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Md. electors vote in a ritual impressive but anticlimactic
Loyal Democrats cast all of their 10 ballots for Gore, Lieberman
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With all the suspense of a television rerun, Al Gore and Joseph I. Lieberman carried Maryland again yesterday but lost nationwide by a razor-thin margin in the only election that really counts.
That obscure political institution known as the Electoral College met at the State House in Annapolis and in state capitals across the country to officially choose the next president and vice president.
Taking part in a history-drenched ritual that some contend has outlived its usefulness, Maryland's 10 electors - loyal Democrats all - went unanimously for Gore and Lieberman, as expected. Before a roomful of onlookers and television cameras, they duly recorded their votes orally and then in writing.
The state tallies are to be sent to Washington, where Congress will certify the winner next month.
The only surprise was the news coverage given to the electors' meetings in Maryland and elsewhere. The overall outcome - a narrow victory for Republicans George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - had been virtually preordained since the U.S. Supreme Court last week ended a legal battle over Florida's disputed vote count.
It was a bittersweet occasion for Maryland state Sen. Thomas V. Mike Miller, serving for the first time as an elector and chosen by the state group as its president.
"We know who won the popular vote," said Miller, referring to Gore's 300,000-vote lead nationally.
"Being able to vote again for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman relieves some of the pain, some of the sting that we feel, and will continue to feel for a long time," he said.
The media attention - and the Democrats' chagrin - stemmed from the fact that for the first time in 112 years, the winner of the popular vote failed to carry enough states to become president under the Electoral College process spelled out in the Constitution.
It is a process that Maryland apparently helped establish more than two centuries ago. The state once chose its senators through an electoral college, a practice the Founding Fathers took note of while debating and drafting the Constitution in the 1780s, said Maryland Secretary of State John T. Willis.
Willis, author of a book on presidential elections in Maryland, noted that under the Constitution voters are actually choosing electors, not a president, when they cast their ballots every four years.
Each political party with a candidate for the White House chooses a slate of electors. In Maryland, the popular vote winner gets all 10 of the state's Electoral College positions for his slate.
The electors theoretically are free to vote for any candidate they wish, but since they are chosen by party leaders, few have defected.
Three of Maryland's electors are Democratic legislators - Miller, Baltimore Sen. Clarence W. Blount and Anne Arundel Del. Mary Ann Love. Gregory Pecoraro, the delegation's secretary, is a Westminster councilman and state employee - assistant transportation secretary. Others are party leaders or activists.
Being chosen is a political plum, but electors get no compensation, other than a ceremonial pen and pewter cup from the governor.
"You can't describe how proud you are," said Ina Taylor of Bel Air, who was sporting blue Gore-Lieberman campaign buttons as earrings. "But it would be a whole lot better if we were winning."
Many electors said they were as mystified at first about their duties as is the general public.
"John Willis called and said, 'The governor would like you to be an elector,' " said Love, who has been in the General Assembly for seven years. "I said, 'Oh, gosh, what do I do?' So I ran to the encyclopedia."
Love wasn't the only one who became a quick study on the Electoral College. Amid the crowd of politicians, family and friends observing yesterday's ritual were eight students from Anne Arundel's Broadneck Senior High School, accompanied by history teacher Laurence Block.
"Actually taking them to the State House and showing them how electors cast votes impresses upon them how the system works," explained Block, who said he has been taking students to the quadrennial event since 1976.
Junior Eric Schmitt was unimpressed.
"I think it goes against the whole American ideal of one-man, one-vote," said the 16-year-old from Annapolis.
Senior Merrian Brooks said the past month's contention over who won the White House showed her "a lot of problems" with the country's system of elections. But it sparked her interest in getting involved, she said, adding, "Mistakes have to be made for changes to occur."
Though many Democrats question the value of the Electoral College, Willis said he doubts there is enough public support to abolish it. The status quo gives political power to smaller, less populous states unlikely to go along with a constitutional change.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who certified the state's electoral votes yesterday, took a similarly philosophical view.
Yesterday's meeting was "a celebration of the strength and endurance of our democracy," said the former University of Maryland political science professor.
"Our system is not perfect, as we all know," Glendening said. "But the fact is there was no call to arms, no call to the barricades."
He suggested that the drawn-out struggle between Gore and Bush had been a teachable moment for a nation largely ignorant of how its electoral system really works.
"The last few weeks have taught more Americans about the Electoral College
and about the electoral process than all the political science teachers
ever could," the governor said.
The Archives of Maryland Documents for the Classroom series of the Maryland State Archives was designed and developed by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse and Dr. M. Mercer Neale. This packet was prepared with the assistance of Kathy Beard, Nancy Bramucci, Jim Dowdy, Roger Kizer Ball, Greg Lepore, Lynne MacAdam, John Maranto, Ryan Polk, Julie Price, R. J. Rockefeller, Emily Oland Squires, and other members of the Archives staff. MSA SC 2221-31. Publication no. 2090.
For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Papenfuse at edp@mdarchives.state.md.us or phone MD toll free 800-235-4045 or 410-260-6401
© Copyright January 2001 Maryland State Archives.
