On November 5th we will vote to elect the 47th President of the United States. Let us try, in these lines, to clarify the rules of the American electoral system which appears, let’s say it straight away, very different from how we understand it. Let’s start by saying that, to be elected president, you must be at least 35 years old, have been a US citizen since birth and have resided in the States for at least 14 years. His powers, but also the cases in which he can be dismissed (l’impeachment), are indicated, together with the rules for his election, to article 2 of the Constitutionpromulgated in 1789. The same article of the Charter establishes the Constituency to which he confers the task of electing the President of the United States of America. U
n Ad hoc body, given that it, although elected every four years, has no other institutional function. “It’s a Process, not a Place” we read, in this regard, on the National Archives website. The College is made up of Big Votersa little-known figure in our system, but with a fundamental role in the American voting mechanism. They are the delegates, so to speak, of the citizens who register to vote.
And therefore, it can be deduced that American voters, unlike direct suffrage of other presidential governments, they vote for their president indirectly. They do it in the famous Election Day of which we will tell you some curiosities below. The United States Electoral Collegethe College in fact, is made up of 538 members535 of whom are elected with the same proportion, State by State, with which the members of Congressthe Organ of Executive Power. The latter, made up of 435 representatives of the Lower House and by the 100 senators of the Upper House.
To the latter are added, but only on the occasion of presidential elections, i 3 representatives from Washington, District of Columbia. At the time, in fact, the founding fathers of the federation believed that, in order not to privilege the voters of the capital, which was also the seat of the Congress itself, no representative could be elected in the District of Columbia. Those rules, upon closer inspection, resist, intact, even today, despite being the object of frequent disputes. Having said that 270 votes are needed to be elected presidentwe must also say that the electoral system American, as it is conceived, can reserve surprises, and not insignificant ones.
It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened, and can happen again, that the popular vote is not supported by that expressed by the electors. It happened five times in history. Two of which, in this millennium. Curiously, in both cases it was the Democratic candidate who succumbed. Hillary Clintonin 2016, had to surrender to Donald Trump despite having obtained approximately three million more votes. The same happened to Al Gore in 2000. When he was elected George W. Bush which received 500 thousand fewer votes. It cannot be ruled out that the serious inconsistency could also occur in this electoral round, the result of which promises to be very uncertain. A truly gross limitation, almost a misunderstanding that the founding fathers perhaps couldn’t even imagine could be created when they stated that the electorate, at that time, did not have adequate information about the candidates. Hence the birth of the College.
It is clear that “something should be done”, and soon, given that public opinion appears rather divided and the attempts to “take action” are multiple and remote. The objective difficulties for one reform of the Constitution or for the elimination of the Electoral College lead experts to pessimism. Any measure or project in this sense, if so it would pass easily in the House of Representatives, he would have no chance of getting away with it in the Senate. Given that a two-thirds majority is expected in the Upper House. Consider that the 435 representatives in the Chamber are elected in each of the 50 federal states in proportion to the population. The rules in the Senate are completely different. Each state elects 2 senators for Congress. Regardless of its population. It follows, also self-evidently, that small states have a weight far greater than the adults. And obstructionism more often than not proves to be a fundamental weapon for nipping the intentions of the “big guys” in the bud.
All this sounds even stranger when we think about how carefully Election Day was established at the time. Almost an anecdote what we tell you, to close.
Let’s try to understand why Election Day falls always on Tuesday. Precisely the Tuesday following the first Monday of November. Certainly not as a matter of cabal.
The mechanism was introduced by Congress in 1845 and the reason was that those first days of November were a period of little activity for the farmers. The consideration for society, which at the time was predominantly agricultural, is completely evident. Sunday, already a day of rest, and Monday were discarded, as it would have forced them to leave for the polls the day before, given the means at the time. Even Wednesdays were given up because it was the day the harvest was taken to market. We then move on to Tuesday. Still confirmed today, after almost two centuries. Truly incredible.
