Representation

How do we choose our leaders?

Trump received 62,979,636 votes, 46.1 percent of all votes cast. The Associated Press announced today that all votes had officially been certified. Clinton had 2,864,974 votes more than Trump, the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate in U.S. history, according to the AP. Dec 22, 2016 Electoral votes: Trump: 304 Clinton: 227 How did that happen?

https://www.history.com/topics/electoral- college/videos/electoral-college How much does your vote count? People People Percentage People per House per ank State Population of Electors per Senators Senate seats House Population Elector seat seat 1 California 37,341,989 12.05% 55 678,945 2 18,670,995 53 704,566 2 New York 19,421,055 6.27% 29 669,692 2 9,710,528 27 719,298 3 Texas 25,268,418 8.16% 38 664,958 2 12,634,209 36 701,901 4 Florida 18,900,773 6.10% 29 651,751 2 9,450,387 27 700,029 5 Illinois 12,864,380 4.15% 20 643,219 2 6,432,190 18 714,688 6 Ohio 11,568,495 3.73% 18 642,694 2 5,784,248 16 723,031 7 North Carolina 9,565,781 3.09% 15 637,719 2 4,782,891 13 735,829 8 Pennsylvania 12,734,905 4.11% 20 636,745 2 6,367,453 18 707,495 9 New Jersey 8,807,501 2.84% 14 629,107 2 4,403,751 12 733,958 10 Michigan 9,911,626 3.20% 16 619,477 2 4,955,813 14 707,973

How many people does your elector represent? 40 Hawaii 1,366,862 0.44% 4 341,716 2 683,431 2 683,431 41 Maine 1,333,074 0.43% 4 333,269 2 666,537 2 666,537 42 Montana 994,416 0.32% 3 331,472 2 497,208 1 994,416 43 New Hampshire 1,321,445 0.43% 4 330,361 2 660,723 2 660,723 44 Delaware 900,877 0.29% 3 300,292 2 450,439 1 900,877 45 South Dakota 819,761 0.26% 3 273,254 2 409,881 1 819,761 46 Rhode Island 1,055,247 0.34% 4 263,812 2 527,624 2 527,624 47 Alaska 721,523 0.23% 3 240,508 2 360,762 1 721,523 48 North Dakota 675,905 0.22% 3 225,302 2 337,953 1 675,905 49 Vermont 630,337 0.20% 3 210,112 2 315,169 1 630,337 District of 50 601,723 0.19% 3 200,574 0 0 Columbia 51 Wyoming 568,300 0.18% 3 189,433 2 284,150 1 568,300 The Huffington Post THE BLOG 08/31/2012 Updated Oct 31, 2012 Did the Founding Fathers Really Want Two Parties? By Willard Sterne Randall

Comparison of the presidential elections of 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016, in which the Electoral College winners lost the popular vote How did the Electoral College start? Electoral College is ‘vestige’ of slavery, say some Constitutional scholars Politics Nov 6, 2016 3:57 PM EDT U.S. Senator Aaron Burr John Adams by Asher from New York (D-R) Brown Durand

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale in 1800 The Election of 1800 Lin-Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs, ... The election of eighteen-hundred Can we get back to politics? yo Every action has its equal, opposite reaction John Adams shat the bed, I love the guy, but he’s in traction Poor Alexander Hamilton, he is missing in action So now I’m facing (Aaron Burr) with his own faction He’s very attractive in the North, New Yorkers like his chances He’s not very forthcoming on any particular stances Ask him a question, it glances off, he obfuscates, he dances And they say I’m a Francophile, at least they know I know where France is Thomas that’s the problem, see, they see Burr as a less extreme you (ha) The election of 1800 You need to change course, a key endorsement might redeem you Who did you have in mind? Don’t laugh Who is it? You used to work on the same staff (What?) it… What did people say about close elections?

Take a look at the Philadelphia Aurora, an organ of Jefferson’s party, edited by William Duane (a printer whom Federalists had pursued, unsuccessfully, for sedition in 1799). The edition of October 14, 1800, tells you that your choice lies between “Things As They Have Been” (under Adams): The principles and patriots of the Revolution condemned. . . . The Nation in arms without a foe, and divided without a cause. . . . The reign of terror created by false alarms, to promote domestic feud and foreign war. A Sedition Law. . . . An established church, a religious test, and an order of Priesthood.

