Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-23
PUBLIC CHOICE MAY LOSE
In ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Votes of Nearly Half of Citizens Are
Thrown Into Discard by Application
of Unjust unit Rule

| The counting of the electoral vote has
always been a source of grave trouble
The twelfth amendment, after directing
| the Vice President to open the ballots in
| the presence of the Senate and House
says land the votes shall then be
counted" The meaning of these four
| words always has been in doubt, because
it is not made clear as to who shall dc
| the counting, and therefore who shall
determine what votes shall be counted
| in case there is a question as to then
| regularity or correctness.
This doubt came very near leading to
serious consequences in 1877 in the
HaveS-Tilden controversy.
Congress. by concurrent orders, joint
rules or by law, asserted the right to
count the vote in its own way until
1873 at 81 successive presidential cleo
lions. The President of the Senate
performed the constitutional duty of
opening the electoral votes, but never
in single instance since Washington S
first election, as has been previously
stated attempted to go a step further.
From 1901 until the Hayes-Tilden cleo
ton II cases of disputes over the cleo
toral votes and 81 objections had been
made to the votes of various States,
eliminating in the great contest for the
presidency in 1876.
Tilden POlIed Majority.
Tilden polled 100000 more popular
votes than Hayes The earliest returns
indicated Tilden had 1874 electoral votes
out of a total of 369. Uncertainty
grew out of the elections in Louisiana,
South Carolina and Florida. Hayes
claimed he had secured these votes,
making his total 1876. The vote of Ore
gon was also in dispute on the ground
that one of the electors was Federal
officeholder. The people we're in strife.
There was turmoil at the Capitol. Civil
strife seemed inevitable. The Senate
was Republican and the House Demo-
cratic. The right Of the Republican
President of the Senate to count the
vote was challenged. The two houses
were in deadlock.
A Joint committee was authorized to
bring in bill creating tribunal whose
authority none could question and
whose decision all would accept as
final. This resulted in the creation of
the famous electoral commission, con-
sisting of five members of each house
and five Supreme Court justices. This
commission reported on each case in
dispute, resulting in Hayes being de-
clared elected by one majority. To
effect this Congress had to deliberately
tie their own hands by resorting to a
commission Of constitutional
origin.
Here we have seen that our electoral
system is far from perfect and has in
certain cases led closely to civil strife
and has, in fact, repudiated twice the
expressed will of the voters. Though
the present presidential contest is wax
ing warm and is likely to get still hotter,
it is the general hope and belief that
nothing as serious will happen as in
these cases just cited.
What Might Happen.
Yet, If the election is close-Say as
close as in 1916, when the shifting OF
IL of California'S Is electoral votes
would have made Charles E. Hughes
President-any one with pencil and
disposition to forecast can study the
probable unit vote of the 10 States men
toned above and see that the change IN
representation under reapportionment
might easily decide the issue as to who
is to be the next President.
With the House held to its present
size of ABS, under eapportionment the
States that would gain votes in the
electoral college would be California, 8;
Michigan, 2; Ohio, O. Connecticut, l;
New Jersey, l.; North Carolina, l;
Texas, l, and Washington, /. The
States that would lose would be Mis-
souri,, 2; Indiana, 1; Iowa, l; Kansas, l;
Kentucky, /; Louisiana, /; Maine. !;
Mississippi, L. Nebraska, /; Rhode
Island, /; Vermont, /.
It is interesting to speculate as to
what the Supreme Court would say If
Michigan, for instance, demands that
it be given two additional votes in the
electoral college and that Missouri lose
two, or if North Carolina or Texas de-
mands its additional vote and Maine or
Vermont would be called upon to give
up correspondingly.
Leaders of both parties give encour-
agement that when the party fear Is
over after election that something will
be done to give the people of the States
the equal representation to which they
are entitled, but of which they have
been deprived by failure of Congress to
reapportion, and that the electoral Sys-
tenn, known for years to be faulty, may
be corrected.