It is time once again to educate ourselves and the public about what the heck the Electoral College is and how it works. So many of you write about electoral votes, but I bet if you asked your public only a tiny percent could explain how it works. It would be interesting if you asked your morning editorial meeting this morning how it works to see how many of you journalists understand it. Report your findings in our feedback section. Let's not wait until election night to tackle this one.
The Electoral College will be vitally important this election. The Washington Post reported Tuesday:
...Tuesday's election will probably be decided in 11 states where polls currently show the race too tight to predict a winner. And, assuming the other states go as predicted, a computer analysis finds no fewer than 33 combinations in which those 11 states could divide to produce a 269 to 269 electoral tie.
RELATED RESOURCES Click here to see some past election front pages.> Election 2000 front pages> Election 2000 website homepages> Journalist's Guide to Florida Voting> More Poynter Online election coverageLike Al's ideas? Hear more in our broadcast and online seminars.Sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail:* Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.)The Post story continues:
...It is still possible that the vote on Tuesday will produce a clear winner of both the electoral and popular votes. But if the winner's margin is small -- less than 1 percent of the popular vote is a rule of thumb -- the odds increase that the quirks of the electoral college could again decide the presidency and again raise doubts about a president's legitimacy. "Let us hope for a wide victory by one of the two; the alternative is too awful to contemplate," said Walter Berns, an electoral college specialist at the American Enterprise Institute.
...It is still possible that the vote on Tuesday will produce a clear winner of both the electoral and popular votes. But if the winner's margin is small -- less than 1 percent of the popular vote is a rule of thumb -- the odds increase that the quirks of the electoral college could again decide the presidency and again raise doubts about a president's legitimacy.
"Let us hope for a wide victory by one of the two; the alternative is too awful to contemplate," said Walter Berns, an electoral college specialist at the American Enterprise Institute.
So what do those combinations look like and how could you use all of this to educate your readers, viewers, or listeners?Here is one of many elector calculator pages -- you can guess who will win which state and see how the election turns out. Who were your state's electors in 2000? They could be an interesting story -- did they do anything as an elector?The Federal Election Commission has a nice site explaining the electoral process.
It is difficult to explain how a person who wins the most votes nationwide does not always get elected President of the United States. The answer of course lies in the "winner take all" laws in every state except Maine and Nebraska.For example, all 55 of California's electoral votes go to the winner of that state's election, even if the margin of victory is only 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent. But in Maine and Nebraska things are different. There, two electors are chosen by statewide popular vote and the remainder by the popular vote within each congressional district. What would happen if there was a tie in a state's vote? It is unlikely, but the fed thought of that possibility.
...Under the Electoral College system, we do not elect the President and Vice President through a direct nationwide vote. The Presidential election is decided by the combined results of 51 state elections (in this context, the term "State" includes D.C.). It is possible that an elector could ignore the results of the popular vote, but that occurs very rarely ... The founders of the nation devised the Electoral College system as part of their plan to share power between the States and the national government. Under the Federal system adopted in the U.S. Constitution, the nationwide popular vote has no legal significance. As a result, it is possible that the electoral votes awarded on the basis of State elections could produce a different result than the nationwide popular vote. Nevertheless, the individual citizen's vote is important to the outcome of each State election.
...Under the Electoral College system, we do not elect the President and Vice President through a direct nationwide vote. The Presidential election is decided by the combined results of 51 state elections (in this context, the term "State" includes D.C.). It is possible that an elector could ignore the results of the popular vote, but that occurs very rarely ...
The founders of the nation devised the Electoral College system as part of their plan to share power between the States and the national government. Under the Federal system adopted in the U.S. Constitution, the nationwide popular vote has no legal significance. As a result, it is possible that the electoral votes awarded on the basis of State elections could produce a different result than the nationwide popular vote. Nevertheless, the individual citizen's vote is important to the outcome of each State election.
Here is how it all works -- considering how complicated it is, it's a wonder we ever elect anyone.
Lots of people have criticized the Electoral College system. There have been many calls to ditch it.
For information on the electoral process in your state, check your Secretary of State's webpage. Some states, such as Massachusetts, have specific web pages devoted to the Electoral College: All About the Electoral College in Massachusetts. To find your Secretary of State, go to the website for the National Association of Secretaries of State: http://www.nass.org.
The Census Bureau sent these numbers along to help you through Election Day coverage:
It may take a long long time to finally sort out the popular vote on Tuesday. I have been stunned at the flood of stories on voter registration fraud and dirty tricks from coast to coast.
Newspapers reported Wednesday that 60,000 absentee ballots are missing in Florida. The election clerk blames the Postal Service.Last week, in Ohio, Republicans challenged the validity of 35,000 new voter registrations and are even calling for criminal investigations in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Thousands of those challenges are still standing.
