Commentary: Maine joins movement to do away with Electoral College

This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. This week Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write about the Electoral College.

By Amy Miller

How well do we understand the Electoral College? How many electors does each state get and why? Do we know whether this number represents a state’s population?

The answers to these questions and a myriad others lay the foundation for arguments percolating in political circles as one state after another is voting to join together to basically get rid of the Electoral College.

Maine legislators recently voted to join 16 other states that pledged to give their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote. The goal and the effect of this National Popular Vote Compact will be to ensure the nation’s president is elected by popular vote.

Among the basic arguments, opponents say the Compact flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution and reduces the power of states to decide and run elections since all of a state’s votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote, even if that state voted differently.

Supporters note that in the current system, we have presidents taking office without the support of the majority of Americans. And they point out that candidates tend to campaign in only a handful of swing states that thus end up deciding who wins.

For instance, in 2000, George W. Bush won the presidency without the popular vote. Four years later he won the popular vote by more than 3 million votes, but would have lost the election if 59,393 voters in Ohio were convinced to change their mind. With the help of computers, campaigns get better and better at finely tuning data to figure out where to focus money and time. On the other hand, Donald Trump won the 2016 election but lost the national vote by 2.8 million votes.

For the Compact to work, states with a combined total of 270 Electoral College votes – the number needed to win an election - have to sign on. So far states with a total of 205 votes have signed on. With 270 signing on, the popular vote getter is guaranteed the presidency.

For those of us who are not students of elections and electoral politics, it can be difficult to make sense of the rationale for any particular system. We can be swayed by talk of minority rights, or states’ rights. Or we may be convinced that one-person, one-vote is the way to go. In Maine, which has four electoral votes, legislators decided to join the compact by the slim margin of 73 to 72. By the time this is printed, Gov. Janet Mills will have signed the act into law or let it lapse. Many of us will hold the point of view of the people, party or podcaster we trust. And all of us will be hoping the right decision was made.

Note: Gov. Mills allowed the bill to become law without her signature.

By Guy Trammell Jr.

Established on Sept. 6, 1787, the Electoral College now consists of 538 electors: three for the District of Columbia; 435 based on each state’s seats in the House of Representatives; and 100 - two for every state - based on the Senate. Alabama has seven House members and two senators, giving Alabama nine electors.

Electoral College critics existed from its very beginning. In 1802, one of its authors, Alexander Hamilton, unhappy about how it was being used, joined others in drafting a revision, one of more than 700 attempts to repair or abolish it.

Many states are now enacting laws giving the popular vote precedence, placing emphasis on each individual’s vote. In 2023, 65% of Americans preferred the popular vote over the Electoral College.

One criticism is that states aren’t penalized for low voter turnout or for disenfranchising its citizenry. A state gets its assigned number of votes and influence regardless of voter participation.

Horatio Seymour and Ulysses S. Grant’s 1868 presidential election saw so much Southern violence that in 1871 Congress held the Ku Klux Klan Hearings, 500 witnesses describing the terror. Tuskegee’s Assistant Marshal William Dougherty testified: “I think the shooting of [James H.] Alston, burning of colored schoolhouses, threats of discharge from employment, intimidation, murders and lynching, prevented Negroes from voting, and frightened them so they would not vote.”

So how are Alabama electors’ votes determined? The presidential candidate winning Alabama’s popular vote gets all nine electors, who are expected to vote for that candidate. The Electoral College convenes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. It takes 270 electoral votes to win. However, there have been “faithless electors” who change their vote or do not vote.

In 2016, Donald Trump won 306 electors but received only 304 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton won 232 electors but received 227 electoral votes. If no one achieves 270 votes, the selection goes to the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote to elect the president. The majority party in each state’s delegation decides which candidate gets the state’s vote.

Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace’s 1968 presidential campaign wasn’t waged to win, but to steal electors and offer them to other candidates in exchange for ending federal desegregation. This motivated the government to work on ending the Electoral College, but it was saved by the Senate.

Five presidential candidates won the popular vote but lost the election: 1824, Andrew Jackson (most popular votes) vs. John Quincy Adams (winner); 1876, Samuel J. Tilden (most popular votes) vs. Rutherford B. Hayes (winner); 1888, Grover Cleveland (most popular votes) vs. Benjamin Harrison (winner); 2000, Al Gore (most popular votes) vs. George W. Bush (winner); 2016, Hillary Clinton (most popular votes) vs. Donald Trump (winner). Tuskegee’s Black state legislator, James H. Alston, attended Grant’s 1869 inauguration with Mr. Berry, John Carroway (both of Mobile), Mr. Jones and Mr. Gregory. Upon their return to Alabama, all were murdered except Alston. Alabama didn’t tolerate liberty regardless of the president.

Amy and Guy can be reached at colorusconnected@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: Maine joins movement to do away with Electoral College