Electoral Fix

The fix is in.

   The presidency is the only federal political office not filled by a direct vote of American citizens. Rather, the President is chosen by a group known as electors, selected from each state in a manner chosen by each state.
   How many are there? Each state gets as many electors as there are members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There is, however, a safety valve, which prohibits members of Congress from serving as electors. In addition, the District of Columbia gets three electors. Further, the Constitution does not require them to vote for the candidate with the largest popular vote.
   So it is easily possible that the candidate with the most votes nationwide does not become President. In fact, that has already happened. Twice.
   Most recently, it was when Democrat Al Gore lost his bid for the White House to Republican George W. Bush. Earlier, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden lost in 1876 to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Each Democratic candidate had a clear national majority.
   As it happened, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon submitted two sets of votes in 1876, leading Congress to name a special commission to resolve the issue. In the campaign of 2000, Florida again played a key role.
   Both disputes dragged on for months, until finally settled when strategic maneuvering enabled the Republican candidate to gain the White House. Finally, both Tilden and Gore accepted the decisions against them to avoid rancor that might have become violent.
   Those who want more details on the Hayes-Tilden or the Bush-Gore elections can find plenty using a Web search.
   As it is, the key number for a presidential candidate is not how many citizen votes are won nationwide, but the number of electoral votes. Currently, the total of electors is 538, and a candidate needs a simple majority of 270 votes to win the presidency. 
   Why such a strange system? Largely because those who wrote the Constitution did not fully trust the mass of citizens, who might be swayed by demagogues or fast talkers who were not really qualified to lead a democratic republic.
   Instead, they arranged for an interim body, whose members would, hopefully, select a well qualified leader. Unfortunately, it hasn't always worked out that way.
   Typically, those chosen as electors do indeed vote for the presidential candidate to whom they are committed, and most states have a winner-take-all system, where the popular vote dictates who gets all the supporting electors. Maine and Nebraska, however, have a proportional system of allocating electors.
   Understanding the system, therefore, is important, especially because one of the candidates this year is fond of alleging that "the system is rigged." It must be noted, moreover, that this same candidate has a history of gaming whatever system he is artfully dealing with as a way of winning the biggest payoff to himself, regardless of the harm it may do to others.
   "The system is broken," he says, and "I am the only one who can fix it."
   But whether this "fix" will benefit the majority of Americans or only a favored few is an open question.