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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2016)
28 Wednesday, November 23, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Electors follow the vote in their state School district will screen ‘Resilience’ By Bill Barrow Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Opponents of President-elect Donald Trump are trying to persuade Republican elec- tors to vote against him next month. A primer on the Electoral College and the roles of electors: What is the Electoral College? It’s the 538 Americans who actually elect the presi- dent. The number corresponds to the seats a state has in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, plus the three electoral votes allot- ted to Washington, D.C. The magic number is 270, the bare majority required to win the presidency. Electors meet in their state capitals to cast their bal- lots; this year, that will be on December 19. How can a candidate win the popular vote and not the Electoral College? The national popular vote simply doesn’t matter. Electoral votes are instead awarded based on state-by- state results. Essentially, the U.S. holds 50 separate popu- lar votes that determine an Electoral College vote count. How many times has a can- didate won the popular vote but lost the election? Hillary Clinton would be the fifth candidate in the nation’s history to fall into this dubious category. The others, according to the U.S. House: Andrew Jackson in 1824; Samuel Tilden in 1876; Grover Cleveland in 1888; and Al Gore in 2000. How did the college originate? The Electoral College is an original feature of the Constitution. Some framers wanted popular election of the commander in chief. Many others didn’t trust the masses. The Electoral College was a compromise. Pegging a state’s electoral vote count to the size of its congressional delega- tion was a negotiated design, giving small states more influ- ence proportionally than large states. The same urban vs. rural, small state vs. large state battle is what explains the makeup of the U.S. Senate, where every state has two members. Do electors have to vote the way their state voted? The Constitution is silent on this point, which suggests electors can go their own way. This is certainly the thinking behind petitions and a hand- ful of Clinton electors urging Republican electors to aban- don Trump. In 29 states, there are either statutes or party rules that theoretically bind electors to honor state results. But the penalty for becoming a “faith- less elector” is typically a fine measured in the hundreds of dollars. The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled explic- itly on those state laws and party rules, and some con- stitutional scholars say such state restrictions would be struck down were they ever challenged. Have there been “faithless electors” before? The National Archives says that throughout the nation’s history more than 99 percent of electors have voted as pledged. According to research by FairVote.org, a nonprofit group that advocates national popular vote elections for president, there have been just 157 “faithless electors.” That represents less than 1 percent of the total electoral votes cast in the nation’s history. Only a handful of those have been in the modern era. The last publicly identified faithless elector was Barbara Lett-Simmons of Washington, D.C., in 2000. A Gore elector, Lett- Simmons abstained as a public protest for her home city hav- ing no voting representation in Congress. According to news reporters, Lett-Simmons sought, and received, Gore’s permission for her act of defiance. What happens if no can- didate receives the 270-vote majority? Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives decides, with each state del- egation casting a single vote for one of the top three vote- getters. Republicans control a majority of state delegations, so this route still benefits Trump. The House has decided a presidential election only twice, in 1800 and 1824. Sisters School District will host a screening of “Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope.” It’s a film that chronicles the beginnings of a national movement to pre- vent childhood trauma, treat childhood toxic stress, and improve the health of future generations. The documentary directed by James Redford and Executive Produced by Karen Pritzker and Regina Scully will be shown at the Sisters High School audito- rium on Thursday, December 1, at 6:30 p.m. This is a free event open to the public (film not recommended for younger audiences). Doors will open at 6 p.m. There will be light refreshments along with available resources and information from local service agencies. The one-hour docu- mentary digs into the sci- ence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and how to treat and prevent toxic stress. It is now under- stood that ACEs are the cause of everything from heart disease, cancer, sub- stance abuse, depression and more. ACEs trigger hormones that wreak havoc on the brains and bodies of children, causing lifelong effects on health and behav- ior. The film will address how to break the cycles of adversity and disease through research from physicians and educators. For more information on the film visit http://kpjrfilms. co/resilience/about-the- film/. g n i s i t r e Adv t e g g u N e h in T Works! “ “Sisters Feed & Supply has been using the Sisters Saver b c coupon in Th e Nugget for several years. We fi nd we have Happy Thanksgiving We at Miller Irrigation would like to give our warmest thanks to the city of Sisters and its residents for welcoming us into their beautiful town and choosing us as their irrigation provider. We hope to see you next season! I R R I G A T I O N 541-388-0190 LCB#8234 Book your catering for the holidays this week and get 20% OFF! month. It is a great way to say thank you to our customers and an a eff ective way to reach new ON COUPON • COUPON • COUP x x 2-fo x r-1 Dinner Specials! x n. Thurs. x - 11/2 Su 9/16) (Good through 541-549-6118 FivePine Campus www.riosisters.com x miller more coupons come in every customers. Both local folks and visitors seem to enjoy using it.” — Fred McCaulou, Owner, Sisters Feed & Supply Advertising in Th e Nugget works! Call 541-549-9941 today! Sisters Feed & Supply is a regular advertiser in The Nugget’s Sisters Saver coupon page.
