As we look forward today to Barack Obama's second inauguration (and fourth Oath of Office), let us hearken back to the day he was re-elected.
I refer, of course, to the Monday following the second Wednesday in December (in 2012, that was December 17). That's when all 538 Presidential and 538 Vice Presidential votes were cast. That's when 332 of those Electors -- a clear, solid majority of the electorate -- voted for the winning ticket, Obama and Biden. You may think you were voting for Obama/Biden or Romney/Ryan (or even for one of the other pairs on the ballot) on November 6, but you weren't. In truth, you were voting for slates of Electors, who are the only Americans who actually cast Presidential and Vice Presidential ballots.
You weren't an Elector, nor was I. I daresay, however, that I was a whole lot closer to matriculating at the Electoral College than any of our readers -- had Maria Ehsan, the Elector chosen at Washington's 7th Congressional District's Democratic caucus back in May, been unable to attend the Electoral College meeting in Olympia, yours truly (the Alternate Elector from WA-07) would have taken her place as one of Washington's 12 Electors.
So I was right there in the State Reception Room in Olympia's Legislative Building at noon on December 17, peering over the shoulders of the Electors as they cast their votes. I can affirm
Legislative Building, AKA Washington State Capital
that we had no
faithless Electors in the state of Washington in 2012, despite the ridiculous efforts of teahadists to get them to change their minds. Even I, a mere Alternate, received a letter from one of them; you may recall my December 15 diary about that letter,
I was asked to be faithless. In addition, you can read the letter itself (
page 1,
page 2).
The Electors -- and, I presume, Democratic Electors in all of the blue states -- were hit with both snail-mail and email. Everyone at the Washington Electoral College meeting, including the (Republican) Secretary of State, found the attempts to be little more than an amusing distraction.
Parenthetically, in its Presidential election history since 1892, Washington has seen one faithless Elector. In 1976, when Washington backed Jerry Ford over Jimmy Carter (who, of course, won nationally), Republican Elector Mike Padden wrote Ronald Reagan on his ballot. Reagan had narrowly lost to the incumbent President in the GOP primaries and convention, and apparently Padden was still upset about it.
And where is this renegade, this apostate, now? Why, he was just re-elected to the State Senate from the 4th LD near Spokane; this lawbreaker (RCW 29A.56.340 cites a $1000 fine for faithless Electors) currently chairs the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Then again, Republicans probably think he was a savant for tossing aside Ford to choose St. Ronnie four years early.
Below the orange squiggle, you'll find more of the story, and quite a few additional photos from the Electoral College. But first, here's confirmation that the Electors did indeed vote as their fellow Washingtonians wanted them to, for Barack Obama
and then for Joe Biden.
So what was it like to participate in this Constitutionally-mandated ceremony, this unique exercise of the American system of governance? To be honest, it was a rather dull event, carefully stage-managed by Secretary of State Sam Reed and his staff. They had a very strict protocol to follow, directed by the National Archives. Except for a couple of verbal slips:
- SoS Sam Reed -- "the United Nations, uh, I mean United States"
- presiding Elector Heather Fralick -- "12 votes have been cast for Joe Biden as President of the United States"
the really interesting stuff came before the Electoral College was convened and right at the very end of the event.
The Secretary of State's front door
The Electors and Alternates were invited to a reception in the Secretary of State's office before the ceremony. Parking spaces right in front of the Legislative Building were reserved ... but only for the 12 Electors. I had to pay to park, for which I received no reimbursement (it only cost me a few bucks). As I'll discuss later, we
were reimbursed for other things.
The interior of the Legislative Building was all dolled up for the holidays, with a large Christmas tree in the atrium directly under the building's dome (sorry, no good pictures) and a choir of middle school students carolling away. The executive offices are, as one would expect, quite ornate. The Secretary of State seemed quite proud of the mementos and historic bric-a-brac in his office, though with more than a little bit of wistfulness in his voice. Sam Reed didn't run for re-election to a fourth term in 2012, so I doubt he got to take the stuff he'd been living with for a dozen years home with him when he left. He made sure (several times) to introduce incoming Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the only Republican elected to a statewide office in the last election. A preliminary rollcall revealed that all but one Elector was in attendance. The missing one was from WA-07 (my Elector!), undoubtedly stuck in the same I-5 backup I'd recently crawled through. Sure enough, she arrived a few minutes later, relegating me to mere observer status.
Our namesake, whose nose probably wasn't this shiny
During the reception, I made sure to thank Sam, as he insisted he wished to be addressed, for the great work he did during our extended gubernatorial recounts and court challenges in 2004. Oldtimers here at the GOS will recall that I wrote a
whole lot of diaries in November and December 2004 about those recounts (I was, in a sense, the
WineRev of WA-Gov '04), during which I constantly applauded Sam for both his comprehensive website and his scrupulously fair handling of the process.
Prior to the official event, the Electors chose which of them would chair the Electoral College meeting. They had already discussed it among themselves via email, and one of the Electors had suggested making the purely ceremonial choice by drawing straws. He'd brought the materials for that procedure with him, but before the drawing started there came one of those quintessentially capital-d Democratic moments. One of the Electors objected, preferring a formal vote for the chair. To resolve that question, they held a vote on whether to conduct a vote or draw straws to choose the chair.
Electors voting on whether to require a vote for the meeting chair
By an 8-3 margin (the straw-bringer -- he's the fellow in the tan suit, counting raised hands -- abstained), they decided to draw straws after all. In the end, the lucky(?) winner of the drawing turned out to be at-large Elector Heather Fralick of Shoreline (adjoining Seattle to the north). She was quickly briefed on the ceremony's agenda by someone from the Secretary of State's office.
