February 4, 2013
FIRST ELECTORAL COLLEGE CHOSE WASHINGTON 224 YEARS AGO
New York City (JFK+50) The members of the 1st College of Electors made George Washington of Virginia the 1st President of the United States 224 years ago today, February 4, 1789.
The George Washington University
Georgetown, D.C.
9-25-2011
Photo by John White
With each elector having 2 votes to cast, General Washington received 1 vote from every elector thus making his election unanimous.
The final tally was...
George Washington, Federalist 69
John Adams, Federalist 34
All others 35
Others receiving votes included...
John Jay, Federalist 9
John Rutledge, Federalist 6
John Hancock, Federalist 4
George Clinton, Anti-federalist 3
The electors, who were selected on January 7, 1789, met in their respective states as is required by the Constitution.
By the rules of that time, the runner-up became Vice-President. John Adams, thus, became Vice-President elect.
Adams matched Washington's vote total in only 2 states, Massachusetts & New Hampshire.
Electors from 11 states participated in the voting. Since North Carolina & Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution, those states were not represented but New York just did not send their electors.
SOURCE
"The Papers of George Washington," www.gwpapers.virginia.edu/
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE REVISITED
Knoxville, Tennessee (JFK+50) The Electoral College has been the subject of much controversy over the years. There are some, even today, who would argue that it should be abolished.
If the popular vote had been the sole means of determination of a winner, Tennessee's own Albert Gore, Jr. would have been the 43rd United States President, not George W. Bush.
So why did our Founding Fathers, who are rightly honored by their descendants today, establish the College in the first place?
According to William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director of the FEC Office of Election Administration, the Founding Fathers realized that the 13 states were "jealous of their own rights & powers and suspicious of any central...government."
It was also a factor that people of that day believed political parties to be "downright evil"* & that "gentlemen should not campaign for...office."
*This is partially true today as many Americans tend to believe their own political party is fine, it's just the other one that is 'downright evil.'
So it wasn't that the Founding Fathers thought the people were ignorant, but "feared without sufficient information...(they) would naturally vote for a 'favorite son' from their own...state."
In that case, the state with the larger populations would have a distinct advantage.
And the idea of the electoral college was not really new, it can be traced back to the days of the Roman Empire.
Accordingly, ARTICLE II, SECTION I of the United States Constitution sets up an Electoral College with the total number of electors from each state being the total of their number of US Senators + US Representatives.
It provides for a winner take all system where the candidate with the majority of the popular vote in a state receives ALL electoral votes of that state.
Further, each elector initially had 2 votes, 1 of which had to be for a candidate outside their own state.
There was no voting put in place for Vice-President, but the runner-up in the electoral vote would become VP.
The votes of the electoral college, meeting separately in each state, were sealed & delivered to the President of the Senate who was to open & read the results to a joint session of Congress.
The "first design," as Mr. Kimberling refers to it, of the Electoral College was in effect for the 1st 4 presidential elections.
In 1800, however, there was a TIE between Aaron Burr & Thomas Jefferson forcing the House of Representatives to determine the outcome.
The 12th Amendment** (1804) reduced the vote of each elector to ONE for President & ONE for Vice-President.
Mr. Kimberling tells us that "the fundamental workings of the Electoral College...have not (been) further altered since the 12th Amendment."
**Tennessee ratified the 12th Amendment a month after it became law of the land on June 15, 1804.
SOURCE
"The Electoral College," by William C. Kimberling, Deputy Director FEC Office of Election Administration, May 1992. www.fec.gov/pdf/eleccoll.pdf
FIRST LADY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY
Tuskegee, Alabama (JFK+50) Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, the 1st Lady of the Civil Rights Movement, was born here in Tuskegee, Alabama 100 years ago today, February 4, 1913.
Congressional Gold Medal
Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated public bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955.
Her arrest set off a bus boycott that led to desegregation of public transportation in the city.
Rosa Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, & a statue in the US Capitol's Statuary Hall.
Upon her death at the age of 92 in 2005, Rosa Parks became the 1st woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
