Make Votes Count
Why should young people register to vote in 2020? In much of the country, their vote won’t make a difference in who wins the Presidential election. The Electoral College muffles the voice of Americans, with only a few “swing” states in play. It is only in those “purple” states that individual voting really makes a difference in choosing the President. And that’s something we need to change.
Democracy
The United States of America is a Representative Democracy, a nation where the people elect representatives to the government. Those representatives then create, debate, and pass the laws that govern the people. Just as “the people” indirectly legislate by electing the legislators, “the people” indirectly elect the executive to administer the nation. The President is chosen by an arcane process where the direct vote influences, but doesn’t necessarily control, the final outcome.
In any “real” democracy, the “health” of the process is determined by the percent of the eligible population that participates. Governments that are not democratic but want to “fake” that they are, always arrange for huge election turnouts, invariably giving vast majorities to the leader or party in power. They then claim a mandate to govern.
“Real” democracies have “real” competition for elective office. The more voters that turnout to vote in those elections, the healthier those democracies are.
On the list of world democracies, the United States ranks 26th out of 34 in voter turnout. The top five: Belgium*, Sweden, Denmark, Australia* and South Korea all are over 78% of their eligible citizens voting (* mandatory voting). The US is at 56% turnout (2016). This means that nearly half of the voting age population in the US DOES NOT VOTE. It also means that it’s always a minority of Americans that elects the legislature, and the executive (Pew).
Make Registering Easy
There are technical laws that could increase voter registration in the United States. Automatic voter registration rather than a separate process would work. Registration through driver’s licenses, or from tax or school records, is possible. In addition, Belgium and Australia and other nations, have compulsory voting laws. Australia’s fine for failing to vote is $20.
In the US we could also remove jury selection from the voting roles. Currently in many states juries are called exclusively from registered voter lists. In Ohio, for example, if a citizen doesn’t register to vote, they won’t get called for jury duty. There are plenty of other lists that could be used for jury selection: income tax filers, state ID holders, even welfare lists. Exclusively using voting lists for jury polls not only creates a disincentive to registering (if the potential voter doesn’t want to be on a jury), but could also skew the juries, particularly in those states that are engaged in voter suppression activities (Hannaford-Agor).
A Breakfast Conversation
But the most effective way to increase voter turnout in the United States is to convince potential voters that their vote makes a difference. Which brings us to the Electoral College.
The most significant election, and the one with the largest turnout, is the Presidential election every four years. In 2008, the highest voter turnout in recent times, 62.3% turned out to vote. This was Obama versus McCain election, and resulted in the election of the first African-American President. To paraphrase Joe Biden, it was “a big ****** deal.” But it still meant that 38% of eligible voters didn’t vote.
There is an apocryphal story about a conversation between Thomas Jefferson and George Washington at lunch. Jefferson complained about the bicameral legislature, saying the Senate was unnecessary.
Washington then supposedly asked Jefferson, “why did you now just pour your coffee into your saucer, before drinking?”
“To cool it,” Jefferson answered, “my throat is not made of brass.”
“Even so, Washington responded, “we pour our legislation into the Senatorial saucer to cool it” (Monticello).
Electoral College
The Electoral College was put in the US Constitution because of the Constitutional Convention’s concern for giving too much power to a possibly ill-informed electorate. The people directly elected the House of Representatives. The Senate was chosen by the State Legislatures, and as Washington supposedly illustrated, was designed to “cool” the House’s passions. In the same way, the Electoral College was selected by the states, with state legislatures given the authority to choose electors to select the President. That body actually votes for President; to “cool the passions” of direct democracy.
Today in all but two states, the Presidential candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote in a state wins all of the electoral votes. The effect of that is that in a large majority of states the electoral outcome is foreseeable before any voter comes to the polls.
Note: in Maine and Nebraska each Congressional District chooses electors separately, with two more votes decided statewide.
In 2016 in California, Hillary Clinton won 61% of the popular vote. All of the state’s 55 electoral votes went to her. A Republican voting in California knew that essentially, their vote for President didn’t count. In Wyoming, 70% of the vote went to Donald Trump. A Democrat knew that their vote wouldn’t influence the state’s 3 electoral votes.
Change the Process
Unless a voter is located in a “swing” state, there is little incentive to go vote in the most significant elections, Presidential. For young voters in particular, the arcane “winner take all” Electoral College process discourages them from participating.
The obvious answer is to remove the Electoral College, and elect the President directly. This would require a Constitutional Amendment: two-thirds of the House and Senate, and three-fourth of the states all in agreement to pass. There are far too many politicians and states that gain advantage from the current process for that to happen.
But, since legislatures determine the elector selection process (US Constitution, Article 2, Section 2) there are a number of ways the system can be altered under the current law. One proposal is the “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact”. State legislatures would agree to appoint electors based on who won the national popular vote, rendering the Electoral College a “rubber stamp” to the popular outcome.
State legislatures could also appoint electors based on the percentage of votes each candidate earned in the state. In 2016, under that process, California’s 34 electoral votes would go for Clinton, 19 for Trump, and 2 for Gary Johnson. Wyoming would have 2 for Trump, and 1 for Clinton. The danger of this process: any third party votes might deny a narrow popular vote winner an Electoral College majority, placing the tiebreaker election int0 the House of Representatives.
It’s Purple Here
Here in Ohio, every vote makes a difference. While almost all of the state offices are held by Republicans (hang in there Sherrod Brown!!) even in 2016 Trump only got 52% of the popular vote. In 2012 and 2008, Ohio voted for Barack Obama.
But that’s not true in most states. And that reality, “my vote for President really doesn’t matter” is a disincentive to new voters. Of course their vote does matter for every other elective office on the ballot. But the Presidential election drives voter turnout, and the United States should recognize that we are driving down the turnout, by law.
It’s time to change.
