Debate persists over Electoral College system
By Robert Tanner
The Associated Press
More than a third of this year’s
Democratic presidential electors
say they want to re-examine or
scrap the Electoral College that
takes the final vote on the next per
son in the White House, while few
er than 1 in 10 Republicans think
the nation should even consider
tinkering with the system, an AP
survey found.
The partisan breakdown is not
surprising, given that the Democra
tic candidate, Al Gore, may lose the
presidency while winning the pop
ular vote. Republican George W.
Bush, if declared the victor in Flori
da, would win the crucial electoral
vote.
The Associated Press inter
viewed 342 electors, or nearly two
thirds of the 538-member Electoral
College.
“It’s silly,” said Gore elector Lana
Boldi, a political coordinator for
United Auto Workers in Michigan.
“We're 200 years or more past
when we really need that safe
guard. I think the average voter is
intelligent enough to cast a popular
vote.”
“It’s a well thought-out system, j
believe it's just as valid today as it’s
ever been,” said Bush elector W.R.
Timken Jr. of Ohio, a manufactur
ing executive who was also an elec
tor for Bush’s father in 1988. “If it
was pure popular vote, the election
would be all about the biggest cities
and biggest states, and the rest of
the country would be forgotten.”
Ninety-four Democratic electors,
or 35 percent of the 267 Gore elec
tors certified so far, wanted either
reform or debate on the future of
the Electoral College. Of 161 Demo
cratic electors reached by the AP,
that comes to 58 percent. Twentv
five of that group wanted to abolish
the system entirely; 27 wanted to
reform it. Just under a third, or 52,
said keep it the way it is. Fifteen
would not comment or had no
opinion.
Republican electors, on the other
hand, clearly stood on the other
side of that argument. Of 181 Bush
electors, only 14 had any doubts at
all; only one of those suggested
abolishing the system. A full 73
percent said the system works fine.
Thirty-five electors had no com
ment or offered no opinion.
“We do not live in a democracy.
It’s a representative republic,” said
South Carolina elector Danny
Faulkner, a college physics profes
sor.
One thing’s for sure — there are
no swing voters here.
The presidential campaign was
defined by the undecided political
center. This post-election campaign
is in the land of the partisan patri
ot, the unswerving.
Electors of both parties scoffed at
even the notion of breaking their
pledge to their candidate. Some De
mocrats, including nine Democrat
ic electors, suggested Republicans
should switch to Gore in light of al
legations of voter irregularities in
Florida. Not one Republican said
they would consider it.
“Not if you had a gun to my
head,” said Marcy Benson, a Col
orado elector for Bush. The idea of
switching gets the same response
from Gore electors: “Not unless I
was psychotic,” said Sala Udin of
Pennsylvania.
Partisan passions are expected —
electors get picked by their respec
tive parties. Voters at the polls,
though the ballot said Bush or
Gore, were actually voting for slates
of electors pledged to those candi
dates. The electors who win vote
Dec. 18.
Student leaders resign positions to focus on school
■ Barely avoiding hearings
for impeachment, two ASUO
student senators recently
submitted their resignations
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
After a month of missed meetings
and office hours, two ASUO stu
dent senators finally resigned from
their positions, narrowly avoiding
what could have been a lengthy im
peachment process.
Former senators Jessica Burmas
ter and Kristin Dean stopped at
tending meetings about a month
ago, Senate President Peter Watts
said. They also failed to show up for
their weekly office hours.
For two weeks, Watts and Sen
ate Ombudsman Skye Tenney
tried to contact Dean and Burmas
ter, but there was no response.
“They’ve been almost impossi
ble to reach,” Watts said.
Last Wednesday, Tenney cen
sured both senators, suggesting
punishments for their failure to at
tend the meetings and office hours.
She said that Dean and Burmaster
should be removed from their po
sitions and their monthly stipends
should be suspended.
Dean and Burmaster submitted
their letters of resignation the next
day.
“I took on way too much this
term ... and I just didn’t have the
time for it — time or energy, real
ly,” Burmaster said.
Dean said she resigned due to a
change in major from business to
computer information science.
“My grades were really going
down the tube,” she said.
If the senators had not submitted
resignations by the next meeting,
the Senate would have had to con
duct a hearing for each one.
