The day before the announcement of voters for the 2024 presidential election, Kaveesh Pathak, 19, wasn’t sure he would win. He had spent the last two weeks calling and campaigning to become one of 11 Massachusetts Democrats will serve on the Electoral College and I discovered that his name was not on some ballots.
Later that day, he was surprised to learn that he had been chosen to represent Massachusetts in the selection of the 47th president of the United States. This occurred during a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House on December 17. — the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after a general election.
It is a formal process spelled out in the Constitution, largely neglected until 2020, when Donald Trump raised awareness by challenging the results of Congress’ official count of the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021.
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Created as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress or by a popular vote of qualified citizens, this has resulted in three elections where the winner of the popular vote did not enter the White House — twice this century. This has sparked calls for change.
For party activists, “an honor” to play a role in the presidential election
But for activists from the Democratic and Republican parties, it is an honor to be part of it.
Second year political science and commerce student at Northeastern UniversityPathak was not initially going to run as a voter. But when Kamala Harris became the candidatehe “saw an opportunity to be able to represent the Indian-American community,” he said.
“I felt like it was a really important thing to me,” Pathak said.
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Sharon Stout, Chair of Voters and president of the Massachusetts chapter of Emerge, an organization that helps train Democratic women who want to run for officesaid it was a “humbling honor to be elected class president.”
Running for office is similar to running for office. A candidate should call and email their state committee members, so people know to vote for them. Stout has been involved in politics for more than 35 years, she said.
“When I was running for the Electoral College, part of my application, part of my speech was: I’ve been in politics for over 30 years,” Stout said. “Please consider giving me one of your votes. I think that’s the highest honor you can get as a political activist. »
How the Electoral College Works
The Electoral College selected the 45 American presidents. When people go to the polls on the first Tuesday in November, they are actually voting for a voter committed to the party’s candidate. There are 538 electors, which is the number of members of the House and Senate in each state plus three for the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate needs at least 270 to win.
Voters decide which candidate to support, but the general election results determine which slate of electors will assemble, according to the National Archives.
Massachusetts law designates committees of state parties to choose who will represent them.
The Electoral College has never really been popular with the American public. When the winners of the popular vote and the electoral vote were different in 2000 and 2016, people became aware that the votes could separate, said John Fortier, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“It hasn’t been very popular the last few days,” he said. “Of course, you know, over the last 24 years we’ve talked more about the possibility of the popular vote going one way and the electoral college going the other way.”
Fortier said the Founding Fathers were concerned about both direct election and giving exclusive authority to Congress.
Common Cause says the electoral college is rooted in racism
The Electoral College was also rooted in racism and gave rural states disproportionate power, said Aaron Scherb, senior director of legislative affairs at Common Causea grassroots organization that has been described as both “left-leaning” and “non-partisan” and which focuses on what it believes upholds the core values of American democracy.
At the time of its founding, only white men with land could vote, and the country expanded beyond that, Scherb said.
Fortier said the Electoral College gives states the opportunity to participate in the process and allows for different voting methods, such as mail-in voting.
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“It gives the states and the federal government the opportunity to create a balanced system,” he said, adding that it also gives both parties a chance to oversee the electoral process.
“You have people there monitoring, even at the level of opening mail-in ballots or counting ballots or recounting things, you often have observers from both parties there,” Fortier said.
But the system also reflects the reality that the Founding Fathers never saw a country the size of the United States hold national elections. They also didn’t trust the general public to choose a president, said John Kowal, vice president of program initiatives at the Brennan Center for Justice.
How difficult would it be to abolish the Electoral College?
There have been calls to change or completely abolish the Electoral College and hold a national popular vote. Doing so would require a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds of the votes in the House and Senate and ratification by three-quarters of the states. This has only been done 27 times in the country’s history.
This could also be changed through a Constitutional convention demanded by two thirds of the States — something that never happened.
A proposal calling for a National Popular Vote Interstate Compact could change the process without abolishing the Electoral College. Under the agreement, states will commit their voters to the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide, Kowal said.
“It would not eliminate the Electoral College, but it would make the Electoral College dependent on the national popular vote, rather than the vote of individual states,” Kowal said.
Scherb said the pact could take effect in the next four to six years.
“I think a nice feature of the national popular vote interstate compact is that it doesn’t require a constitutional amendment,” Scherb said. “You can do it state by state.”
An interstate compact is not a new concept. States use them when they have common interests such as economic or environmental reasons. This pact is designed so that everyone has a chance to participate in the democratic process, Scherb said.
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“That’s really the foundation of American democracy, the principle of one person, one vote, and no matter what, your voice should count equally,” Scherb said. “No matter the size of your pockets or your zip code, your vote should matter the same.”
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have agreed to the pact and together have 209 electoral votes, Kowal said. This pact will not take effect until 270 electoral votes are promised, Fortier added.
Massachusetts adopted the compact in August 2010.
How replacing the Electoral College changes campaign strategy
“The game would be to win the national popular vote, which would mean Democrats and Republicans would go to where their voters are and try to turn them out,” Kowal said.
“It was possible that, in a somewhat roundabout way, we could get rid of the Electoral College,” Fortier said. “I think there are some dangers in that, because this system is a sort of halfway house, but it would be a way of privileging, in essence, the popular vote… so I don’t think it’s out of the question, but I do. I think it’s still difficult.
The pact would also change campaign strategy since candidates would have to visit the entire country. Swing states currently receive the majority of advertising and this new pact would require distribution across the country, Scherb said.
“I think it would be a much more equitable distribution of not only campaign visits, but also campaign spending across the board,” Scherb said.
In the meantime, Common Cause and other organizations hope to educate the public and work with lawmakers to introduce these ideas, he said.
“It’s a marathon, you know, where we recognize that it’s not about flipping a switch and making this happen overnight,” Scherb said.
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The pact could also be risky because if there are more than two candidates, one candidate would have to get more than half to win, according to Joshua Holzer, associate professor of political science at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
Another possible solution would be proportional representation. In the current winner-takes-all system, a candidate gets all the electoral votes if they get 50.1% of the vote. according to Protect democracy.
“We elect governors, senators, House members and state legislators by popular vote,” Kowal said. “You know, it’s just the president we don’t know.”
The Brennan Center’s Kowal said the Electoral College gained a lot of support at its inception thanks to Southern delegates. And the Three-fifths Compromisewhich counted three out of five slaves when determining a state’s total population for legislative representation and taxation, inflated the power of the Southern states.
“They never imagined there would be social movements, political parties and everything we have today,” Kowal said. “It’s a relic from a totally different era.”
“I think finding a parallel path to the Electoral College is kind of a natural progression for us as we move past some of our racist roots of this country,” Scherb said.
