Structure, History, and Culture (6a)—Electoral College Politics

One year ago on Round and Square (3 November 2011)—Middles: Middle Management
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Structure, History, and Culture"
This is the first post in a three-part series on the American Electoral College. Click below for the others.

Electoral 1               Electoral 2               Electoral 3               Electoral 4

[a] Ancient RF

This is one post in a multi-part series on the American Electoral College. Click below for the others.

Electoral 1       Electoral 2        Electoral 3        Vote!                 Clearing        Electoral 4        Electoral 5          
Electoral 6       Electoral 7        Electoral 8        Electoral 9        Electoral 10   Electoral 11      Electoral 12
Electoral 13     Electoral 14 

Wow. Did you see all of those polls? Boatloads of them, really. We have state polls and national polls, tracking polls, and flash polls. Some people become absolutely giddy when they check Real Clear Politics and see their candidate up, somewhere, by five percent. They do a little poll dance and have a bit of skip in their steps...for thirty minutes or so. Then they start worrying again. By the top of the hour, they check the website once more, for good measure.

Worry, log on, check, (swoon/startle); worry, log-on, check, (emote)...repeat as necessary.

And it is always necessary. 

This will all end in just a few days, and many of us will wander about, win or lose, aimlessly groping for ways to put our schedules back together. It is hard to imagine what life might be like without 20-50 checks of RCP every day. You will recover; I am sure of it. It will just take a little bit of time.

[b] Electors

I am here to help. Let's take some of that swirling emotional tension (manufactured by your brain's limbic system, and pretty much bypassing your frontal lobe) and steer it toward an election topic. We are going to take the next few posts to consider the structural, historical, and cultural implications (not to mention a few political and economic ones) of an odd little corner of the United States Constitution. It seems innocuous at first. It's all there in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the big ol' founding document I carry with me at all times (as much to defeat zealots as for reference).

  The whole thing is based on a number—five hundred and thirty-eight. We'll get to that...tomorrow.

It's all structure, history, and culture, and it changes everything. I mean everything. In the popular imagination, voting works something like this: Joey and Suzy run for classroom president. All of the fourth-graders put their heads on their desks, the teacher calls out "votes for Joey"...and then "votes for Suzy." She counts them up, and it is twenty-one for Suzy and nine for Joey. Suzy has a majority—well over two-thirds of the vote. 

Suzy wins, and we shall call it "landslide."

But wait. What if the rules did not give priority to something as ephemeral as majority? What if the election was organized by something deeper, such as...hair color? That is the structural organization of this particular election, and Suzy's majority is not relevant unless she can win the hair vote. Let's consider the situation again. Suzy's 21-9 majority is just an asterisk* now.

Eleven students have blonde hair, nine have brown hair, seven have black hair, and three have red hair. The election is weighted in the following way.

Brown hair (eleven) students plus two "bonus" = 13 points):       Suzy 11—Joey 0        Suzy gets 13 points
Black hair (nine students plus two "bonus") = 11 points:             Joey 5—Suzy 4          Joey gets 11 points
Blonde hair (seven students plus two "bonus") = 9 points:          Joey 4—Suzy 3          Joey gets 9 points
Red hair (three students plus two "bonus") = 5 points:                Suzy 3—Joey 0          Suzy gets 5 points    

[c] Three! RF

Suzy sweeps the brown and red blocs (14-0). Joey barely slithers by with black and blonde, winning each by one vote.  Suzy has had the dominant performance, by far.

Joey wins.

Although Suzy has a clear majority of the votes, Joey's strategic coalition of hair colors combines with a distinctive electoral structure to tip the scales in his direction. Joey's operatives focused their efforts on winning the black and blonde hair vote, leaving the browns and reds to Suzy (not even contesting them). Joey's hard work won him narrow victories with two of the four hair colors. One vote differences in each category give him the overall victory.

Joey is the class president under this system.

Welcome to College.  
Welcome to the United States of America.

In the big picture, on Tuesday, one American presidential candidate will crest the 270 "point" barrier," and he (in the future, I hope to be able to write "s/he") will become president of the United States for the term that runs from noon on 20 January 2013 until noon on 20 January 2017. Cue "Hail to the Chief," and bring in the person who won the most votes, right? Isn't democracy wonderful?

Ask one Al Gore about that one. Then ask Samuel Tilden and Grover Cleveland. How can the "winner" be someone who receives fewer votes than the loser? Isn't that the height of insanity?

Maybe. But I call it...structure, history, and culture.

That is where this is going. You see, competitions of all kinds are structured. The NFL team that has possession of the ball for two-thirds of the game does not have any special claim to "victory" if it has fewer points than its opponent. Maybe the San Diego Chargers were pummeled in almost every phase of the game, but just happened to score four touchdowns on punt returns, turnovers, and fumbles. Maybe the Dallas Cowboys dominated the action and controlled the ball for forty-three of the game's sixty minutes (43-17). They still lose, though, since they only happened to score twenty-four points according to the game's rules. Like Suzy, they dominated—crushed their opponent, really. Still, the next day's newspaper will read "Chargers Edge Cowboys 28-24" (or Joey Nips Suzy 20-18).

[d] Schooled RF

Tough luck. The Chargers negotiated the structure (total points) more effectively than the Cowboys did (total minutes). Cry me a (Philip) River(s). They won. They negotiated the structure most effectively.

Huh? What does that mean? Negotiated the what? What the structure most effectively?

Huh?

Take some time. Go back and read the introduction to the series. Maybe it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the other topics in the series, too (packing the car, the NCAA tournament brackets, and so forth). There, I make the point that human beings are structure negotiating animals. This is the heart of everything I have to say here. Want more? Our negotiations of "structures" (again, read the introduction if this sounds confusing) are the very heart of our creativity. Want the bombshell? Here it is. Human beings are creative precisely because they negotiate thousands (if not many tens and hundreds of thousands) of structures every day—from brushing their teeth, shaving, and applying make-up to writing memos and sonnets, driving the speed limit (or a little beyond it), and negotiating nuclear treaties. 

We are structure-negotiating animals.

And on that note...I'll see you tomorrow. We have barely scratched the (structural) surface.

This is one post in a multi-part series on the American Electoral College. Click below for the others.

Electoral 1       Electoral 2        Electoral 3        Vote!                 Clearing        Electoral 4        Electoral 5          
Electoral 6       Electoral 7        Electoral 8        Electoral 9        Electoral 10   Electoral 11      Electoral 12
Electoral 13     Electoral 14

[e] 2000 Angst