) put Bush over the top and left Al Gore out. Bush got 271 electoral votes and Gore 266. That's what really counts.
"The 2000 election was sort of that pivotal point when everyone all of a sudden said, wait a minute, what is this electoral college, what's happening here?" says pollster Lori Weigel. "And so it comes down to simple math. How many states can you put into your column if you're a presidential campaign and there are very very few that come down to just leaning one way or the other."
In 2000 George W. Bush carried 30 states and Gore 20 plus the District of Columbia. But that's not how it's figured. The number of electors each state sends to the electoral college is the product of the number of congressional districts (in Colorado there are seven) and the two U.S. senators each state sends to Washington. That means Colorado gets nine electoral votes.
Who are they? Party faithful. The electors are picked by the Republican and Democratic parties at their congressional and state conventions. The congressional conventions were held during the caucus process during primary season earlier this year. One comes from each congressional convention and then two at-large electors are chosen during the statewide party convention that's also held during the caucus process.
"The electoral college is something that not many places have. I mean we're in the league with Burundi and Estonia," says Weigel. "But there's a weighting there."
The weight may be why the electoral college still exists. It helps balance out the big states against the little.
California with it's population would draw much more attention that relatively tiny Colorado if the election were conducted by popular vote. Coloradans may have realized that when they defeated Amendment 36 in 2004. The amendment asked whether the electors should be proportional to the popular vote rather than winner take all. It was soundly defeated.
"Our votes are counting somewhat more this year simply because we have been seen that a state that's in play, a battleground state," says Weigel. Colorado went for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. The democrats figure if it can shade over to their side this time, it changes the balance in the electoral college by nine. 270 are needed to win.
It's not the only view of history for the electoral college. It was created to prevent what the founding fathers thought might be the possibility of mob rule. Some thought a truly popularly elected candidate might be dangerous. The electoral college was put in place to possibly reverse that. It's been suggested that the establishment of the electoral college was influenced by the existence of slavery. States were given proportional representation in Congress that included their slave populations (counted as less than one each) even while slaves couldn't vote.
Whoever wins the popular vote Tuesday night gets all nine. But Colorado's law is a little vague when it comes to requirements on the electors. In U.S. history there have been a few who didn't stick with their candidate.
"They're called faithless electors," says Jennie Bowser, policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "State law says they shall vote for their candidate, but it doesn't say what will happen if they don't," says Bowser. In some states there's a penalty. Not Colorado. But remember the nine electors are put forward by their parties. They don't choose people with shaky devotion to their candidate.
The nine electors gather in the office of the Governor of Colorado this year on Dec. 15. They sign the document that indicates how they've voted and off it goes to Washington. The electors are done. They don't go to Washington.
The new Congress will pick it up on January 6th of next year. They total the votes, looking for 270. "And there can be some objections filed," says Bowser. "In 2004 there were some objections filed... the senators will go back to their chamber and the House members will stay in their chamber and they have two hours to sort out what to do with these objections then they get back together and cast their vote."
Hopefully things work out.
Because there are a total of 538 votes - equivalent to the number of members of the House and Senate, a tie is possible. It happened in 1800 when there was a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.In the case of a tie, each state gets one vote, no matter the population. "California gets one vote, Vermont gets one vote. It's the same for all states," says Bowser. "So that could end in a tie... So they would have to stay there and sort it out. They would have to negotiate until they solved the issue. It could go on and on and on."
In 1800, Jefferson won because Congress voted him in. But a tie -- well, that could make 2000 look like it was easy.
Colorado's Republican Electors:
Martha Allbright-Whitmore
Michael Lobato
Richard Poole
Stephen Schultz
Ralph Walchle
Perry Buck
Richard McLeod
Mary Wenke
Mary Dambman
Colorado's Democratic Electors:
Polly Baca
Margaret Atencio
Wellington Webb
Terry Phillips
Camilla Auger
Pam Shaddock
Jennifer Trujillo-Sanchez
Don Strickland
Ann Knollman
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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