Election Alert: Start Thinking about Voting Now

Election season is coming up, and there’s a lot to know about changes in voting. Use WomenMatter to keep yourself updated on life issues, including voting itself.

Some people want to change voting laws in a big way before the 2008 presidential elections, and Congress has already begun to work on a law to discourage voter intimidation. They’re also thinking about requiring a paper trail on voting machines. Keep reading for details.

Possible changes to the way we elect our president

• Rethinking the Electoral College

Dianne Feinstein, Democratic Senator from California, would like to change the way we elect the president of the United States. She says the current system, the Electoral College, is out of date and in dire need of remodeling.

The Electoral College is a winner-take-all system, where states give all of their votes to the dominant candidate. Bigger states have more votes and can have a greater influence over the outcome. However, states of similar sizes but different political persuasions can cancel each other out, leaving states that could sway either way, or “swing” states, to decide the result.

Feinstein would like the president to be elected by a direct popular vote, abolishing the Electoral College system all together. To do so she would need to amend the Constitution. This would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate and House, plus ratification by three-fourths of states.

• Going around the Constitution: Interstate Compacts

But there’s another way. If states agreed to assign their Electoral College votes to whomever wins the national popular vote, the Electoral College would become obsolete. And it wouldn’t take many states –as few as 11 or a total of 270 electoral votes – to take the Electoral College out of play. Of course, it could take as many as 39 states, depending on the size of the states that chose to adopt the new system.

Some say this is a tricky way of getting around the Constitution and if the Electoral College is to be abolished, it should be done via Congress.

Republicans in California would like to change the winner-take-all aspect of the Electoral College and divide electoral votes between candidates according to districts won. In California, there are about 20 Republican districts, so this could mean 20 more additional electoral votes for the Republican presidential candidate and deny the current Democratic Party and frontrunner candidates a major strength – right in the midst of the campaign.

The Electoral College and parties

The U.S. direct-democracy system has resulted in a two–party system in which Congress and the states’ electoral college votes are divided into nearly equal Democratic and Republican (or red and blue) halves. Although some states are evolving into mixed or “purple” states, the system makes it hard for an alternative candidate to enter the White House.

The truth is that both parties are talking about reforming the way the president is elected because neither of them can be certain about winning.

Under the current system, the Electoral College has made it possible for the candidate who lost the popular vote to win the presidency seven times in our nation’s history, including the 2000 election. This makes voting for the PARTY, and not just the PERSON, even more important -- because once they are elected, presidents can accomplish much more if their party also holds a majority in Congress.

Abolishing the Electoral College- directly or indirectly- could have a major impact on the two-party system by making it easier for other candidates to enter and win presidential elections.

When you can just vote for the person – Primaries

• Presidential primaries are a relatively recent phenomenon. Not making an appearance until the 20th century, they are hardly a deep-rooted tradition in presidential elections.

• In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, voters complained that nominations were made by party bosses in “smoke-filled rooms.” Presidential primaries were thus introduced to give voters a voice in the nomination process.

• Primaries allow voters to go to the polls and select their personal favorite. But they do not directly nominate the candidate. Rather, the outcome of the primary designates delegates who then vote at the national convention.

• There are both open and closed primaries. In an open primary, any voter can vote for any candidate, in any party. In a closed primary, a voter must vote within her party. (States with open primaries are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin) Some complain that open primaries allow scheming voters to elect the other party’s weakest candidate in hopes of winning the general election.

Changes in progress

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation in2007 to discourage voter intimidation.

Civil rights groups have complained about voters getting false information about voter eligibility or the time and place of an election. They say that in previous elections, this has primarily occurred in minority neighborhoods.

The new law would sentence offenders to up to five years in prison as well as fines.

Changes on the horizon

After the election fiasco of 2000, Congress passed the Help Americans Vote Act, or HAVA, a piece of legislation meant to fix the glitches in our voting system.

The bill allotted $3.9 billion dollars for election reforms in all 50 states. Only $2.9 billion have been spent and not all of the reforms have been made.

One major goal of the reforms was to cure the problems caused by confusing ballots, varying significantly state by state. In practice, however, they have not created national standards – and may have caused the opposite effect.

Under HAVA, the responsibility for election reform falls on the states, and each state has progressed at a different rate. Some states, including California, Ohio, and Connecticut, have direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines and laws that require a physical record of each vote or, a voter-verified paper trail. Others have the machines but no paper-trail requirement, and eight states have neither.

Look up your state here.

The paper trail movement

In 2003, a group of concerned computer science professors from Stanford began to argue that computerized voting machines should have a paper-audit component. One of the most outspoken of the group, Professor David Dill, was consequently placed on a California task force for election reform and succeeded in convincing then-Secretary of State Kevin Shelley (D) of the importance of a paper trail.

But Congress has postponed its vote on a bill that would create a federal law to require states to leave such a paper trail. States and localities are relieved. They argue that they don’t have the money or other resources needed to make the change by next November. Yet, Congress could still pass the law if they make it a priority. Right now, the $8.4 billion price tag is concerning both parties.

What do you think?

Is a fully-functioning, accurate voting system one of your top priorities? Do you think we should be rid of the Electoral College? Tell your representatives what you think!

If you haven’t already, Register Now and tell your friends how easy it is to sign up using WomenMatter’s webpage.

return to top

About WomenMatter

WomenMatter is a place to discuss life issues with other women. We don't want to wedge women apart, but rather bring them together to dialogue.

WomenMatter is the place where we can take one issue at a time, match what we do about it every day of our lives to the facts of the bigger system that we all live in and recognize that every idea for making it better has tradeoffs.

WomenMatter is dedicated to engaging women in the political process. To do this we have invested in the most in-depth NONPARTISAN information, because we trust each woman to make up her own mind.

• We track nine issues every week and update this website several times a week.
• We do continuous research to make sure that we are meeting the needs of women across the country of all ages, races, incomes, preferences, and religions.
• To explore our archive of past Women's Rights Life Issue updates, click here.

We offer all our services free of charge without memberships or subscriptions. To help us maintain this work - not just in election years but as a continuing part of women's lives - please make a tax deductible donation, click here.

return to top