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What’s the most confusing voting process and why is it the US election system?

Denise Atanque
Nov 14, 2020
6 min read

Updated: Dec 30, 2020

Filipinos are not new to the concept of democracy. At a young age, we’re exposed to the system where the majority wins in class officer votations and decision-making for group works or in the classes. In the same way, the next line of senators, political parties, and government authorities are officiated and sworn into office after the popular vote is finally called - majority wins.

The US recently held its elections last November 3. Many Filipinos dedicatedly tracked the live vote count, but many were left dumbfounded and clueless by the unusual graphs, charts, and numbers of the vote count - why aren’t they the same as the ones we usually see?

Contrary to the concept of “majority wins” type of democracy here in the Philippines and almost all democracies, the US does the same, but they do it a little bit differently. Here are the things you need to know about the US Election System - pro-tip: you’re gonna need to rack up more than a few brain cells for this.

The US has a system called the Electoral College, which is a group of delegates from each of the 50 US States. As best said by Vox, a general interest news site, “When Americans vote, what they’re actually voting for is who their state will vote for.”

The Electoral College was formed based on how people are represented in the Congress; each state has a number of representatives depending on their population, every state also gets two senators. The number of representatives and senators per state equates to the number of electoral votes a state gets.

Don’t get it? Don’t worry, it took us a while to get it too, but here’s an example:

Texas population - 25,268,000 Texas representatives - 36

Vermont population - 630,000 Vermont representatives - 1 So, the number of electoral votes each of these states gets are:

Texas representatives (36) + Senators (2) = 38 electoral votes

Vermont representatives (1) + Senators (2) = 3 electoral votes

The candidate who wins the most votes in a state will get all the electoral votes of that state. So, if 51% of Vermont votes for candidate A, all 3 electoral votes of Vermont will go to candidate A, even if almost half of the population of Vermont voted for candidate B.

There are a total of 538 electoral votes in the US elections - that’s 100 electoral votes for the 100 senators, 435 electoral votes combined among all states’ electors, and 3 electoral votes from the electors of the District of Columbia. A presidential candidate must get a total of 270 electoral votes, which is more than half of the total, in order to win.

In the political playground, swing states are those that “swing” or switch from one political party to another for each election, while safe states are those that have consistently gained the popular vote of one party for over many election cycles. Safe states usually vote for the candidate that represents their political party. Since the Northern States are Democrats, they usually vote for the Democratic candidate and vice versa.

A tactic that candidates do to secure the people’s votes is to campaign in swing states. Swing states have a great impact on the election, which is why the candidates heavily invest in the campaigns done in swing states and take their time in these places instead of others.

The Electoral College, to a non-American citizen, can be a bit hard to understand especially the rationale on why such a complex system was created - but to give you a preview, this system was rooted in slavery and discrimination. This was how the Electoral College was designed.

In circa 1770, the Northern states (Democrats, Anti-Slavery) and the Southern states (Republicans, Pro-Slavery) had to come to an agreement on the constitution. The Northern states only wanted free people to be eligible to vote; keep in mind that most of the free people were white and lived in the Northern states, easily outnumbering those in the Southern states. Because of these, the Southern states wanted both free and enslaved people to be able to vote as not to be easily overthrown by the Northern ones.

As a result, the two sectors met halfway and settled with what was then called the “three-fifths clause”. This states that an enslaved person only counts as three-fifths of a person - but still counts their vote. Because of this, Southern states with more enslaved people than free people were able to outnumber Northern states that were mostly populated with free people.

A bit confused? Don’t fret, here’s an example:

Pennsylvania, a Northern State:

Free people: 601,000 Enslaved people: 1,700

Electoral votes: 15

Virginia, a Southern State

Free people: 539,000 Enslaved people: 347,000

Electoral votes: 21

So, Virginia had more electoral votes despite the lesser number of free people because of the three-fifths clause for enslaved people, which they had more of.

Black men were given the right to vote in 1870. Unfortunately, the government still found ways to prevent them from voting by implementing literacy tests and poll taxes because of how they outnumbered the population of white voters in some states.

You can take a guess as to why this system has long been opposed by many citizens both in and out of the US. There were, however, some attempts to replace the electoral college in the past.

The first attempt happened in 1816. The proposal to replace the Electoral College with a simpler popular vote was blocked by Southern senators, who stated that it would be unfair for them. The second attempt to replace the Electoral College happened in 1969, which was even supported by both parties, 338 electors, and passed the House. This attempt was, again, blocked by Southern senators. Sen. James Allen of Alabama added that “The Electoral College is one of the South’s few remaining political safeguards. Let’s keep it.”

Despite the majority wanting to abolish this system and replace it with a simple popular vote, the only two attempts have been blocked by the Southern senators: those who were once pro-slavery and who were mainly composed of Republicans.

The Electoral College goes a long way, but it gives uneven power for people to decide who becomes the next president. It has created inconsistencies in the voting process since votes in each state account for a different value when counted in electoral votes.

In short, a presidential candidate can win as president without getting the popular vote - you can take a guess on why not a lot of people want this election system anymore.

Contrary to its history and rationale, the logistics of the US election system is quite simple. There are two voting choices: vote through an Absentee ballot, which is processed and acquired through postal correspondence, and vote through In-person voting, which is where registered voters come to designated voting stations to vote on election day itself.

Unlike in the Philippines and most democratic countries where the votation for President and Vice President is separate, the US election system only lets citizens vote for the President. Whoever the running mate of the president-elect is will be declared the vice president-elect.

The US Election 2020 began last September 9 with the early In-person voting for Alabama and last October 9 with the deadline for Kentucky’s voters to request a ballot. The General Election officially began last November 3. It didn’t take long before Joe Biden passed the 270 electoral vote mark last November 7. This year’s election marked the end of Trump’s regime and the beginning of president-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris’ term to serve the US. Despite this win, this doesn’t mark the end of the elections.

FACE OFF. On November 3, President Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off at the 2020 US elections, with Joe Biden emerging victorious at the end of it. © Arias & ET Contributors

On December 8, electors for each state will be appointed. By December 14, each state's elector will cast their votes. By January 6, The House and the Senate will hold a joint session to count the votes; after such, the President of the Senate will announce the winner of the election. Even if the president-elect and vice president-elect is already final, the remaining processes are just for formalities, meaning that Biden and Harris are the next leaders of the country.

By January 20, President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris afterward. This means that President Donald Trump will only remain in office until January 20 until Biden has sworn into office

It’s a lot to take in, but this is just the bird’s eye view of the US election system. With all that’s been said, many are relieved that despite 2020 being a rough year, it has marked the end of a harmful regime both in the US and internationally.

Despite this year’s election working in favor of the majority, the question remains: will there ever be a third attempt to abolish the ever-so complex and confusing Electoral College?