Posted by 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!
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C’mon Cam, be the first elector to vote differently and throw your vote for Bob Barr ;)
I don’t see muc risk you won’t cast an electoral vote–but it won’t be for the next President
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.
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.
That’s only because you have no respect for the federalist system, Gov2010.
Please tell me exactly how you and other electors are chosen. I assume you are chosen by the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Alabama.
Yes, the way the law works in Alabama is every candidate who is on the ballot has their own slate. So the Democrat Executive Committee selects their 9 electors and the Republican Executive Committee which made up of about 390 people selects their 9. This year I think the Libertarians, and Ralph Nader also get to put up a slate of 9 each as well.
Am I understanding the election process correctly?
The people (general population) vote on
Nov. 4, 2008….either Republican or Democrat…
Then the 9 Electors ( you being one I assume )
will then cast your vote accordingly to which ever party gets the majority vote by the general population???
So if the Republicans, say have 55%, then the 9 Electors cast their vote for the Republican Party (McCain/Palin)?? Is this correct?
Who? – How? – When? are the 9 Electors chosen??
Thank you for your reply.
deb
Deb, every state uses pretty much a the same process with a few variations in selecting their electors. In Alabama, each party selects who will be their nine electoral votes. So the Democrats have 9 people, the Republicans have 9, the Libertarians have 9 and Ralph Nadar will actually have 9. Whoever wins the popular vote in Alabama then their 9 will actually be the ones who cast their vote on December 15th for President. So if McCain wins I will be one of the 9. If Obama wins it is a totally different group voting. This ensures your state votes with the popular vote winner. The State Party Executive Committee (which for the GOP is like 395 people) select our electors and the Democrats do the same. Hope this is helpful to you. Oh and also in Alabama we are required to sign a pledge saying you will vote your candidate if you are an elector so you cannot just go out and make up whoever you want to vote for- the so-called faithless elector.
Dear Cam,
Who are the 9 Electors for the GOP in AL?
Who nominated you and/or the 9 Electors to be chosen by The State party Executive Committee, did you apply or were you and the others selected from a roster of Registed Republican Voters, do you hold a seat of some sort, are names drawn?
How were you and/or the 9 chosen?
When were the Electors chosen?
Will there be a new set of Electors in 2012?
I became a registered voter in 2004, and voted.
I have never been political before, but the last election and this one has held my interest.
I appreciate your sharing your political knowledge with me.
Thanks,
deb
The way it works in Alabama is that the State Executive Committee accepts nominations from the floor during our annual meeting. Every state has the same number of electors as they do representation in Congress. So we have 9 (7 coungressional districts plus two senators). After all the nominations are made then they are voted on by the committee. There has to be one person from each congressional district and two at-large delegates. I am at large. There is really no requirement to be nominated and elected except that under the US Constitution you cannot be a federally elected official and you must be old enough to vote. Also, when it comes time for the 2012 election each party selects a whole new slate of 9. Most of the time you just do this once since it is an honorary thing and other people also would like the chance to get to do it once as well. I was nominated because I had been on the state executive committee for a while and I guess it kind of becomes your turn in the rotation! Also, since the State of Alabama has not voted Democrat since 1976 the odds are pretty good it will vote Republican again so hopefully I will be one of the 538 elector votes during this election. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have about this issue.
Who are the nine people who were elected to cast an electoral vote in your group? I have looked hard to find it somewhere else, and need to get it for a class project? If you could provide their full names I would greatly appreciate it thanks.
Hmm. Good question. I know that three of the nine are myself, Matt Fridy of Montevallo and Jim Wilson of Montgomery. I don’t know the other six but the State GOP HQ in Bham will have the answers for you. The State Democrats are in Montgomery so they will have the answer at the HQ there. Sorry I cannot be of more assistance to you on this.
the past two elections the democrats won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, its obvioulsy a BS system but they dont trust the public to be smart enough to vote right, they consider the majority of us naive and beneath them, they just like to let us think we have some say; its a very crooked system
Ummm actually you are wrong here. Only three times in American history has the popular vote been different from the electoral college and on two of those occasions it was a Democrats who won. On another note during 2004 Bush won the popular vote and electoral college. In 2000 Bush won the electoral college vote but not the popular vote. His election that year was the first time since the 1876 that someone who won the popular vote did not win the electoral college.
Mr. Ward…thank you for this website. It has been the most informative I have found tonight. I teach 6th grade and we are dedicating this week to the study of electing our President. Who is the “State Executive Committee?” How do you become a member of this committee and what purpose does it serve? (What are the duties of its memebers?)
We are looking for answers to all the questions asked by deb. My class is very curious about the Electoral College. Their first response when we conducted a KWL was….”It is a place where the President goes to learn to be the President.” :)
As a member of the “Executive Committee,” could you possibly work on a website that makes this information more accessible? The lack of available information on Alabama’s Electors lends itself to the appearance of being somewhat “cloak and dagger.”
Why not split the electors votes according to the percentage of the votes won for the state(such as dem. 7 and the rep. 2), that seems the most fair way of doing so. Then the vote would really count.
Katie, the founding fathers actually contemplated that. Let me give an example as to why we don’t— in 1992, 1996 and in 2000 no presidential candidate received 50% of the vote because of 3rd party ballot status. So if you were to allocate electors based upon percentage of the vote as opposed to state by state in those elections I just mentioned no one would have a majority of the electoral votes therefore the US House of Representatives would have to chose the next President of the United States. That is a scenario that would have occured many times in our country’s history and I don’t think anyone wants congress picking the president unless it is absolutely necessary.
this is the second day I have been searching for information on how alabama electors are chosen. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your knowledge