WJW-TV (Cleveland) investigative reporter Tom Merriman tells me about some stories his station has reported.
There is something new in this election -- it is called the provisional ballot. Seventeen states are offering the provisional ballot for the first time this year. Click here to find out what your state law says.
Election experts say this provisional or challenged balloting could be the thing that keeps us from knowing who won Tuesday night.
You journalists need to explain what a provisional ballot is to your public. Why? Because when hundreds of thousands of voters get turned away for every conceivable reason when they try to vote, this option of a provisional ballot will be available to them. In 2000, the Census Bureau found, up to 3 million voters in 25 states were turned away from the polls because of registration issues. A House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff investigation after the 2000 election found that 1.2 million votes in 31 states were discarded because of machine errors or vote errors.
USA Today said:
Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, each state must provide standby ballots to voters if they cannot be found on registration lists, are in the wrong polling place, or don't have proper identification but insist they are eligible to vote. Those people will be given "provisional" ballots that will be kept separate from others until their eligibility can be confirmed. "Provisional ballots could be the hanging chads of 2004," says Tony Sirvello, director of an association of local election administrators. "If there's a state as close as Florida was in 2000, this could have a major effect."
Under the 2002 Help America Vote Act, each state must provide standby ballots to voters if they cannot be found on registration lists, are in the wrong polling place, or don't have proper identification but insist they are eligible to vote. Those people will be given "provisional" ballots that will be kept separate from others until their eligibility can be confirmed.
"Provisional ballots could be the hanging chads of 2004," says Tony Sirvello, director of an association of local election administrators. "If there's a state as close as Florida was in 2000, this could have a major effect."
In the 2004 Florida primaries about half of the provisional ballots cast were tossed out.
Bloomberg explains:
Lawsuits in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, and Missouri accuse Republican election officials of placing too many restrictions on provisional ballots. Under a 2002 federal law, voters may cast provisional ballots if they arrive at the polls, find they aren't on the registration list and sign a statement that they are eligible to vote. Courts for the most part are upholding restrictions on provisional voting. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked rulings that had expanded provisional ballots in Ohio and Michigan. The counting of provisional ballots could be the central issue should the election end with the type of post-vote litigation that marked the 2000 race. That's in part because of the sheer numbers of provisional votes anticipated -- as many as 200,000 in Ohio alone, according to Edward B. Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. Depending on the state, election officials will have as long as two weeks after Nov. 2 to decide whether particular provisional ballots should count. And the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately may be asked to decide, for example, whether federal law requires the counting of provisional ballots that weren't cast in a voter's home precinct. "Provisional ballots could be the hanging chad of 2004,'' Foley said, referring to the incomplete punch-card ballots that contributed to the impasse in Florida four years ago. Colorado is another state that could figure in post-Election Day controversy. Republican Secretary of State Doneta Davidson is embroiled in litigation over provisional ballots. In addition, the state's voters are considering a first-of-its-kind ballot initiative, Amendment 36, that would allocate the state's nine votes in the presidential Electoral College on a proportional basis.
Lawsuits in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, and Missouri accuse Republican election officials of placing too many restrictions on provisional ballots. Under a 2002 federal law, voters may cast provisional ballots if they arrive at the polls, find they aren't on the registration list and sign a statement that they are eligible to vote.
Courts for the most part are upholding restrictions on provisional voting. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked rulings that had expanded provisional ballots in Ohio and Michigan.
The counting of provisional ballots could be the central issue should the election end with the type of post-vote litigation that marked the 2000 race. That's in part because of the sheer numbers of provisional votes anticipated -- as many as 200,000 in Ohio alone, according to Edward B. Foley, director of the election law program at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law.
Depending on the state, election officials will have as long as two weeks after Nov. 2 to decide whether particular provisional ballots should count. And the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately may be asked to decide, for example, whether federal law requires the counting of provisional ballots that weren't cast in a voter's home precinct.
"Provisional ballots could be the hanging chad of 2004,'' Foley said, referring to the incomplete punch-card ballots that contributed to the impasse in Florida four years ago.
Colorado is another state that could figure in post-Election Day controversy. Republican Secretary of State Doneta Davidson is embroiled in litigation over provisional ballots. In addition, the state's voters are considering a first-of-its-kind ballot initiative, Amendment 36, that would allocate the state's nine votes in the presidential Electoral College on a proportional basis.
There may never have been an election in which election judges are under so much scrutiny. These will be the people who decide if people who find they are not registered to vote may cast provisional ballots.
Minnesota Public Radio reports on these usually-ignored keys to election integrity. This is certainly a story you could localize.
CNN has a fun site that allows you to map, day by day and week by week, where the candidates have traveled.
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