European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 7, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine electoral College archaic but serviceable by Stanley Meisler los Angeles times very four years americans drag out i hair Antiq us machinery for electing a president vow to repair or replace it before disaster comes hold their breath while it creaks Forth a new Leader sigh in Relief that it Silil works and then pack it away and Torget it. This Peculiar american institution is the electoral College. Critics look on it As a seedbed for calamity. They have called it an abortive organism and a hoary and outworn relic of the Stagecoach Era the electoral College has Many offenders by they rarely. Praise its Virtues. They merely warn that anything else might prove worse the electoral College is nol rally says William h. Keechi. A political scientist at the University of North Carolina who has taken Par in a study of the institution for the twentieth Century fund. Ii has no Clear rationale Bui. By and Large it does its Job Well. Ii there were a Pei text alternative i would be Lor it. But there is no perfect alternative " intensifying current interest in the electoral College were Public opinion polls which re flocked Only a moderate Lead for Republican George Bush Over Democrat Michael s. Dukakis in he popular Rote but a massive Lead Lor Bush in the electoral College. A the least Hose polls suggested thai the electoral College travors the republicans because of their lock on Small Stales which have a disproportionate number electoral votes and hey evoke unpleasant memories of the presidential election of exactly 100 years ago the last time the Winner actually lost the popular vote. Democrat Grover Cleveland won More popular votes. Han Republican Benjamin Harrison but lost Hie election in he electoral College. To a. James Reichley a Brookings institution Spocia Tisl on american elections that was a Long Lime ago the electoral College he says has t presented a real problem for 100 years. People Don t like it vary much but it s not an urgent  Bui keen says another election like 1 bbb s would revive a Host of dormant proposals to change the electoral College. All you heed is for something to  he says and desk drawers will open and the Sowill  ". Until then americans will not Vole directly for president instead they will Vole for electors Ollen not named on ballots for he presidential candidates these electors make up the electoral. College a body that never meets together. The number of electors in each stale is equal to the total number of its members of Congress senators and members of the House of representatives. Each stale s House delegation is proportional to its. Population. But each slate no Metier How smart has iwo senators and so Small Stales Havo proportionately More electors than targe ones. And share is a Lurl Hor More serious source of. Distortion in 49 Stales and the District of Columbia. Which has three electors the winning presidential candidate takes All the electoral Voles,.whelher he wins the popular vote by a landslide or a single vote. Maine the one exception chooses two of its electors according to the stale vide Vole and the other two according to the vote in its two congressional districts the Winner takes All tradition favors the candidate who manages to capture he big cities that dominate the targe Industrial slates wills Thorr Hugo blocks of electoral votes. The electors of Ibsen  political parties. According to procedures that vary from   owe Are often Little known parly officials or fund Fai sars. After the election the victorious electors meet in their stale capitals on the first monday after the second wednesday in december dec. 19 this year to cast their official ballots. The ballots Are forwarded to Washington where the vice president opens and counts them on Jan. 6 in the presence of the members of the Senate and the House. Thus on next Jan. 6, vice president Bush will have the duty to proclaim either himself of his opponent As president elect of the United slates. If no candidate has a majority the House with each slate delegation casting a single vote chooses a president from the three loading candidates that has nol happened since 1824. When the House chose John Quincy Adams even though to lagged behind Andrew Jackson in both the popular Vota and the electoral Vole. The strange american system is rooted in the conviction of the 1767 constitutional convention Hal the american voters were of Reno ran to select a president on their own. When the convention delegates created the electoral College they assumed thallie electors would deliberate and choose the most qualified Man. In 1769, the first 69 electors unanimously selected George Washington As the first president of . The development of political parties however soon put an end to any idea that the electors would actually deliberate arid Maka a free Choice. The electors whether federalist whig democratic or Republican began to vote automatically Lor the presidential candidate of their party. But there never has been any constitutional requirement that they actually cast their ballots in this fashion. From Lime to time faithless  As they Are known ignore the popular will of their states and vote their consciences or whims. Most recently me Paiden a Republican elector Tram the state of Washington which went Lor Gerald Ford in 1976, Voled instead for Ronald Reagan Padden. Now 4vand a state legislator from Spokane said he voted Lor Reagan who had been Defeated by. Ford Lor the Republican  of Solidarity with his Strong position on  i was four years ahead of my time Paiden said. I met Reagan some years later and he said to me boy we sure gave pm a go in 76. It came so close " the Linal vote in the electoral College was Jimmy Carter. 297 Ford 240, and Reagan. 1, four years earlier Roger a Macbride a Republican elector from Virginia which was carried by Richard m. Nixon in 1972, Vot ocl instead Lor the libertarian parly candidate John Hospers in the electoral College. Where i lived said Macbride recently people loathed or. Nixon and they Toal hed or. Mcgovern oven More. I thought ii was time to Send a message to the while House. The message according to Macbride. Was that Nixon s Victory reflect cd objections to Mcgovern More than support Lor Nixon. To critics of the electoral College system its most worrisome aspect is the provision Hal sends elections. To the House of representatives when the. Electoral College fails to give any candidate a majority under that provision every stale whether is Large As California or As lightly populated As Wyoming has a single vote the delegations of Tho 26 smallest Stales. Representing Only 18 percent of the population could elect , -. Both presidents Nixon and Carter endorsed a v constitutional amendment thai would have abolished the electoral College in Lavor of direct popular election. Under the proposal if no candidate won 40 percent of the vote there would be a Runoff Between the two leading candidates.  the House approved the amendment in 1969, but. It has died several times in the sonata opposed by senators from Small Stales that did not want of give up their advantage in the electoral College. In any Case political scientist Keech says Thorois no guarantee that direct elections especially if they. Attracted Many candidates would guarantee fulfilment. Of the National will. A Liberal might be elected with 41. Percent of the veto for example if two conservatives divided the other 59 percent. Direct elections Keech said can be arbitrary and capricious As  monday november 1988. The stars and stripes Page 13