On the first day of the semester, I ask college students in my political science class where the Electoral College is located. Most believe it is in Washington, D.C., at some undisclosed location. Few know that it is actually there and in 50 other locations - each state capital. So it is not surprising that the students' concept of the Electoral College is as vague as it is to most in the general public, or, at least it was until this year. Now that the election of President-elect Donald Trump has been confirmed by the Electoral College in balloting Monday from Augusta, Maine, to Honolulu, and from Tallahassee, Florida, to Juneau, Alaska, the controversial Electoral College is in the spotlight again. This is the fifth time in our nation's history where the presidential candidate who received the most popular votes did not get the required number of electoral votes to capture the White House. Hillary Clinton bested Trump by some 2.6 million popular votes, but Trump had 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to claim victory.

There were frantic efforts by Democrats and even some Republicans in Trump-won states to try to get electors to vote for Clinton, claiming the president-elect is unfit for the presidency. As expected, those efforts, along with an aborted recount effort by Green Party candidate Jill Stein in key states, including Pennsylvania, earlier this month, were next to fruitless. In fact, more pledged electors voted against Clinton than against Trump, 4-2. The two Trump defectors were in Texas, while the four against Clinton were in Washington State.There have been rogue electors on occasion, but 99 percent follow the dictates of their party's choice. The last time this happened before Monday was in 2004 when a Minnesota elector voted for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards instead of failed presidential candidate John Kerry, who today is U.S. Secretary of State.Political parties will mostly choose electors to thank them for their service and dedication. In this respect, they are the quintessential party loyalists. They may be state elected officials, state party leaders, or people in the state who have a special personal or political affiliation with their party's nominee.The Constitution makes no provision, nor is there a federal law on the books requiring electors to vote for the candidate who carried his or her state. Some states mandate that their electors vote for the winning candidate either by state law or through signed pledges. No elector (sometimes known as a "faithless elector") has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote as pledged.Protesters against Trump were out in force in a number of states Monday, but it generally fell on deaf ears. In Harrisburg, the 20 electors voted at high noon at the Capitol, while Trump supporters and opponents filled the gallery. Outside the Capitol, in frigid 25-degree weather, anti-Trump protesters chanted, marched with signs and wore masks.Pennsylvania has 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and two U.S. senators, which is how it gets 20 electoral votes. All 20 Republican electors are considered as party loyalists and were selected by the Trump team. All other states are assigned electors by the same formula. Washington, D.C., although it has no members of Congress, gets three electoral votes.Three of Pennsylvania's electors are from Northampton County, which, along with Cumberland, has the most among any of the counties; there are two from Bucks, Cambria and Chester counties, and one each from Bradford, Centre, Delaware, Indiana, Lycoming, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Warren counties. The three local delegates are Peg Ferraro, a former Northampton County Council member from Nazareth; Mary Barket, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Republican Women, also from Nazareth, and Gloria Lee Snover, an Easton real estate agent.When the results were announced that all 20 had voted for Trump, there was clapping and shouting from his supporters and boos from opponents, some of whom chanted "shame on you."Pennsylvania electors said they were deluged with letters, phone calls, texts, emails, even some threats, urging them to forgo their support of Trump. A similar scenario had gone on since Nov. 9, the day after Election Day, all across the country.Congress will meet in joint session, presided over by Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as president of the Senate, on Jan. 6 to certify Monday's vote; Trump is to be sworn in on Jan. 20.To determine who wins the electoral votes, most states use the winner-takes-all approach, so even though Trump won Pennsylvania by only about 44,000 votes out of more than 6.1 million cast, he received all 20 electoral votes. The lone exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which award two electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote and the rest on the basis of who wins Congressional districts.At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, the Electoral College was conceived as a compromise between those who wanted popular elections and those who wanted no input from what they considered the largely illiterate masses. It was also viewed as a carrot to smaller states, which felt they would be rendered inconsequential by the population centers of Philadelphia, New York and Boston.Democrats now are saying the Electoral College is antiquated and undemocratic because it gives more weight to states with smaller populations, while others contend the process as now practiced is flawed because electors are the party faithful rather than the best and the brightest of each state, as the Founding Fathers envisioned. To all of this, Trump supporters say it's a case of sour grapes perpetuated by sore losers, even though Trump himself trashed the Electoral College and called it a "disaster" during the presidential campaign when polls showed him trailing Clinton. A week after the election, Trump said, "The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play."By Bruce Frassinelli |

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