And “Things As They Will Be” (if Jefferson is elected): The Principles of the Revolution restored. . . . The Nation at peace with the world and united in itself. Republicanism allaying the fever of domestic feuds, and subduing the opposition by the force of reason and rectitude. . . .

Jill Lepore, Party Time: Smear tactics, skulduggery, and the début of American democracy, The New Yorker, September 17, 2007 The same week, Philadelphia’s Federalist paper, the Gazette of the United States, offered a still more emphatic judgment:

THE GRAND QUESTION STATED

At the present solemn and momentous epoch, the only question to be asked by every American, laying his hand on his heart, is: “Shall I continue in allegiance to

GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT;

Or impiously declare for

JEFFERSON—AND NO GOD!!!”

Jill Lepore, Party Time: Smear tactics, skulduggery, and the début of American democracy, The New Yorker, September 17, 2007 The rise of machine politics: Tammany Hall

Aaron Burr DeWitt Clinton Tammany Hall in the mid-19th century

Thomas Nast (1840-1902). The Power Behind the Throne “He Cannot Call His Soul His Own.” 1870. Museum of the City of New York Thomas Nast (1840- 1902). Wholesale and Retail. 1871. Museum of the City of New York Election of 1876

Rutherford B. Hayes. Photograph of Samuel J. Tilden (circa 1860-1886). Samuel Tilden

William “Boss“ Pres. Ulysses S. Grant Tweed Who were the “Mugwumps”?

Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine in 1884 The bruising election of 1884 Comments on the election of 1884

“Ma, ma, where’s my pa!

Anti-Grover Cleveland political cartoon of 1884 (cropped from the front page of "The Judge" magazine), captioned "Another voice for Cleveland" Election of 1888

Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, Republican, Indiana Democrat from New York The election of 2000

Palm Beach County recount

The hanging chad guy - Washington Times Republican primary elections

2000 US Republican Primary Results Key: Red: states won by George W. Bush Yellow: states won by John McCain Presidential Election of 2000

George W. Bush , former Vice President of the United States Election returns

Gore Bush [2] Electoral vote 271 266 States carried 30 20 + DC Popular vote 50,456,002 50,999,897 Percentage 47.9% 48.4% How the U.S. Supreme Court Decided the Presidential Election of 2000 | History, Published on Jun 18, 2018 Commentary on the election of 2000

THE 2000 ELECTIONS: THE GREEN PARTY; Angry Democrats, Fearing Nader Cost Them Presidential Race, Threaten to Retaliate By JAMES DAO

Liberal Democrats today angrily threatened retribution against and his Green Party allies if Vice President Al Gore was declared the loser in the too-close-to-call presidential election.

Mr. Nader won just 3 percent of the nationwide vote, but his totals in the closely contested states of Florida, Oregon and New Hampshire were well above the margins there between Mr. Gore and Gov. George W. Bush. Pre-election polling around the country had found that if Mr. Nader were not in the race, perhaps half his supporters would back Mr. Gore; others had said they did not know what they would do in the event of a Nader-less race, though some said they would vote for Mr. Bush.

With the race hanging in the balance today as ballots were counted in Oregon, recounted in Florida and studied in New Hampshire, where Mr. Bush was already declared the winner, staunch Democrats and their liberal allies attacked Mr. Nader for having refused to bow out of the race weeks ago. Counties in Pennsylvania that swung in 2000:

Erie (largest city: Erie) Luzerne (largest city: Wilkes-Barre) Northampton (largest city: Bethlehem) Counties that swung from Republican to Democratic Chester (largest borough: West Chester) Presidential candidate Vote total % Party and running mate George Walker Bush– 2,912,790 48.847% Republican Richard Bruce Cheney Albert Arnold Gore Jr.– Joseph Isadore 2,912,253 48.838% Democratic Final certified Lieberman Ralph Nader– results 97,488 1.635% Green Winona LaDuke Florida Patrick J. Buchanan– 17,484 0.293% Reform presidential Ezola B. Foster – 16,415 0.275% Libertarian election, 2000 Art Olivier – 2,281 0.038% Natural Law Nat Goldhaber – 537 votes 1,804 0.030% Workers World separated Howard Phillips– 1,371 0.023% Constitution Curtis Frazier Bush from David McReynolds– 622 0.010% Socialist Gore Mary Cal Hollis James Harris– 562 0.009% Socialist Workers Margaret Trowe Write-ins 36 0.000% Total 5,963,110 Al Gore speaks out on Florida results Aol.com Election of 2016

Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Michigan Democratic primary, March 8, 2016 Popular vote Estimated delegates Candidate Count Percentage Pledged Unpledged Total Bernie Sanders 598,943 49.68% 67 0 67 Hillary Clinton 581,775 48.26% 63 10 73 Uncommitted 21,601 1.79% 0 7 7 Martin O'Malley (with 2,363 0.20% drawn) Rocky De La 870 0.07% Fuente Total 1,205,552 100% 130 17 147 Source: The Green Papers United States presidential election in Michigan, 2016

Candida Running Percent Electoral Party Votes te mate age votes

Donald Mike Republican 2,279,543 47.50% 16 Trump Pence Hillary Tim Democratic 2,268,839 47.27% 0 Clinton Kaine

Gary William Libertarian 172,136 3.59% 0 Johnson Weld

Ajamu Green Jill Stein 51,463 1.07% 0 Baraka

Darrell Scott U.S Taxpayers 16,139 0.33% 0 Castle Bradley

Evan Mindy Independent 8,177 0.17% 0 McMullin Finn

Angela Emidio Socialist Party Nicole 2,209 0.05% 0 Soltysik Walker - Others - 778 0.02% 0 4,799,28 Totals 100.00% 16 4 United States presidential election in Michigan, 2016 Elector Candid Runnin Percentag Party Votes al ate g mate e votes Donald Mike Republican 2,279,543 47.50% 16 Trump Pence Hillary Tim Democratic 2,268,839 47.27% 0 Clinton Kaine Gary William Libertarian 172,136 3.59% 0 Johnson Weld Ajamu Green Jill Stein 51,463 1.07% 0 Baraka

Vote plurality for Trump = 10,704 votes United States presidential election in Pennsylvania, 2016 Running Percenta Electoral Party Candidate Votes mate ge votes United States Donald Mike Republican 2,970,733 48.18% 20 presidential Trump Pence election in Hillary Democratic Tim Kaine 2,926,441 47.46% 0 Pennsylvania, Clinton 2016 Gary William Libertarian 146,715 2.38% 0 Johnson Weld Ajamu Green Jill Stein 49,941 0.81% 0 Baraka Darrell Scott Constitution 21,572 0.35% 0 Castle Bradley Others / Write-In 50,076 0.81% 0 Votes Totals 6,165,478 100.00% 20

Vote differential: Trump wins by 44,292 votes

Treemap of the popular vote by county in Pennsylvania Should we repeal the Electoral College?

How to Reform the Electoral College The much-maligned Electoral College does not need to be abolished. It just has to change how it operates. Victoria Bassetti, December 9, 2016 Paul Kienitz, “Options for Electoral College Reform” https://paulkienitz.net/electoral.html

1) The candidate who loses the popular vote can win the election by being unpopular in the most populous states 2) The candidate who loses the popular vote can win the election if he happens to get small wins in many states while his opponent gets larger wins in fewer states, regardless of the size of the states involved. 3) The small number of electoral votes causes a certain amount of random round-off error. 4) The winner-take-all rule also leads to voter apathy or disgruntlement in states where one party is dominant, because their vote will have no effect on the electoral vote totals. 5) When no candidate gets a majority of electoral votes, the vote is settled by the House of Representatives, throwing out the people's vote entirely. FairVote-Center for Voting and Democracy http://archive.fairvote.org/e_college/reform.htm

Reform Options for the Electoral College

Direct Election with Instant Runoff Voting: With a direct vote, voters would rank their preferences rather than marking only one candidate. Then, when the votes are counted, if no single candidate has a majority, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated.

Proportional Allocation of Electoral Votes: It splits each state’s electoral votes in accordance with their popular vote percentages. This way, a candidate who come in second place in a state with 45% of the popular vote would receive 45% of the electoral votes from that state, instead of 0%. Direct Vote with Plurality Rule: This method would abolish the Electoral College and require each person to cast one vote for the candidate of their choice.

Congressional District Method: This method divides electoral votes by district, allocating one vote to each district and using the remaining two as a bonus for the statewide popular vote winner.

National Bonus Plan: This idea, proposed by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., retains the current Electoral College system, but also awards extra electoral votes as a bonus to the winner of the popular vote.

