WASHINGTON — For millions of Americans, the presidential campaign wrapped up on the evening of Nov. 6, when the news that President Barack Obama had won re-election was broadcast on their televisions and streamed over their Internet devices.
But the election isn’t final yet. Though more than 120 million voters made their preferences known in early November, the election will culminate Monday when the 538 members of the Electoral College cast their ballots.
“People see it on their TV, and they think the election is final and that’s that,” said Arkansas Rep. Jonathan Barnett, a Republican from Siloam Springs. “But there’s a very formal process after the fact.”
Barnett, a Republican National Committee member, is one of six electors who will cast votes Monday for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a ceremony in the old Arkansas Supreme Court chamber in the state Capitol.
When voters cast their ballots in the presidential election, they are not actually voting directly for their candidate. Under Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, votes are actually cast for electors. There is one elector per congressional district in each state, and one elector for each Senate seat in each state. The electors, who do not actually meet under one roof to cast their ballots, total 538 and are collectively known as the Electoral College.
Arkansas’ six electors are Republicans “who have plowed the fields for the Republican Party,” according to Reta Hamilton of Bella Vista, who will serve as an at-large elector. Hamilton, a Republican National Committee member and state Republican Party activist for more than two decades, is the only elector who has served before, in 2008.
Joining Hamilton and Barnett are Larry Bailey of Hot Springs, Robin Lundstrum of Elm Springs, Benny Speaks of Mountain Home and Doyle Webb of Benton, who is the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party.
State Republicans selected their electors at the party’s convention in Hot Springs in July.
Party members also selected six alternates, who vote only if electors are unable to.
Romney prevailed in Arkansas, where he received 61 percent of the vote.
Democrats in Arkansas had elected their own electors, who were committed to Obama, but Obama’s loss made them irrelevant.
Before traveling to Little Rock on Monday to cast their ballots, the Republican electors had to sign statements saying they would carry out the wishes of Arkansas’ voters and select Romney.
Speaks said the electors are well-known, and there wouldn’t be any surprises in the voting. But, he said, signing a statement was a safeguard.
In past years, “faithless electors” around the country have rejected the candidate who carried their states, putting their own wishes ahead of the voters. Arkansas Republicans don’t want that to ever happen here.
“You don’t want to take some renegades with you,” said Speaks, a longtime Arkansas GOP volunteer who is party chairman for the state’s 1st Congressional District.
On Monday, state Secretary of State Mark Martin will call to order the meeting of the electors and their alternates in the old Arkansas Supreme Court.
After taking an oath, administered by Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Rhonda Wood, the electors will vote for vice president and president, first by voice and then on paper ballots.
Martin will then certify the ballots and sign six copies of the certification. By registered mail, two copies will be sent to the U.S. Archives in Washington, one to the president of the Senate, one to the federal district court in Little Rock and two to be kept in Martin’s office.
Like the others, Lundstrum said her selection as an elector was a great honor.
“This was on my bucket list,” she said.
Some would like to do away with the Electoral College system and award the presidency to the candidate who receives the most votes. Eight states have signed on to the National Popular Vote Compact. Those states, with a combined 132 electoral votes, have agreed to award their electoral votes to the presidential and vice presidential candidates who have received the most votes nationally, regardless of the candidates’ performance in the state.
The compact will be triggered only after states with a majority of the nation’s electoral votes adopt the measure. (It currently takes 270 electoral votes to win.)
In October, New York’s U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, filed legislation that would award the winner of the popular vote an extra 29 electoral votes, a move that would diminish the importance of the electoral tally.
Within a week of the November election, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, had called for the elimination of the Electoral College. She said it was disappointing that a small number of “battleground” states effectively decide the race’s outcome, The Associated Press reported.
Hamilton said the Electoral College helps preserve the sovereignty of Arkansas, and it’s a chance for the voters of the state to be heard.
“If we didn’t have the Electoral College, the votes of [a single large city like] Houston, Texas, would annihilate what the voters felt in Arkansas,” Hamilton said.
The other electors agreed.
“States like Arkansas would never see a presidential candidate again, ever,” if the system were scrapped, Bailey said.
Speaks added: “We’d be lucky if we had a single paid ad on our television.”
Under the current electoral system, Romney made only one trip to Arkansas, stopping in Little Rock for a high-dollar fundraiser. Obama never visited the state. Neither candidate spent much money in Arkansas on radio or TV advertising.
After Monday’s ceremony in the Capitol, the electors will have lunch in Martin’s office. They will not be paid for their service, but as electors they do receive an invitation, and a reserved seat, to the inaugural parade in Washington in January.
None of Arkansas’ electors plan to attend.
“I’m not going to go see Mr. Obama when I fought so hard against him,” said Bailey. “I’m sure he’ll do an admirable job, but I’m against him on principle.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/16/2012