When is the election over?
Election Day feels like the end of the election process, but it isn’t.
There are several steps that follow that could change the outcome of the vote. Here are the dates of steps in the 2016 election:
November 9, 2016 General Election
Eligible voters in states cast their ballots. Millions of people vote. State by state, votes are allocated based on the Electoral College distribution which gives states a minimum of three electoral votes and additional ones based on population. The winner of the Popular Vote and the Electoral College vote distribution may not be the same person. In 2016, the winner of the Popular Vote didn’t win the Electoral College distribution for the 5th time in our history.
December 19, 2016 Electors Vote
The Electors cast their votes. Some states don’t have any restrictions on their Electors, though it is generally presumed they will vote for the winner of their state. Some states require Electors to vote for the winner in their state, but penalties for disobeying this vary and may only be a small fine. The Electors’ vote could change the outcome of the election.
January 6, 2017 Congress Counts Votes
Elector votes are counted in a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives with the current Vice-President presiding. If the votes of a state are challenged by a member of both the House and the Senate, then the Vice-President can choose to accept this challenge and the votes of that state will be discarded. This could change the outcome of the election.
January 6, 2017 House of Representatives Picks the President, Senate Picks the Vice-President
If the vote is tied because Electors voted differently than their state, or because the votes of enough states were thrown out to result in a tie, then the House of Representatives picks the President and the Senate picks the Vice-President. They can only choose between the top three vote getters from the Elector’s vote. This could change the outcome of the election.
It is entirely possible for the “winner” of the election to be someone who was not even on the ballot on November 9th.
All of the different points at which the winner of the election could be changed were intended to act as a way to prevent electoral disaster. In the words of Alexander Hamilton, “Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption.” (Federalist papers, #68)
However, so far it appears the Electors have voted independently either mistakenly (2004 when an Elector misspelled John Edwards name and voted for Edwards for President rather than Kerry) or to protest ideology (1836 when Virginia’s Electors refused to vote for Richard M. Johnson for Vice-President because of his open relationship with slave).
What good are safeguards that are never appropriately used? We have had some intensely corrupt Presidents/administrations in the past, and the Electoral College process did not stop them (Grant, Harding).
We are relying on politicians to make a more informed, non-partisan decision for the good of the country. This has yet to happen. We are all too often laboring under the illusion that the voters directly decide or the illusion that the Electors or congress will save us from a bad decision. Neither is true.
It is time to scrap this process and truly let the people decide.