Lecture 15: Electoral College and Voting

Electoral College Process

• Indirect vote for president–first electors are selected by each party, then US voters choose electors to represent their vote choice

• Partially tired to population–each state’s number of electors depends on number of Senators and Representatives (3 minimum)

• Other than Maine/Nebraska, each state’s popular vote winner gets all state’s electors

• 538 electors choose President and VP, candidate needs 270 to win

Other Facts About the Electoral College

• At Constitutional Convention, 12:1 defeat of direct democracy (overwhelmingly opposed), electoral college was a compromise

• Electoral strategy is central in campaigning, focusing efforts on swing states

• Electors never changed their votes in enough numbers to swing an election

Popular vote

Total number/percentage votes cast for a candidate in a specified geographic territory (ex state, nation, country)

Safe state

states considered very likely to vote for 1 party (ex CA, NY, LA)

Swing state

• States that could vote either D or R and are thus more competitive (such as WI, PA, AZ, NV)

• Elections focus more on these

How We Vote

• Australian ballot

• Adopted in US in 1888 (previously party ballots-parties distribute ballots for their candidates)

• Lists all candidates from all parties

Split ticket voting

Different parties for different offices; we do this

Closed primary

only voters registered with the party can participate

Open to unaffiliated voters

unaffiliated voters can vote in one party’s primary

Open primary

voters can vote in one party’s primary

Top Two primary

all of a party’s candidates are listed on the same ballot, top two

get run-off election

Presidential primaries

Voters within the state determine the number of pledged delegates (usually proportionally)

Super delegates

• Party insiders

• Democrats after 2018 have to vote for the state’s popular vote winner in first round (can change vote in the second round if it’s a contested election)

• Republicans vote with popular vote in most states

Caucus

• Meeting(s) where party members gather to choose nominees

• Usually for presidential candidates, only in a few states (ND, WY, NV, IA) but was historically the dominant method

15th Amendment

• Prohibition of racial discrimination in voting

• First time federal government limited states’ voting abilities

17th Amendment

• 1914

• Senators now elected by states residents, not legislatures

Gerrymandering

• Manipulating boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one party, class, or race

• Every 10 years states can redraw districts based on racial composition, party, etc.; populations change but parties in power have the ability to redraw states

Who could vote in the 1820s

White males, expanding to poorer white males

15th Amendment

• 1870

• Right to vote cannot be denied on account of race

19th Amendment

• 1920

• Right to vote cannot be denied based on sex

26th Amendment

• 1971

• Right to vote for everyone 18 and older

Grandfather clauses

Whites automatically registered to vote (anyone whose ancestors could vote before 15th amendment)

Literacy Tests

Tests that targeted Black voters and were intentionally hard to understand

Poll taxes

Voting fees that targeted Black voters

White primaries

Only Whites could vote in primary elections

Violence and lynchings

White supremacist violence that terrorized Black southerners

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

• No discriminatory tests or devices

• Prohibited voting practices or procedures that discriminate on basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group

Section 5 of the VRA

• Preclearance

• Prohibited eligible districts from changing their voting laws without approval from attorney general or a panel court in DC

Section 4b

• Coverage formula

• A jurisdiction is covered by the formula if it used a test or device to restrict the opportunity to register/vote, and fewer than half of eligible citizens were registered to vote or voted in recent presidential elections

How many Americans are disenfranchised due to felony convictions, and where?

4 million in primarily southern states, including Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama

Statistics About Felon Disenfranchisement

• One in 22 Black people of voting age is currently disenfranchised - a rate more than triple that of the non-Black voting-age population

• More than two-thirds of disenfranchised people are not currently incarcerated - they live in the general population but can't vote because they're on parole or probation, or in some states, have completed their sentences

Which states allow currently incarcerated individuals to vote, and how many continue to disenfranchise people?

• Only Maine and Vermont allow currently incarcerated individuals to vote

• 10 states continue to disenfranchise people even after they've completed their full sentences.

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

• Supreme Court case that struck down section 4b of VRA (coverage formula), therefore could no longer enforce section 5

• Claimed past racism no longer affected elections

• Resulted in states making it harder to vote with new voter restriction laws, under unverified claims of voter fraud

Louisiana v Calais

• Louisiana’s 2022 congressional map had only 1 (out of 6) majority-Black district, despite black residents making up 33% of state’s population

• After a federal court found this violated Section 2 of the VRA, state was ordered to draw a second majority-black district

• A group of “non-African American” voters challenged this new 2024 map as unconstitutional racial gerrymandering

• Tension: voting rights (VRA, 15th amendment) vs racial discrimination (14th amendment)

Reforms that increase access to the ballot

• Early voting

• Same-day registration

• Vote by mail

• Automatic voter registration

• Youth pre-registration

• Online voter registration