The Electoral College and Kansas
The
United States holds national elections for President every four years. A
significant, unique, and
widely misunderstood feature of US presidential elections is the
“Electoral College.” Ironically, although the
concept and broad directives of the Electoral College have always been
entrenched in the US Constitution the term “Electoral
College” itself does not appear in the Constitution, and only
evolved afterwards as a description.
In
accordance with the “federal republic” structure of the United
States government, it is technically not the American
population that elects the President, but the individual
states. The US Constitution allows each state a number
of “Electors” equal
to its combined number of Senators and Representatives in Congress
(Article II, Section 1). Additionally, the 25th
Amendment allows the District
of Columbia a number of Electors not
exceeding that of the smallest state, which is three. When
the District of Columbia’s three Electors are added to
those of the 50 states, the
total comes to 538 Electors. A majority of these
Electors – 270 Electoral votes – is needed to win the Presidency. One
might ask why we have a popular election for President at all. The reason is
that since the 19th century US states have largely
chosen their respective Electors
through a popular vote.
The
2016 presidential election was unusual in that it saw a
large number of rare “faithless
electors” who cast their ballot for President in contradiction to the candidate
chosen by their state’s popular vote. Five Democratic electors in Washington
and Hawaii cast their votes for people other than Hillary Clinton, and two
Republican electors in Texas cast their votes for people other than Donald
Trump. The total of seven “faithless electors” was
the most since 1972.
However,
32 states and the District of Columbia have
passed statutory laws enforcing how their Electors
can vote. In general, such states’ Electors are
required by their respective states’ law
to cast their vote for the presidential candidate that won that state’s popular
vote. The methods and degrees of legal enforcement of
such legislation vary greatly. Some merely require their
Electors to sign a pledge that they will cast their vote for their state’s
popular vote winner. Oklahoma and North Carolina impose civil penalties (fines)
of $1,000 and $500 respectively. South Carolina retains the right to impose
criminal penalties on faithless electors, while in
New Mexico casting one’s ballot for someone other than the state’s popular vote
winner is a fourth degree felony. Kansas,
interestingly, is one of 18 states whose Electors are not
legally limited in whom they cast their votes for.
Each state legislates its own method of choosing Electors and certifying election
results. Kansas statutes
concerning the
presidential election process are found at KSA 25-301,
25-304, 25-305, 25-802, and 25-804.
Kansas
Electors for President are required by law to convene at the state capital
at noon on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of the December after
the Election and “shall proceed to perform the duties
required of such electors by the constitution and laws of the United
States.”