Our broken elections

With election season upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss our election system and how it no longer functions as conceived by our founding fathers.

Long before the Presidential debacle election of 2020 (whether you or I believe the election was legitimate or “stolen” is, at this point irrelevant – I am not here to make a case either way, though I recall TIME Magazine publishing an article https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/ that brazenly described the “conspiracy to save the 2020 election”), the U.S. election system was broken.

There are several aspects of the system that have over time been changed from their constitutional intent. While many today lament that the Constitution is outdated and needs to be replaced or eliminated, I think we would be far better returning to actually following it, which the government has not done for well over a century. Though I lament our overall departure from the Constitution as a whole (and make no mistake, our present federal government in no way reflects the brilliant framework envisioned by our founding fathers), for the moment, I wish to narrow the focus simply to elections. Even with the narrow focus, this piece will take a bit of space.

How much do you know about the design for elections elaborated by the framers? Do you understand the electoral college and how electors are selected? Do you truly understand even the purpose of Representatives and Senators in Congress? These are not merely rhetorical questions. The fact is, most Americans do not at all understand the original architecture of the U.S. electoral system. All people know is that they want the right to vote, and most people simply vote according to their party.

I want to break down the three main federal elections – those for President, Representatives, and Senators – according to the Constitution in order to elucidate just how far we’ve strayed from the founders’ vision. First, the President.

How do Presidential elections transpire today? Americans go to the polls, vote for a President/Vice President (who run on the same ticket), then (typically) the slate of electors designated by whichever party’s candidate receives the most votes in any State gets to cast their vote in the electoral college for the candidate to whom that elector was sworn. The National Archives website has a good breakdown of the full process here. Part of the process for selecting electors the website describes as follows:

Who selects the electors?

Choosing each State’s electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election. Second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting their ballots.

The first part of the process is controlled by the political parties in each State and varies from State to State. Generally, the parties either nominate slates of potential electors at their State party conventions or they chose them by a vote of the party’s central committee. This happens in each State for each party by whatever rules the State party and (sometimes) the national party have for the process. This first part of the process results in each Presidential candidate having their own unique slate of potential electors.

Political parties often choose individuals for the slate to recognize their service and dedication to that political party. They may be State elected officials, State party leaders, or people in the State who have a personal or political affiliation with their party’s Presidential candidate. (For specific information about how slates of potential electors are chosen, contact the political parties in each State.)

Notice this is heavily focused on political parties. This does not in the least resemble what the Constitution, which describes the Presidential election thusly:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed…after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President…

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clauses 1-4 (truncated to remove information on breaking tied votes)

From what in these clauses do we construe parties each having their own slate of electors? For that matter, where does it mention parties at all?!? It doesn’t even talk about a President/Vice President ticket – it says the person running for President who receives the most votes becomes President, and the person running for President who receives the second most votes becomes Vice President. Imagine a group individuals running only for the Presidential position from which both the President and Vice President would be elected. Can you picture Kamala Harris actually landing the VP slot if she had to run on her own merits? Looking beyond this obvious distinction, the Constitution also says that each State shall appoint electors however the Legislature decides. In other words, the State Legislatures could very well simply appoint electors – there is no mandate or requirement that the People be involved at all in the election of the President.

There is no discernible similarity between what is outlined in the Constitution and today’s presidential elections. Political parties and partisanship have denigrated the process for their own power and profit. Even Joseph Story, a Supreme Court Justice from 1812 through 1845, lamented this as far back as 1834 (I quote his very astute observation on this subject here).

Moving on (though backwards) through the Constitution, we have election of Senators:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
…
No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 3

The purpose of Senators, in the halcyon days 250 years past, was to represent the States in the federal government – the aim was not for them to be elected by, nor to represent, the People. The State Legislatures were already elected by the People, therefore it was to be expected that those Legislatures could determine who would best represent the interests of the States they served. Unfortunately, delays in appointing Senators to replace those who had, for one reason or another, vacated their seats, and the resulting impact on legislative votes, led some pernicious politicians to author the Seventeenth Amendment, transferring to the People the State Legislatures’ responsibility for appointing Senators and transferring Senators’ responsibility of representing the States to representing the people. This, in many ways, reduces our bicameral legislature to a unicameral super-legislature. I have lamented this travesty in previous writings.

Lastly, still working our way through the Constitution in reverse order, we come to the election of Representatives:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 2, Clauses 1 and 2

This may be the last remaining vestige of the founders’ original intent. The People elect electors to vote for Representatives to populate the House. Unfortunately, most Representatives no longer Represent the people who elect them – they represent the parties to which they belong, special interests who fill their campaign coffers, and foreign entities (just look at several of the most recent appropriations bills).

It is unfortunate that Americans are no longer properly taught Civics in school (perhaps this is by design in order for the beast that is government to protect and preserve itself). It is also unfortunate that Americans have been duped into believing the two-party system is both inevitable and important, and that one must vote to “win” (i.e. beat the other party) in any given election, even if one must hold one’s nose to vote. The masses are routinely manipulated, through sectarianism and sophistry, to continue voting for “party” rather than a Representative who will actually represent the voter, which for everyone should amount to someone who will uphold the Constitution as the oath of office demands. Of course, this first requires an understanding of the Constitution.

Again, the duplicity with which people are deceived into reflexively voting along party lines is something I have bemoaned many times over as can be found here, here, and here (among others). Elections would be quite different if candidates were made to run on their own merits and policies rather than on a party platform, and if people would keep in mind that we are electing representatives, not rulers; they are expected to be public servants, not lifelong politicians. Elected office was never meant to be a career – it is purposed to be a limited-time appointment.

What is the point of all this? Education. I want to educate you on how our elections are supposed to work, and the importance of returning to (not retracting) the Constitution. Then you can educate others. Help them also to see how all of this was intended to come together to create a government that represents the States and the people primarily in dealing with other countries (the federal government was intended to focus externally not internally, as I explain here and here). That the election system is so broken is in large part the reason the government in general is broken. The more people understand, the better chance we have of returning America to its proper functioning as a land of liberty and prosperity.