A friendly reminder as we prepare to vote in the 2016
election. When a registered voter casts a vote “for president,” that individual
is not voting for a presidential candidate. In all of U.S. history, a citizen
of this nation has never voted for a presidential candidate.
A citizen’s vote is cast for a slate of electors
identified with a particular candidate. Although ballots neatly set forth the
name of the presidential candidates, that reality is the ultimate misnomer.
Again voters vote for electors, plain and simple.
The people on the winning slate of electors in each state
in turn cast their ballots for an individual they desire to become President of
the United States, doing so in December. If an individual garners 270 votes via
the Electoral College, he or she will be sworn in as the President of the
United States in January 2017.
The Major Party Nominees
Despite the utterly blind allegiance some individuals who
support Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton demonstrate, the objective bottom line
is that neither major party candidate in the 2016 race for the presidency is
fit to occupy the White House. I am not going to belabor this essay with a
recitation of the very real shortcomings of these two individuals. I have
written extensively on why electing neither Trump or Clinton is in the best
interests of the American people.
I will not vote for either Trump or Clinton. I cannot, in
good faith, support either of these candidates because they have both
consistently demonstrated they are more concerned with their personal
self-interest than in honorably serving the needs of the American people.
Some voters are gravitating to the candidacies of the
Libertarian or Green Party candidates. There is something positive to be said
about people who will vote their conscious and not kowtow to demands by Trump
or Clinton partisans that they must vote a certain way.
State Laws Governing Voting by Electors
No federal law requires an Elector to vote a certain way.
The Electoral College was established in the U.S. Constitution to amass a group
of people who would exercise thoughtful judgment in the selection of the
nation’s head of state and head of government. Over the years, the Electoral
College has become a mere rubberstamp for voter preference on a state-by-state
basis. (There are two exceptions to the winner-take-all structure of electing
Electors. Nebraska and Maine proportion electors based on the popular vote.)
Some states have laws on the books that purport to
require Electors to vote for the candidate of the party to which the initially
pledged support. 29 states and the District of Columbia have these laws, the
remainder do not. In those states that do have these restrictive laws, the
penalty typically amounts to a fine in the amount of about $1,000.
Keep in mind that most legal scholars maintain these laws
could never meet constitutional muster anyway. They have never been challenged
and if they were, it is quite likely they would be struck down as
unconstitutional. In other words, Electors either are not or cannot be bound by
any initial pledge to support a particular presidential candidate.
Keeping Faith with the People
Nearly every presidential election cycle, when the
Electoral College votes are cast, one or two Electors are dubbed “faithless.”
By that it is meant that such an Elector does not vote for the pledged
candidate. In 2016, I strongly suggest that any Elector that does not vote for
Trump or Clinton is keeping faith with the American people.
I have no illusions about Electors actually exercising
their constitutional duty this election year in a serious, thoughtful manner. I
have no illusions about Electors coming together to elect outright someone who
is not Trump or Clinton President of the United States. I am suggesting,
however, that I hold out hopes that at least a percentage of Electors are
thoughtful, individuals who truly have the welfare of our country at heart. (Of
course, I perfectly understand that most of these folks likely are the most
blind partisans of all.) Since I started working on this essay earlier in
October, one Clinton Elector announced defection and will not vote for the
former Secretary of State during the Electoral College process.
In the final analysis, if enough Electors abstain, or
vote for someone else that is not Trump or Clinton, the presidential race turns
to the House of Representatives. (The vice president is selected by the
Senate.)
I freely admit this is not a perfect solution. However,
after weeks of reflection, I finally concluded stopping both of these two
individuals objectively unfit for the presidency from assuming the highest
office in the land was worth the risk of what might come out of the House of
Representatives.
The House is not required to elect one of its own members
to the presidency. Perhaps, just perhaps, these elected officials might rise to
the occasion and consider the benefits of selecting someone to be President of
the United States who actually would preside over a true national unity
government. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Senate would follow suit in the
selection of a vice president as well. Although typically in a parliamentary
system, unity governments in time of crisis have been formed, to the benefit of
the nation and its citizens.
I’m not some political Pollyanna. I understand that harsh
realities of where we have fallen as a nation when a serious assessment is made
of both major party candidates. Both of them. The state of the presidential
election, and the conduct of partisan extremists supporting both candidates,
has become incomprehensible to me.
Conclusion
The United States is not, and never has been, a
democracy. Our nation was established as, and remains, a democratic republic.
The founders had a sound rationale for establishing a democratic republic.
Specifically, they envisioned the possibility that the majority could take
action in the name of democracy that actually works against the best interests
of the nation and its people.
In the 2016 election, a
majority of Americans are hell-bent on electing one or another individual
objectively unfit to serve as President of the United States. If ever a time
existed to put the brakes on imprudent conduct by a majority of Americans, that
time is now and the tool is the Electoral College. The Electoral College was
created for a reason. And I sincerely think the reason exists in 2016.
October 12, 2016
www.mikebroemmel.com
Mike Broemmel
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