Monday morning was McHenry County Democratic Party Chairwoman Kristina Zahorik’s first time casting her vote as an Electoral College member in the state of Illinois, which cast all of its votes for President-elect Joe Biden.
This year, however; Trump's refusal to concede the election and his baseless rallying cries of voter fraud have led some states to take extra precautions to ensure the safety of their electors. Even in Illinois where Zahorik called the vote "uneventful," she said she could feel the weight of the moment.
“Today’s vote taken throughout the country will be the final chapter in this kind of nonsense swirling of misleading lies and misdirection about whether or not President-elect Biden is the legitimate president,” Zahorik said in an interview Monday.
“While this is a formality, this year certainly it is a necessary formality that I hope ends that kind of rhetoric,” she said. “The people have spoken.”
This year’s election cycle has been “abnormal in every way,” said McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio, the county’s chief election official.
“If there are people who are threatening electors, if there are people who are threatening the election, they should be dealt with in the most severe terms,” Tirio said. “We shouldn’t threaten anybody, whether they be part of the Electoral College or your next-door neighbor, about how they vote.”
Zahorik, who also serves as the area’s senior state central committeeperson, represented the 14th Congressional District within the Electoral College. She was picked by party officials to serve as the area’s delegate.
The U.S. Electoral College is made up of 538 electors, and presidential candidates must win a majority of 270 Electoral College votes in order to be declared the winner. The unofficial winner can be declared before Electoral College votes are actually cast, as most electors are required to cast their votes for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.
This election cycle, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris won the election with 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232.
The Electoral College has come under criticism a number of times throughout modern history, according to the National Archives. Polling data has shown that Americans were in favor of abolishing the Electoral College altogether by majorities of 81% in 1968 and 75% in 1981.
A Gallup poll from September 2020 showed that 61% of adults favor abolishing it today, but the results showed a large difference in views between Democrats and Republicans on the issue.
While 89% of Democrats want to move to a system where the U.S. president is elected directly through the popular vote, only 23% of Republicans favored this idea, according to the poll.
Zahorik said she believes the conversation of whether the Electoral College is fair is one that needs to be had.
“I think everything should be filtered through the lens of fairness: Is this the right and fair thing to do?” Zahorik said. “I don’t know that it is.”
Tirio, a Republican, agreed that the conversation should be had, but added that he is personally in favor of maintaining the Electoral College as a way of ensuring that the needs of rural communities are equally represented and given equal attention in presidential elections.
“The alternative to the Electoral College is akin to a wolf and a lamb deciding who’s for lunch,” Tirio said, referring to the weight of the viewpoints of voters in more populated areas.
Opponents of this kind of thinking have said that the most equitable way to conduct an election would be one person, one vote.
“My understanding is that the Electoral College was created because there was a concern that not everybody really should be given equal weight and measure when they’re voting, so it was a way to provide protections,” Zahorik said.
In the past 200 years, more than 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College have been introduced in Congress but none have been successful, according to an article from the American Bar Association, which has been critical of the process.
How the Electoral College works
Illinois has 20 electors, a number which is calculated based on the number of U.S. representatives (18) and U.S. senators (two) each state has, according to the National Archives. The District of Columbia is given three electors.
These 18 electors are chosen from each congressional district and the remaining two “at-large electors” are chosen from anywhere in the state. This election cycle, the state’s at-large electors are Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Senate President Don Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park.
All of Illinois’ electors are Democrats because the state is one of many that use the “winner takes all” method of casting Electoral College votes, meaning the candidate that wins the majority of the popular vote takes all of its votes, Zahorik said.
Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that do not use the winner takes all method and, instead, have opted for a more proportional allocation of votes, according to an article in the National Archives. They appoint electors based on which party won the popular vote in each congressional district and their two at-large electors are appointed from the party that won the overall popular vote.
Tirio said he thinks more states should look into this option rather than winner takes all.
“I do think it should be more proportional rather than the winner takes all, that part does not make much sense to me,” he said. “It does seem to me that it should be more representative.”