Electoral College in rare spotlight as it prepares to vote
On Monday, 538 people will meet to determine who will be the next president.
These meetings of the Electoral College, convened in every state and the District of Columbia just shy of six weeks after Election Day, have long been little more than a formality. But the victory of President-elect Donald Trump — who lost the popular vote but is projected to win the most electoral votes — has thrust the Electoral College into the spotlight once more.
The conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia tried to intervene in the election to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign has only intensified the focus in recent days.
Electors will gather in state capitols and Washington. Among them will be the 11 electors in Massachusetts, who will certify Hillary Clinton’s victory there.
In Massachusetts, no state law forces electors to vote for the candidate who won the state, but the nine who participated in an Associated Press survey said they intended to honor their pledge to Clinton.
Some states’ electors reported receiving unsolicited suggestions that they consider an alliance with Republican electors wary of Trump to pick a ‘‘compromise’’ GOP president, with Ohio Governor John Kasich the name most frequently mentioned.
But none gave it serious consideration and were highly skeptical that any scheme to deny Trump the presidency could succeed.
Still, the pressure on electors has intensified this year, after the revelation of the Russia hacking and a hard-fought election in which Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes.
Previous winners of the electoral majority took a minority of the popular vote. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but Republican George W. Bush became president.
Nationwide, some members of the Electoral College say they have been urged to select someone other than Trump. While some say they have been wavering on the issue, there is little evidence that Trump will fall short when electors convene Monday.
Carole Joyce of Arizona told the Washington Post she expected her role as a GOP elector to be pretty simple: Trump won the most votes in her state, and she supported him personally.
“But then came the mail and the e-mails and the phone calls — first hundreds, then thousands of voters worrying that Trump’s impulsive nature would lead the country into another war.
‘‘Honestly, it had an impact. . . . But I signed a loyalty pledge. And that matters,’ ’’ said Joyce, a 72-year-old Republican state committee member.
President Obama on Friday described the Electoral College — originally a compromise between those who wanted Congress to choose the president and those who favored a popular vote — as a “vestige.”
Electors are chosen by their state political parties to cast votes for president and vice president. Electors can be state party leaders or elected officials; sometimes they are individuals with a personal connection to a presidential candidate. Bill Clinton, for instance, is a New York elector this year.
The number of electors each state has is equal to its number of representatives and senators in Congress — 538 in total, with those extra three electors coming from the District of Columbia.
The electors will meet Monday in their respective states, typically at the capitol, where they will cast two votes: one for president and one for vice president.
They will then preparewhat is called a “certificate of vote” with the results, which is then mailed or delivered via courier to the National Archives, where it becomes part of the nation’s official records, and to Congress.
Electors do not necessarily have to vote according to popular vote results in their states.
At least one elector has said he will buck his party and not vote for Trump. Nothing in the Constitution, nor in federal law, binds electors to vote a particular way. There are some state laws that bind them to vote according to the popular vote outcome in that state; others are bound by more informal pledges to their party.
Under some state laws, so-called “faithless electors” who vote against their state results may be fined or even disqualified and replaced. No elector has been prosecuted for doing so, but then again, almost every elector has voted with the state’s in the past. The Supreme Court has not weighed in on whether pledges and the related penalties are constitutional.
At 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6, members of the House and Senate will meet in the House chamber to count those votes. Vice President Joe Biden, as the departing president of the Senate, is expected to preside over the count, during which every state’s vote is opened and announced in alphabetical order.
Biden will then declare the winner based on who has the majority of votes — at least 270.
At that point, Biden will ask whether there are any objections. After any and all objections have been resolved, the results are considered final. The next step is to swear in the winner on Jan. 20.
During the objection phase, lawmakers can challenge either individual electoral votes or state results as a whole. If an elector has chosen to vote against state results, lawmakers can petition to throw that vote out.
Objections must be in writing and signed by at least one member of the House and one member of the Senate. If there are any objections, the House and Senate then immediately split up to consider them and have just two hours to decide whether they support the objection or not.
Congress has never sustained an objection to an electoral vote.
Source:- https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/12/18/electoral-college-rare-spotlight-prepares-vote/DtAZHvCAknxUfayWfcvqyK/story.html
