This article was written by Sarah Tang of Poolesville High School.
November 3, 2020: Election Day. Millions of people across the United States cast their ballots for the presidential election. The voter turnout this year was at an all-time high, which was one thing that made this year’s election special. But how does the system count all these votes?
Due to the high voter turnout this year, a few states “flipped.” This means that states which traditionally voted Republican or Democrat voted for the other party. Through a system known as the Electoral College, votes are typically categorized by state, where an elector exists for every senator and representative - a total of 538, including three additional electors for the District of Columbia. At the moment, all of these electors are chosen through a popular vote via political party in the state.
To win the presidential election, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes, hence the phrase “270 to win.” The candidate who gets the most electoral votes in the state “wins the state,” and takes all the electoral votes in that state, no matter which candidate the other electors voted for individually. For example, in California, there are 55 electoral votes. If 13 electors vote for one party, they are not the majority, which means that these 55 votes will be counted towards the winning party. In the most recent election, California voted Democrat. Even if 27 electors vote Republican, the Democrat party would get all 55 votes, since they have the majority of 28-27 votes. This is the “winner-take-all” system.
However, there are two states which do not utilize the “winner-take-all” system: Maine and Nebraska. Instead, these states choose an elector for each district, which means two votes go to the state’s popular vote winner. For example, Maine’s first district may vote Democrat, and the second district may vote Republican, which is considered a split vote. But the popular vote would give one party an extra vote. In the most recent 2020 election, the Democrats won the popular vote, which meant 2 electoral votes from Maine would go to the Democrat Party, and 1 electoral vote from Maine would go to the Republican Party.
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the original Constitution solely for the purpose of electing the president and vice president to safeguard against uneducated voters. Electors have specialized knowledge in terms of candidates. Ironically, the Electoral College ensures that each part of the country is involved in the election. The popular vote may lead candidates to neglect lesser populated areas of the country and campaign strictly in urban areas, which could further the issue of uneducated voters. Downsides of the Electoral College include giving too much power to swing states and not accurately reflecting the people’s vote. Swing states are able to determine the entire outcome of the election because their massive vote count goes to one party, despite how close the numbers are. Candidates can also just focus on campaigning in certain states. The popular vote appears to directly reflect the people’s wishes, since every single vote counts.
With the Electoral College, every individual vote doesn’t seem to count, because the electors can still vote for whoever they want, which could determine the difference between winning and losing the state. However, many states have laws against “faithless voters” - which means if an elector did not vote for whom they pledged to, or according to the district popular vote, they could be disqualified and/or fined. Due to the idea of faithless voters and the winner-take-all system, there are debates over whether the Electoral College is truly a democratic system or not. The Electoral College has been the result of five elections where the candidate who won the popular vote was not elected. Specifically, the 1824 election, the 1876 election, the 1888 election, the 2000 election, and the 2016 election. Andrew Jackson won the 1824 election without a popular vote, since none of the four candidates reached 50% of votes. Rutherford B. Hayes beat opponent Samuel J. Tilden despite not having the popular vote in 1876. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison took presidency over Grover Cleveland. As for the 21st century, in 2000, George W. Bush took the presidency over Al Gore, while in 2016, Donald J. Trump won the electoral vote by 77 and lost the popular vote by 3 million.
This year, the candidate who won the popular vote, Joe Biden, was elected. As of now, he has won the election with 290 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 217.
However, not every state has confirmed their electoral votes yet. As of November 11, 2020, Georgia and North Carolina have not called their state. It does not exactly matter, since Joe Biden has already reached a minimum of 270 electoral votes. For the popular vote, Joe Biden has won 50.8% of it - 77,077,565 people, compared to Donald Trump’s 47.5% or 71,989,927 people, according to The Associated Press.
States usually close their polls during the evening of Election Day. Some states will call, or announce, their votes on Election Day. This means electoral votes can start to be tallied. The AP reports the most accurate and direct results due to their pre-Civil War history of collecting vote counts, analyzing data, and freelance stringers who collect votes locally. One can find an interactive map of the 2020 elections by searching “election map 2020.” The map shows numbers of electoral votes, states which have been called, and which candidate the popular vote leans towards in a specific state.
So, did voter turnout really affect this election? Simple answer, yes. 100% of eligible voters participating in an election is always ideal, since the winner of the election will be undoubtedly the choice of the people, while the Electoral College draws a gray area in terms of the winner, and whether or not they are truly the people’s choice. Voter turnout this year also flipped historically Republican states, specifically Arizona and Georgia, which account for 11 and 16 electoral votes respectively.
This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, a contactless voting method was necessary. In this case, “mail-in voting ballots” were created. Some states counted mail-in ballots after Election Day, while others counted them at the same time as in-person voting. As a result, some states were called earlier than others, since not every state had all their mail-in ballots counted. Mail-in ballots slowly trickled in and flipped significant states, namely Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Pennsylvania and Georgia had looked like solid Republican states, until mail-in ballots began being counted. Although Georgia has not called their state (as of November 13, 2020), Pennsylvania called about a week after Election Day, sealing 20 electoral votes for Joe Biden despite seeming like 20 free votes for Donald Trump. The mail-in ballots encouraged people to vote because they were more convenient; people were able to vote in the comfort of their own home. And as a result, higher voter turnout, flipping states, and a suspenseful election which could have gone both ways.
Moral of the story? Go vote. Every vote matters. Perhaps one day the country will have 100% voter participation, and the possible gray area for the Electoral College will no longer be a strong debate.
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