Lecture 15: Electoral College and Voting Notes

Structure of Electoral College

• Indirect vote for president: First electors are selected by each party, then U.S. voters choose electors to represent their vote choice

• Partially tied to population: each state's number of electors depends on number of Senators + Representatives (3 minimum)

Electoral College in voting

• Other than Maine and Nebraska, each state's popular vote winner gets all the state's electors

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

Popular Vote

• Total number/percentage of votes cast for a candidate in a specified geographic territory (state, nation, county)

• 5 presidents lost the popular vote: Adams, Hayes, Harrison, George W. Bush, Trump

Safe state

States considered very likely to vote for one party (such as CA, NY, LA)

Swing state

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

Australian Ballot

• Adopted in U.S. in 1888 (previously party ballots-parties would distribute ballots for their candidates)

• Lists all candidates from all parties (who qualify to be on the ballot)

• Allows split-ticket voting: voting for different parties for different offices

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)

Democrat super delegates

Must vote for the state's popular vote winner in first round (can change vote in second round if it's a contested election)

Republican super delegates

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)

• Was historically the dominant method

15th Amendment

Voting rights cannot be denied on account of race

17th Amendment (1914)

Senators now elected by state residents, not legislatures

Gerrymandering

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

What do the 15th amendment, 17th amendment, and gerrymandering all have in common?

They all place limits on state election power

Jim Crow Era Voter Suppression

Tactics used to prevent Black Americans from voting

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

Section 2 of the VRA

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

Section 5 of the VRA

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

Section 4b of the VRA

A jurisdiction is covered 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

Shelby County v. Holder

• Struck down Section 4b of VRA (coverage formula)

• Therefore could no longer enforce Section 5

• Claimed past racism no longer affected elections

Results of Shelby County v. Holder

States made it harder to vote with new voter restriction laws under unverified claims of voter fraud