Mark Small

Indiana, like most States, requires elector named by political party must take oath s/he will vote for party’s Pres/VP. Ind. Code § 3-10-4-1.7. Indiana apportions its 11 electors by “winner-take-all”: winner of plurality of popular vote gets all 11 electors’ votes. 11/25

There is no indication the Framers intended the electors to vote as a “block”—or “winner take all”—committed or locked to a single candidate, a concept antithetical to concept of Framers, esp if “lock” is tied in any way to political parties or “factions.” 12/25

Early Pres/VP elections didnt employ winner-take-all 1788 & 1792 were 1st elections 4 Pres/VP under Const 1788: legislatures of CT, NJ, DE, SC & GA appointed electors. Peirce and Longley, “The People’s President,” 1981 ed., p. 33. 13/25

1788: NY missed day for voting & its electors were not chosen. RI & NC hadnt yet ratified Constitution & didnt participate. MD & VA chose electors by popular vote on a district-by-district basis. Id. 14/25

1788: PA & NH chose electors by statewide popular vote. MA chose electors by popular vote district-by-district, and the legislature appointed two electors at-large. Id. 15/25

1792 all 13 of the original States plus newly-admitted Vermont and Kentucky were able to vote. Pennsylvania, and Maryland cast popular votes for President. 16/25

1800: exposed flaws in Art II of Constitution. Thomas Jefferson ran for Pres w/Aaron Burr as VP. Because of a quirk, electors could not distinguish between votes for president and vice president and so Jefferson and Burr tied in number of electoral votes. 17/25

This threw vote 2 House of Representatives, where Federalists blocked majority necessary 4 Jefferson’s selection: 6 days & 36 ballots. Even tho everyone acknowledged voters intended to choose Jefferson Pres. Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 207. 18/25

As consequence of this kerfuffle, Amend XII to Const was drafted/ratified Winner-take-all wasnt est’d as predominant means of apportioning electors until after 1824, when winner of pop vote - slave-holding genocidal populist Jackson - won pop vote but House elected JQ Adams 19/25

At no time - let me repeat, just to be clear: at no time - was the idea that a minority SHOULD choose the President. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 68, the system of electors was created to afford ... 20/25

moral certainty that POTUS never fall to any man not endowed w/requisite qual’s POTUS requires other talents & different kind of merit, necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. 21/25

The “winner-take-all” system effectively disenfranchises those who vote for the other ticket or tickets. The way in which the system of electors has developed effectively disenfranchised the people who voted for the actual winner of the 2016 election. 22/25

We need to protect our voting system to ensure that, in the future, a mentally defective, incompetent, corrupt individual who is a puppet for a hostile foreign power cannot occupy the Oval Office. 23/25

We need to ensure the majority isnt disenfranchised. Of course Const’n was written by wealthy white, male landowners, when black ppl were sold as chattel, women couldnt vote & indigenous ppl were slaughtered to make way for white settlement to the west. 24/25