Understanding how the Electoral College works

The electoral college can be confusing so we asked a constitutional law expert to sit down and explain it to us in simple terms.

David Adler is a former BYU-Idaho and University of Idaho professor and expert on constitutional law. He sat down in an interview with us and explained the electoral college like he would to a new student. Below is a transcript of what Adler told us.

“The framers of the constitution selected the idea of an electoral college as a means of selection the president of the united states as a compromise between the proposals for a direct popular vote and the idea of the congress selecting the president. The idea of the popular vote was supported by several of the framers but the framers were concerned that the voters wouldn’t have enough knowledge about the candidate for the presidency because obviously there was no national press or NPR. They did want their votes to be cast in the dark. They also couldn’t have congress select the president because after all they had already opted for a separation of powers system and if congress selected the president, the president would be subordinate to congress and would be forever in the debt of congress. So instead they opted for this strange new creature called the electoral college.”

“What that really means is that the winner of the majority of the popular vote in each state receives that state’s electoral college votes. In about three weeks the various electors will gather in their respective state capitals to cast their ballots for the candidate that received the majority of votes in their particular state.”

“Now there is no law that actually binds the members of the electoral college but there certainly is a strong tradition and some sanctions that can be imposed if faithless electors elect to not follow that pledge to cast their electoral vote for that candidate that won the popular vote in their state. It might be a $1000 fine but effectively a faithless elector would be banished from that person’s party forever more.”

“Now there is great pressure in this particular election on electors to change their votes and support Hillary Clinton. That’s owing in part to the fact that Secretary Clinton has now won nearly 1.5% more of the vote than Donald Trump, a clear victory in the area of the popular vote and because there is still strong opposition to president-elect Donald Trump. It is very unlikely that enough electors would switch their votes, break their pledges, some 35 to 40, would have to do that and its unlikely to happen.”