b'LEGISLATIVEREPORTElectoral College By Ed Welch,Determines Presidential PVA Legislative Director WinnerT he U.S. presidential electionElectors were envisioned as dispas- votes. Democratic candidate Hillary is underway. Early in-personsionate wise men who might exerciseClinton outpaced her opponent Donald voting and voting by mail havetheir own judgment and not neces- Trump by approximately 2.87 million been ongoing in many states sincesarily be beholden to the emotions ofvotes. But Mrs. Clinton is now a private mid-September. November 3 is offi- the enfranchised people as expressedcitizen, while President Trump lives cially Election Day. On that evening, orin the popular vote. As it turned out,in the White House, having prevailed hopefully soon after, we should knowmost Electors cast their votes for thein the Electoral College by a margin how many votes are cast for either thecandidate that prevails in their state (orof 304-227. President Trump narrowly incumbent President Donald Trump orCongressional District, in the case oftriumphed in Pennsylvania, Michigan, challenger Joe Biden.Maine and Nebraska). Once in a while,and Wisconsin, collecting those states But the official winner of thean unfaithful elector goes rogue. Electoral College votes by their winner-presidential election may not be theThere have been 58 presidentialtakes-all systems.candidate who receives the mostelections in the nations history. InThe year 1800 was the first time votes of Americans nationwide. Thatsmost of them, the man winning thethat the eccentricities of the Electoral because a President is elected by themost popular votes has also collected aCollege were exposed. Thomas vote of the Electoral College, not by themajority of the Electoral College votes.Jefferson challenged President John nationwide popular vote.But on several occasions, most recentlyAdams, and the gentleman from The Founders intended the Electoralin 2016, a candidate who fell short inMonticello won the popular vote College to be a check against unre- the popular vote tabulation has eventu- by an easy margin. He also won strained democratic populism. Eachally become President. more Electoral College votes than state is apportioned electors basedWe need look back only four yearsdid Adams. But Jeffersons Electoral on its relative population, plus twofor an example of divergence betweenCollege vote total was the same as more (equivalent to its two Senators).the popular and Electoral Collegethat of his vice-presidential running mate, Aaron Burr. The Constitution requires a presidential winner to have a majority of the Electoral College votes, so the tie threw the election into the U.S. House of Representatives. A majority of states is required for a winner (each state gets a single vote). Creating mischief, the Federalist Party allies of Adams in the House kept voting for Burr, trying to deny a victory for Jefferson. On the 36th ballot in the House, Federalist Alexander Hamilton (no fan of either presidential Propelling Passenger Vessels candidate) convinced his allies to vote for Jefferson, resulting in Adams being the fi rst sitting president defeated for Taking passenger vessels to new horizons with the future-proof technology of Siemens SiSHIP BlueDrive +Creelection. The Constitution was later and Energy Storage systems. amended to prevent the phenomenon of a tie Electoral College vote between one partys presidential and vice-presi-usa.siemens.com/marine dential candidates.In 1824, four candidates sought the 34OCTOBER 2020FOGHORNFoghorn_MarchPreview_2020_Ad_4.625x3.5.indd 1 2/17/2020 10:58:41 AM'