Chair Heather Fralick reviews the Electoral College curriculum
At noon, we all paraded up one floor from the SoS's office to the State Reception Room, a fancy, marble-paneled chamber. Awaiting the Electors were two long tables, one on each side of a lectern. Eventually, they all took their assigned seats for the event.
Electors at work
After a brief welcome by Governor Gregoire, the Electoral College got down to business. Which, in large part, consisted of signing their names to multiple copies of multiple documents -- attendance certificates, Presidential ballots, Vice Presidential ballots, certifications of accuracy, ... All those documents then went into large envelopes, ready to be sent on their merry way to the National Archives, the state archives, somewhere safe in case the others didn't arrive at their intended destinations, and (most importantly) the House of Representatives in the Other Washington. All in all, a solemn responsibility but not intrinsically exciting at all.
Electoral College certification that all the other certifications are correct
As the ceremony wound down, several of the Electors asked to make a few remarks to the assemblage. In an emotional talk, Alec Stephens (one of the two at-large Electors) noted with great pride that we had three African-Americans and one Native American among our dozen Electors. Stephens himself was one of the black Electors, as were Georgia Spencer of WA-09 and Harvey Brooks of WA-10. The Elector from WA-08, Elisabeth Satiacum, is a member of the Puyallup Tribe. If he'd had more time to reflect on it, Stephens might also have pointed out that Grifynn Clay, the Elector from WA-01, is just 18 years old ... and wasn't yet a legal voter in May, when he was selected by his Congressional District Caucus.
18-year-old Elector Grifynn Clay receiving a certificate from the SoS
Here are
all 12 Electors, along with Sam Reed, our now-former
camera-hog Secretary of State:
Washington's 2012 Electoral College (plus SoS Sam Reed)
The Electoral College may be an anachronism. It's certainly a unique feature of the American political process; no other country has anything remotely similar. And it's certainly an honor for the small number of citizens who serve as Electors. I'm proud that Washington's Electors (the Democrats, that is ... I don't know how the Republicans make their choices, and it hardly matters anyway) are chosen by their fellow citizens. Oh, to be sure, we're political activists one and all. We attended precinct caucuses, where we were elected to attend LD or county caucuses, where we were elected to attend Congressional District caucuses, where we were elected by CD caucus attendees. Or we were chosen by those activists who attended the Democratic state convention. But we're still regular people -- lawyers and students, retired and unemployed, entrepreneurs and union members.
In contrast, consider Massachusetts. The Democratic and Republican slates of 11 potential Electors are shown on the second page of the Commonwealth's Return of Votes document (PDF). I don't recognize the names of the Democrats, though there is one Kennedy -- probably not one of those Kennedys -- among them. But the Republicans are another story altogether. Among the Massachusetts not-Electors:
- Ann Romney (Mrs. Mitt)
- Tagg Romney (Mitt's son)
- Eric Fehrnstrom (Mitt's Etch-A-Sketch advisor)
- Beth Myers and Peter Flaherty (co-leaders with Fernstrom of GOP consultants The Shawmut Group)
- Spencer Zwick (Tagg Romney's business partner)
- Kerry Healey (Mitt's Lieutenant Governor)
That's not exactly "we, the people", not exactly the 47%.
I just happened to run across the MA slates while trying to locate county or municipality election results for the dKos Prez-by-CD project, and haven't reviewed (or even looked for) any others. Therefore, I don't know whether other states more closely resemble us or them.
Gail Kirk, Elector from WA-06, festooned
However, given that most states don't use the sort of multi-level caucus process we enjoy here, my guess is that more of them are like the Bay State than the Evergreen State. In any case, I seriously doubt that very many Electors in Massachusetts or any other state would have cast their ballots dressed like Gail Kirk of the 6th Congressional District. At 83 and wheelchair-bound, she's still feisty as all hell. And a hell of a Democrat. Gail was really the hit of the show, drawing much attention from her colleagues and the rest of the crowd. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and on her tee-shirt! Among the buttons and stickers on Gail's shirt, I see support for Senator Cantwell, newly-elected Congressman
Derek Kilmer (WA-06), and newly-elected State Senator
Jeannie Darneille (LD-27). She also sports a "Thanks, Norm!" button, for the Representative whose seat was passed along to Kilmer, Norm Dicks.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that you can watch Washington's Electoral College in action on TVW, the state's equivalent of C-SPAN. It runs a bit under 43 minutes. And, as promised earlier, I must also inform you that I was paid to be an Alternate Elector. As mandated by RCW 29A.56.350:
Every presidential elector who attends at the time and place appointed, and gives his or her vote for president and vice president, is entitled to receive from this state, five dollars for each day's attendance at the meeting of the college of electors, and ten cents per mile for travel by the usually traveled route in going to and returning from the place where the electors meet.
Although it isn't specifically stated, this law is applied to Alternate Electors as well ... a few days ago, I received a check ($18.36) from the State of Washington.
And finally, a photograph of Washington's Electors and (most of the) Alternate Electors. This shot is much clearer and better composed than the others (which were taken by yours truly, with a cheap camera) because it was taken by Andrew Villeneuve of the Northwest Progressive Institute. Thanks, Andrew!
Washington's Electoral College and Alternates, 2012
I know you're curious ... that's me kneeling, lower left.