Electoral college meets in Olympia to vote for Obama

A small, select group of ordinary people gathered in Olympia Monday to fulfill their duty under the U.S. constitution. They’re not politicians, they’re electors.

The election of President Barack Obama is not official until members of the Electoral College from across the country cast their votes and send them to Congress. In Washington, the 12 electors represent the 10 congressional districts, as well as two at-large members. The electors range in age from 18 to 83.

Georgia Spencer, 74, of Seattle got involved in politics when she retired.

“I’ve walked my precinct, held fundraisers, not only for national or presidential office but for local offices, too and I guess I felt that this was just one more thing that I would like to do,” said the 9th Congressional district elector.

Gonzaga University freshman Grifynn Clay, 18, of Snohomish, went to his precinct caucuses to please his high school government teacher.

“I just started going because I wanted to understand and then I realized at the precinct causes that I could go all the way with this.” Which he did, winning election as an elector at his 1st district Congressional caucus. Yes, he got an “A” in his high school class.

It doesn’t get much attention but the electoral college is an open process conducted by duly elected representatives, but not politicians.

“They’re real human beings, whom the parties pick to be the electors and they fill out a ballot and then it goes back to D.C. and then they’re formally opened and counted on the floor and that certifies the election,” explained Todd Donovan, a Political Science Professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

While the electoral voting process is procedural and ceremonial, sometimes an elector will break from the script.

“Every now and again an elector will protest,” said Donovan. “In this state in 1976, a Republican elector put Reagan down instead of Ford. One of Michael Dukakis’ electors in 1988 was upset with the campaign so he put Lloyd Bentsen, his Vice-Presidential candidate, on top of the ticket,” said Donovan.

But Professor Donovan says the actions of those mavericks have little impact on the process.

On election night, people often ask: ‘Why do we have an electoral college? Why not just count the popular vote?’

The Bush-Gore election of 2000 brought calls to eliminate the electoral college process. But it’s extremely difficult to change the U.S. Constitution.

“You saw Congress actually try to amend the Constitution in 1948 and 1968 when it looked like no one was going to have a majority,” said Donovan. “If no one has a majority of the electors, then Congress has to pick the president and if something like that happens, then people will probably really be upset about the electoral college, but Bush-Gore, it was more the Supreme Court that people got upset with, not the electoral college.”

Donovan says nothing about the way we elect the president will change until we have a constitutional crisis, and maybe not even then.

In the meantime, young elector Grifynn Clay is proud to represent the hundreds of thousands of people in his district.

“I do take the job very seriously because I am representing the entire 1st Congressional district and all of their votes, Democrat and Republican,” he said.

Congress will count the votes shortly before the president is sworn in for his second term in January.