Being an Elector: Part Two

[Music]

TEXT ON SCREEN:
The Electoral College meets to vote
Florida State Capitol, 2016

NICK DICEGLIE, Chairman, Pinellas County Republican Party; Florida Elector 2016:
The good thing about the Electoral College: if we elected our president by popular vote, we
would have states like California and New York essentially deciding who the president of the
United States would be.

JEREMY EVANS, State Committeeman, Escambia County; Florida Elector 2016:

If you were to do a popular vote, presidential candidates wouldn’t leave California, Texas, New
York, Florida, Illinois—because that’s where the most Americans live.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
California population: 33,872,000
Percentage of total U.S. population: over 12 percent

JEREMY EVANS:
I didn’t realize how large California was until I was really looking at the Electoral College
numbers—they’re almost twice as big as any other state in the union. Presidential candidates
would spend almost all their time in California, because that’s where the most people are.

NICK DICEGLIE:
So, the question is, what happens to those folks who live in Montana, who live in Iowa, who live
in these smaller states—how would their voices be heard if big states like California and New
York ultimately decided the national election?

JEREMY EVANS:
The week of this election, there was some talk that New Hampshire’s four Electoral College
votes could be the deciding four votes in the election. That wouldn’t happen in a popular vote.
Nobody would be focused on New Hampshire.

NICK DICEGLIE:
That’s why it’s just so brilliant that the Founders came up with the Electoral College so that
everybody has representation; everybody has a voice.

JEREMY EVANS:
And so, I think that the Electoral College is good because it requires presidential candidates to
really run a full state strategy, a full nation strategy. They’ve got to be able to pull Electoral
College votes from each of the 50 states as opposed to just pulling people out of the four or five
most populous states.

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NICK DICEGLIE:
And that’s the beauty of our country, and that’s the beauty of the Electoral College. There’s been
so much talk about, well, we need to vote popular vote, and things like that, and again, that just
doesn’t work with the makeup of this great country. [1:57]

CHRISTIAN ZIEGLER, State Committeeman, Sarasota County; Florida Elector 2016:

If you look at the list of all the electors, they’re typically either party leaders, or they’re big
donors to the Republican Party, or they’re Republican elected officials in the state. So, every
name on that list, they’re pretty well-known Republican activists and Republican leaders. I even
think congressmen and senators are not allowed to serve, which is nice, because it puts the power
of the government in the hands of the people, and that’s exactly what we’re doing as Electoral
College members.

JEREMY EVANS:
So, I brought with me today—this is Thursday’s mail. [Holds up a stack of letters] This is the
mail that I got in one day, last Thursday.

CLINT PATE, Chairman, Jackson County Republican Party; Florida Elector 2016:
Friday and Saturday, I got over 1,000 letters. And emails—I’ve got stuff coming to my county
office, my county cell phone, Facebook, Twitter—everywhere they can contact us.

JEREMY EVANS:
You read these and you appreciate how wonderful our system of government is—that when we
have these conflicts, people sit down to write a letter. It really is with a pen and a conversation.

CLINT PATE:
I had one lady say, “Well, if you’re an electoral voter, and you’re going to be selecting the
president, why should I vote? My vote don’t count.” Well, that’s wrong, because whoever wins
the state popular vote, they get the electoral votes. So, it does matter.

JEREMY EVANS:
I think it’s really heartening to see so many Americans decide that they’re going to participate in
the process. And they understand that I’m probably not going to change my vote, but they just
wanted to be able to say, “I participated in the process. I let my voice be heard.” And I think that
that’s something we should all aim for as citizens of the country.

TEXT ON SCREEN:
On December 19, 2016, the State of Florida cast 29 electoral votes for Donald Trump

JEREMY EVANS:
[Holds up stack of letters] And so, this is what being an elector looks like.

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