(LEX 18) — At a Get Out The Vote rally in Lexington on Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear expressed a desire to change the way that the presidency is won in the United States.
"My goal, through the work that I’m doing, is to get to that place in the United States - we all want to get there - where seven states don’t decide the presidency and our future," he told the crowd. “Where eventually candidates come here and everywhere, where they work to secure every vote across the United States of America, where every vote counts the same no matter where its cast.”
After he voted on Thursday morning in Frankfort, LEX 18 asked him to elaborate on his comments from the night before. Is he calling for electoral college reform?
"I'd certainly be in favor of electoral college reform," Beshear answered. "What we see right now is seven states deciding the presidency. It might be as little as 60,000 votes over those seven states. And what it means in places like Kentucky - but also places that tend to vote differently - don't see the candidates, don't necessarily get that interaction."
"Certainly, moving forward - the more states that are involved, the more diversity of thought, the more voters that are being interacted with, the better overall for democracy," he added.
When asked to clarify how he would want the presidency to be decided, Beshear spoke about the importance of the popular vote.
"A popular vote is done in so many other countries," Beshear said. "It would value every single vote in every single place the same. It would mean that fighting for that extra vote in Kentucky would be just as important to a presidential candidate as in any of the swing states right now. It would make all of our votes equal across the United States."
What is the Electoral College and how does the US use it to elect presidents?
Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 because of the Electoral College. So did George W. Bush in 2000.
The Electoral College is the unique American system of electing presidents. It is different from the popular vote, and it has an outsize impact on how candidates run and win campaigns. Republicans Trump and Bush lost the popular vote during their presidential runs but won the Electoral College to claim the nation’s top office.
Some Democrats charge that the system favors Republicans, and they would rather the United States elect presidents by a simple majority vote. But the country’s framers set up the system in the Constitution, and it would require a constitutional amendment to change.
What is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College is a 538-member body that elects a president. The framers of the Constitution set it up to give more power to the states and as a compromise to avoid having Congress decide the winner.
Each state’s electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. The runner-up gets nothing — except in Nebraska and Maine, where elector votes are awarded based on congressional district and statewide results.
To win the presidency, a candidate must secure 270 electoral votes — a majority of the 538 possible votes.
How is it different from the popular vote?
Under the Electoral College system, more weight is given to a single vote in a small state than to the vote of someone in a large state, leading to outcomes at times that have been at odds with the popular vote.
It also affects how candidates campaign. Because the outcome is almost certain in solidly Republican states and solidly Democratic states, candidates tend to focus most of their efforts on a handful of swing states that have split their votes in recent elections.
Who are the electors?
Electors are allocated based on how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, plus its two senators. The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.
It varies by state, but often the electors are picked by state parties. Members of Congress cannot serve as electors.
How and when are the votes counted?
After state election officials certify their elections, electors meet in their individual states — never as one body — to certify the election. This year, that will happen on Dec. 17.
If the two candidates have a tied number of votes, the election is thrown to the House, where each state’s congressional delegation gets one vote. That has happened only twice, in 1801 and 1825.
Once a state’s electors have certified the vote, they send a certificate to Congress. Congress then formally counts and certifies the vote at a special session on Jan. 6. The vice president presides as the envelopes for each state are opened and verified.
Can lawmakers object?
Lawmakers can object to a state’s results during the congressional certification, as several Republicans did after the 2020 election. On Jan. 6, 2021, the House and Senate both voted to reject GOP objections to the Arizona and Pennsylvania results.
After Trump tried to overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Congress updated the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act to make it harder to object and to more clearly lay out the vice president’s ceremonial role, among other changes. Trump had pressured Vice President Mike Pence to try and object to the results — something the vice president has no legal standing to do.
Once Congress certifies the vote, the new or returning president will be inaugurated Jan. 20 on the steps of the Capitol.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
