Alabama’s 9 Electoral Votes
Many people outside of the world of political junkies probably do not know that electors and not the electorate actually select who will be President of the United States. I have always been interested in the Electoral College and some of its history is truly fascinating.
Traditionally, each state has cast its electoral votes–equal to its total representation in Congress–for the candidate who receives the most votes statewide. The Electoral College is truly a unique creation in the western world. When it was created it was the objective of the founding fathers to ensure that candidate platforms and campaigns addressed the needs and concerns of every part of the country equally, with rural states receiving the same amount of attention as urban states. The Electoral College was created to ensure candidates would pay attention to every state’s needs, since some states obviously overwhelmed others in population, like Alabama versus California. For the most part this system has worked and mirrored the popular vote. Only four times in American history has the president-elect not won the popular vote, with the most recent being the election of George W. Bush in 2000.
In Alabama, each political party selects a slate of 9 electors to participate in the Electoral College on December 15th after the general election. Whichever party wins the popular vote in Alabama then that political party’s 9 electors cast their vote for president. Since 1976 Alabama has voted for the Republican candidate every time. Every state has their own system in place for selecting electors but Alabama’s is one of the best in my opinion because it guards against the so called faithless elector- that person who casts their vote in the Electoral College the opposite from the popular vote in their state. To my knowledge Alabama has never had a faithless elector but there have been some very limited circumstances where this occurred in other states although it did not affect the outcome of the election.
I write about all of this because I was fortunate enough to be selected by the Republican Party to be one of our 9 electors for the 2008 election. If Alabama votes for John McCain for President then I would get to cast one of the 538 electoral votes nationwide. I have had a number of friends in the past who have had the opportunity to do this in the past but this is first for me and I am pretty excited about it. Of course McCain still has to win in Alabama!
C’mon Cam, be the first elector to vote differently and throw your vote for Bob Barr ;)
Comment by uab — July 15, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
I don’t see muc risk you won’t cast an electoral vote–but it won’t be for the next President
Comment by Anonymous — July 16, 2008 @ 7:55 am
Rep. Ward,
Congratulations on this honor to serve as an elector.
To add to your post, Alabama does have some interesting electoral college history in its history. Some of these elections occurred during the civil rights era when the Democratic party in the state differed from the national party on race. In regards to the faithless elector, there was one in 1956–W.F. Turner voted for Walter B. Jones for President and Herman Talmadge for Vice President rather than Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.
In 1960, Alabama’s Democratic primary chose a delegation where 5 delegates were pledged to John Kennedy and 6 were unpledged. The 6 unpledged delegates voted against JFK and voted for Robert Byrd of West Virginia. In 1964, the year that Alabama voted for Barry Goldwater, Lyndon Johnson was not on the ballot. The Democratic electors were unpledged for this election, in response to Johnson’s role on race issues. This election is also seen as the beginning of the modern Republican party in the state.
Comment by WCS — July 16, 2008 @ 8:28 am
I have always thought this was a strange system to elect our president. It seems like it should just be whoever wins the most votes is the pres.
Comment by Gov2010 — July 16, 2008 @ 7:33 pm