Tomorrow in the United States in the 50 state capitals and Washington, DC, the Electoral College will meet to choose the next President of the United States.
Writing in Federalist Paper Number 68 on March 12, 1788, one of the founding fathers of the American Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, had this to say:
“All these advantages will be happily combined in the plan devised by the convention; which is, that the people of each state shall choose a number of persons as electors, equal to the number of senators and representatives of such state in the national government, who shall assemble within the state and vote for some fit person as president. Their votes, thus given, are to be transmitted to the seat of the national government; and the person who may happen to have a majority of the whole number of votes will be the president. But as a majority of the votes might not always happen to centre on one man and as it might be unsafe to permit less than a majority to be conclusive, it is provided, that in such a contingency, the house of representatives shall select out of the candidates, who shall have the five highest numbers of votes, the man who in their opinion may be best qualified for the office.”
Tomorrow, the 535 electors from the 50 states together with the three electors from Washington, DC, will enter upon a solemn duty which will complete the most important phase of the election that was held on November 8 instant. That is, those lists of electors who are pledged to either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, from each state, who earned the right to cast their ballots tomorrow based on the certified results of their respective states’ election day outcomes will determine who will become the next President.
It is expected that Donald Trump will earn 306 Electoral College votes and Hillary Clinton will earn 232 Electoral College votes (a majority of 270 is required). The national popular vote (which Hillary Clinton won) is not the deciding factor, but rather the outcome in each state individually which is translated into Electoral College votes. This is one of the flaws of the first-past-the-post system that has emerged for the whole world to see.
On November 9, Hillary Clinton made a concession speech in New York in which she said:
“Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power. We don’t just respect that. We cherish it.”
However, since that time, there was a recount request made by the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Interestingly, the Clinton campaign aligned itself with this effort. Many have questioned why those three states were chosen. They account for 46 Electoral College votes collectively and constituted what the Clinton campaign had called the “blue firewall” that could not have been penetrated by the Trump campaign. Unfortunately for them, Trump broke that “blue firewall”.
The recount strategy failed as Trump increased his margin by 131 in Wisconsin and the courts rejected the request for a recount in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Now comes another twist in the saga of the Electoral College with Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi, leading a movement to have electors receive a national security briefing on whether or not Russia influenced voters to vote for Donald Trump in the election.
Once again, the Clinton campaign has aligned itself with this move. Former Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, issued a statement last Monday in which he said:
“Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed.”
This curious twist again seems to undermine the concession speech made by Hillary Clinton on November 9 and now seeks to raise an issue of national security over which unnamed operatives in the CIA are reported to have told the Washington Post that Russia tried to help elect Trump. Both the FBI and the National Intelligence Agency intially did not share that view from these “unnamed sources” in the CIA quoted by the Washington Post.
Tomorrow, the electors will cast their ballots. If they deviate from the results of the election in their respective states to such an extent that when those votes are counted on January 6 in the Senate there is no majority for anyone, the final verdict will have to be delivered by the House of Representatives in which each state will be assigned one vote. As it stands now, the Republicans control 30 states and the Democrats control 20 states.
The greatest democracy in the world can still ensure that there will be a peaceful transfer of power, if there is any disruption tomorrow, so that its processes can continue to be held up as a prime example of how to transfer power even if the machinations of mankind and the media may try to disrupt it regardless of who one may have supported on election day.