Senate impeachment hearings
require a minimum of 30 minutes
of argument each from the senator
being tried and the ombudsman
who lodged the complaint, not to
mention time for both rebuttals
and closing remarks.
Even if neither Dean nor Burmas
ter had appeared at their respective
hearings, the Senate would have
still let the clock run for the allotted
The ASUO Student Senate will not
meet this Wednesday because of
Thanksgiving break. It will meet
again 7 p.m. Nov. 29.
Meetings are every Wednesday at 7
p.m. in the EMU Board Room on the
third floor of the EMU. They are
open to the public.
time in accordance with ASUO
rules.
“A trial would’ve been extreme
ly unpleasant for all parties in
volved,” Watts said.
Election
continued from page 1
With recounts under way in two
Democratic-leaning counties and a
third set to begin, Gore had a net
gain of 78 votes, which if allowed
would cut Bush’s lead to 852. On
Sunday, both sides objected to
county vote-counting procedures.
Gore narrowly won the national
popular vote and holds a slight edge
over Bush in the all-important Elec
toral College tally, though neither
man can reach the required total of
270 electoral votes without Flori
da’s 25.
The Texas governor spent the day
with his family in Austin, Texas. In
church, the pastor said, “We contin
ue our prayers for the political
jirocess in this country ... May your
patience be their patience.”
Gore canceled plans to attend a
long-scheduled conference in Ten
nessee, the home state that deserted
him for Bush on Election Day.
About 100 pro-Bush protesters
packed the sidewalks across from
his official residence in Washing
ton. “We want Bush!” they shouted.
The identity of America’s 43rd
president rests with the courts and
in the ballot-counting rooms of
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami
Dade counties, where more than 1.5
million ballots were cast, a majority
from Democrats.
“It seems to be that they’re doing
everything they can to stop the re
counting of votes because they’re
slightly ahead and they fear that af
ter the recounting they won’t be,”
said Democratic vice presidential
candidate Joseph Lieberman, who
conducted a rare tour of all five ma
jor news shows Sunday.
Bush’s camp continued its as
sault on the Gore-backed recounts,
depicting the process as riddled
with human error and Democratic
bias. Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, a
GOP ally in Austin to help Bush,
said Gore is trying to change ballot
checking rules in south Florida to
pad his vote totals.
“To reverse the results of this
election, Al Gore supporters are less
interested in accuracy and more in
terested in changing the rules to
generate votes they need to win,”
Racicot said at a campaign news
conference.
Gore’s advisers were frustrated
Sunday by small recount gains, par
ticularly in Palm Beach County,
where the election tempest first be
gan when Democratic voters com
plained of a confusing ballot.
The vice president’s team ac
cused the local elections board of
imposing a too-strict standard for
approving ballots.
A senior Gore aide speaking on
condition of anonymity said the
vice president will have a difficult
time overtaking Bush unless Palm
Beach eases its threshold for accept
ing ballots.
In Broward County, Gore’s count
by midday Sunday showed a net
gain of 90. More than half the 609
precincts remain to be counted. Re
publicans accused the elections
board of bowing to political pres
sure and reversing a decision to
throw out ballots that did not have
two corners poked out of the “chad”
— the tiny pieces of paper in a
punch-card ballot.
“The Gore campaign now wants
to lower the bar because it needs
more votes,” said Ed Pozzuoli,
chairman of the county GOP.
Democrats said the ruling allows
voters’ intentions to be noied.
“These chad marks didn’t get on the
ballot by osmosis,” said Democratic
attorney Charles Lichtman.
Miami-Dade County began me
chanically sorting ballots by ma
chine in preparation for a hand
count. Bush’s attorneys protested
the action, saying it would alter the
delicate ballots, but a circuit judge
gave the go-ahead.
There was conflict in the overseas
count, too, as the GOP charged De
mocrats with systematically chal
lenging votes cast by members of
the armed forces.
President Clinton, wrapping up a
trip to Vietnam, told CNN the nation
doesn’t need “all this hand wring
ing” and added: “Everybody ought
to just relax and let the process play
out.”
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So...What Are You
Going To Do With Your
Psychology Degree?
Peer Advising Seminar
Tuesday Nov. 21
7- 8:30 pm
Straub 146
Guest Speakers:
• Counselor
Lawyer
• Cognitive
Professor
• School
Psychologist
• Master of
Social Work