Binding Proposal: Amend the Constitution to bind all electors federally, meaning that they would be forced to vote based on their party pledge if their party's nominee wins their state. What is your opinion? Voter suppression

"Charge of the Danites" in the 1838 Mormon War also known as the Missouri Mormon War Women’s suffrage

Women's suffragists parade in New York City in 1917 Seneca Falls Convention, July 19, 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Susan B Anthony

Ratification of 14th Amendment, 1868

Blue= ratified amendment pre-certification Teal= Ratified amendment pre-certification after first rejecting it, 1868 Maroon= Ratified amendment post-certification after first rejecting it, 1869–1976 Green= Ratified amendment post-certification, 1959 Yellow= Ratified amendment, withdrew ratification (rescission), then re-ratified.

White Women Helped Elect Donald Trump, Associated Press by Katie Rogers Nov. 9, 2016

More than half of the white women who voted in the presidential election cast their ballot for Donald J. Trump, according to exit poll data collected by The New York Times.

The data indicate how deeply divided Americans are by race and gender: 94 percent of black women who voted and 68 percent of Hispanic or Latino female voters chose Hillary Clinton, but 53 percent of all white female voters picked Mr. Trump.

The data can be broken down further: 51 percent of white women with college degrees voted for Mrs. Clinton, while 62 percent of women without one voted for Mr. Trump, a reflection of his success with working-class whites.

On Wednesday, women of all races were grappling with the findings. “Fellow white women, I’m done with you,” Sarah Ruiz-Grossman wrote in The Huffington Post.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 MAY 12, 2017 Black voter turnout fell in 2016, even as a record number of Americans cast ballots BY JENS MANUEL KROGSTAD AND MARK HUGO LOPEZ Voter suppression laws

Gerrymandering

"The Gerry-mander" first appeared in this cartoon-map in the Boston Gazette, 26 March 1812 Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, March 28, 2018 Comments on The problem is how to create a remedy for this sort Gerrymandering of viewpoint discrimination. In various ways, Roberts, Alito, and Gorsuch all made the point that redistricting is invariably a political process, so there is no way that partisanship can be entirely scrubbed from it. Indeed, Ginsburg and Kagan made similar arguments. The question of the remedy was so muddled that Breyer even put forth the notion that the Court should ask the parties for an entirely new set of briefs on it. No other Justice picked up on that idea, but the mere fact that Breyer proposed it suggests that in the Wisconsin case (which presumably has already been decided) the Court has not produced a workable standard embraced by a majority of the Justices. Current attempts at voter suppression

2008 presidential election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States#Gerrymandering

A review of states' records by The New York Times found unlawful actions leading to widespread voter purges. A dispute between the Social Security Administration commissioner and the National Association of Secretaries of State about the use of the Social Security database to test the validity of voters led to the shutdown of the database over the Columbus Day holiday weekend. Georgia Wait times of 2 to 10 hours were reported during early voting at multiple Georgia locations. Michigan Before the presidential election, on September 16, 2008, Obama legal counsel announced that they would be seeking an injunction to stop an alleged caging scheme in Michigan wherein the state Republican party would use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters still using their foreclosed home as a primary address at the polls. Michigan GOP officials called the suit "desperate". A Federal Appeals court ordered the reinstatement of 5,500 voters wrongly purged from the voter rolls by the state. Minnesota The conservative nonprofit Minnesota Majority has been reported as making phone calls claiming that the Minnesota Secretary of State had concerns about the validity of the voters registration. Their actions have been referred to the Ramsey County attorney's office and the U.S. Attorney looked into Johnson's complaint. Montana On October 5, 2008, the Republican Lt. Governor of Montana, John Bohlinger, accused the Montana Republican Party of vote caging to purge 6,000 voters from three counties which trend Democratic. These purges included war veterans and active duty soldiers. Ohio Wait times of six hours were reported for early voting in Franklin County, leading to people leaving the line without voting. Wisconsin The Republican Party attempted to have all 60,000 voters in the heavily Democratic city of Milwaukee who had registered since January 1, 2006, deleted from the voter rolls. The requests were rejected by the Milwaukee Election Commission, although Republican commissioner Bob Spindell voted in favor of deletion. Voter suppression:

Your thoughts? Next week:

The haves and have- nots: The rights of privilege and the rights of people