Welcome back to Lockdown Law! In this 1st episode of Season 2, we dive right in to the Electoral College. The Electoral College process is a critical yet often misunderstood aspect of the American presidential election system. This episode delves into the complexities of the Electoral College, explaining how it operates and why it was established as a compromise between direct popular votes and congressional selection. The discussion highlights the historical context of the founding fathers' intentions and the implications of the system, including scenarios where a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election, as seen in the 2016 and 2000 elections. Additionally, the episode examines the role of electors, the winner-takes-all approach in most states, and the variations in states like Maine and Nebraska. Ultimately, the episode argues that while the Electoral College may present challenges, there are more pressing issues in American politics that require attention.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to lockdown law.

It's been a while since I posted.

Interesting times we're living in.

So let's discuss.

I'm going to let you in a little secret.

The United States is not a democracy.

What?

Yeah, think about it.

So, rather than a direct democracy, I think it's better to look at America as something called a Constitutional republic.

It was set up this way in part to protect the individual rights against the desires of the majority.

But with respect to voting in the Electoral College, it gets messy.

So I'm going to try to review and explain this process.

So let's go back in time and talk a little history.

My favorite.

And in between this time frame, we had something called the Articles of Confederation.

Here's some interesting facts.

Notably absent was John Adams and Thomas Jefferson because they were serving our diplomatic interests overseas.

The call to the convention was ordered by General Washington, George Washington.

He banged the gavel.

And some other very crucial players at the Constitutional Convention that we should be very thankful for are Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, as well as Washington.

Of course, Franklin was 81, and he was like the trusted grandpa of America.

Washington was super important because he gave the convention credibility.

Now, you got to understand a lot of people were skeptical of federal powers.

You know, we just broke off from England and the monarchy.

So there were a lot of states rights advocates, but Washington had the street cred because he laid down power rather than becoming the monarch that many feared.

James Madison, he was the brains of the Constitution, very smart man.

And Also there were 22 veterans of the Revolutionary War that were present.

So getting back to the Electoral College, this is what's interesting.

Out of the four months they spent in Philadelphia, they only spent the last 10 days discussing the Electoral College process.

And it's important to understand why.

You have to understand that back then, they set up the President as a very limited power.

You know, really Congress, the House of Rep, the power of the purse, the Senate, they had more power than the President So you can tell that it wasn't really on their mind if they only spent the last 10 days of the four months discussing how to elect a President and Vice President.

So let me give an example of what I mean by this.

When George Washington was President, he only issued eight executive orders.

When FDR was president, he issued 3,721.

You know, back then they thought Congress had the power to declare war.

And now, you know, the President has sort of broadened that power over the years.

So I think looking back on this process, the founders really set up the Constitution so that Congress would have way more power than the President.

It is a bit unusual, for example, that California and Wyoming have equal representation in the Senate to each.

Even though California has about 39 million residents, in Wyoming has 580,000.

Think about that.

Us here in California, we have 38.5 million more people than Wyoming, but equal representation in the Senate.

Now, the House of Representatives is different.

The House of Rep in states is based on its population.

For example, smaller states like Vermont and Delaware have one rep, while larger states like California have 53.

So the electoral College, what is it?

Well, it's not a physical place.

It's a process which includes the selection of electors, the meeting of electors who cast votes for the President and Vice President, and the counting of the electors votes by Congress.

In other US Elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote.

But the President and Vice President are not elected directly by citizens.

Instead, they are chosen through the Electoral College process.

The process of using electors comes from the Constitution.

It was a compromise between a popular vote by citizens and a vote in Congress.

So initially they floated the idea of having Congress pick the President.

What is the Electoral College or I'm sorry, who is the Electoral College?

Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress, House and Senate combined, including Washington D.C.

they have three electors.

There are currently 538 electors in all.

270 is the magic number to get President.

So if you get 270, you win.

So basically, to summarize, even the lowest populated states, you at least get three electoral votes.

You get two from the House, or excuse me, two from the Senate and one based on your House of Rep.

So for example, Wyoming has three and California has 54 electoral votes.

Every state is a winner take all except for two, Nebraska and Maine.

So for example, in Nebraska they have what's called a blue dot.

So there are three electoral votes that are often split.

Two Republican and one Democrat.

But all other states other than Maine and Nebraska have A winner take all.

Each state's political parties choose their own slate of potential electors.

Who is chosen to be an elector, and how and when?

It varies state by state.

So how does the Electoral College process work?

After you cast your ballot for president, your vote goes to a statewide tally in 48 states.

In Washington, D.C.

again, the winner gets all the electoral votes for that state.

Maine and Nebraska assign their electors using a proportional system.

A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors, more than half of all electors, to win the presidential election.

In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote.

But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid December when the electors meet in their states.

Okay, this is the most fascinating thing to me.

Listen to this.

While the Constitution does not require electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote, some states do.

The rare elector who votes for someone else may be fined, disqualified, and replaced by a substitute elector, or they may even be prosecuted by their state.

I'm going to say that one more time.

The Constitution does not require electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote.

Some states do, but there are other states that don't.

So essentially, these state electors theoretically could disregard the will of the people.

Wow.

Here's some unusual Electoral College scenarios.

Winning the popular vote, but losing the election.

It is possible.

What happens in this situation if no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes?

If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives.

This has happened twice.

How to change the Electoral College.

Well, this is going to be tough.

It looks like we're stuck with this process for a while because you would have to amend the constitution through Article 5, and that requires 2/3 of the House and Senate to pass this amendment.

So let's take a step back.

A lot of people wonder why the Electoral College was created.

And this is why history is important.

We lived in a rural society and travel and transportation was very different and difficult.

We didn't have the infrastructure to collect and count votes, so we instead relied on the state legislatures to conduct the votes.

Well, in my humble opinion, I don't think the Electoral College is the problem with respect to what's going on in America today.

First of all, we need to get money out of politics.

The Citizens United case is one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever issued, and there's problems on both sides.

But I think Nancy Pelosi is a prime example.

She is paid by our government $200,000 a year, yet she's worth 240 million.

I don't think if you're going to serve in Congress, you should not be able to gamble on the stock market.

There's too many conflicts of interest.

Number two, we need to get back to Congress declaring war.

The President has way too much power now.

As you guys heard earlier with the executive orders again, Washington had eight, FDR had 3,000.

And finally, I would recommend we reform our legal system.

We incarcerate more people than any other country in the world.

Even though China and India have 1 billion more people than us, there's still people doing 10 years for marijuana offenses nonviolent.

And it's a big problem.

So the Electoral College is interesting.

Again, I don't think it's our biggest problem.

I think we got other fish to fry.

Anyways, I'm excited to vote.

Get out there and vote and hope to talk to you guys soon.

Bye.