 Welcome to electing our presidents. How do we vote? My name is Elizabeth Dinchel and I work for the National Archives and Records Administration and I am located at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. The power of the states to hold presidential elections and send elect tourists for the Electoral College can be found in Article 2 of the Constitution, the 12th Amendment, and in US code. Elections began as a clerical process and did not take very long to hold or to count, but state legislators began to formalize and regulate elections to ensure there were standards and consistency across the state. No two states hold elections the same way, and there is even variation within the states. Even at the state level, elections are decentralized and held at the county or city level. Each state has a chief election official who has ultimate authority in the state. The graphic here explains some of the state administrators across the United States. There were several reforms in the 1800s to prevent state and party corruption and voting. In the 1800s, citizens had to register to vote. States were required to maintain voter lists. The Australian or secret ballot was introduced and voting machines found their way into our electoral process. There have been a few amendments that changed the process of presidential elections. The 12th Amendment separated presidential and vice presidential Electoral College votes to prevent ties like what happened in the election of 1800. The 20th Amendment shortened the lame duck time. That means the time between the election and when a president is sworn into office. They moved that date from March 4th to January 20th. Herbert Hoover was the last president to be sworn in on March 4th. I borrowed this graphic from Black men vote so we can explain the process of the presidential election. First in the process, states hold primaries and caucuses. In this initial step, several candidates from the same party run against each other for their party's nomination. Secondly, the parties hold national conventions where the delegates from each state vote for their respective candidate. The candidate with the most votes receives the party nomination and they move on to the general election ballot. Third, the country holds the general election where every registered voter can vote for the presidential candidate of their choice. So who wins the presidency? Is it the person with the most votes? Not so fast. Several presidents have lost the popular vote but have won the Electoral College, which is the last stop in our process. Each state has a set number of electoral votes and the state decides if they are divided amongst the parties or if it is winner takes all. Most states are winner takes all. Electors are chosen at the local level conventions and sent to the state capitol to cast their party's vote. The results are then certified by their state official and sent to Congress. The winner of the Electoral College is then sworn in as the president of the United States. I have a guest speaker to help us understand this. All right, so today we're with Travis Whitehart. He is a county auditor in Johnson County, Iowa. Welcome. Thank you, ma'am. And we're going to ask him some questions about caucuses and primaries and stuff like that because we're talking about the process for voting. So the electoral process begins in Iowa no matter how you look at it. So why is Iowa first in the nation? Well, it goes back to, I believe, the early 80s when all of a sudden that we just kind of became the first in the nation. But what's weird is everybody thinks as an elected official who oversees elections here in Iowa that I run the caucuses, that's not true. Those are run by the parties. So the Democrats and the Republicans and even at some times, depending on if they meet the threshold, the libertarians, they all run their own caucuses. It's not, I mean, everybody thinks it's some kind of an election, but it's not really an election from the standpoint of the person that runs, meaning me, elections here in Iowa. So how is a caucus and a primary different? So a primary, you go in here in Iowa, the Republicans have a primary, they go in right down who they want to vote for, kind of like you're going to the polls, drop it in, you know, their little slot or whatever, and they head out the door. A caucus is a lot different because you have to count the number of people in the room, and then you figure out what the threshold is for somebody to be viable. And then you send everybody to their corners, as in they get to go, you know, if I'm for, let's just say this election, if I'm for Biden, Harris, Buttigieg, I would go to those corners. Well, if those people aren't viable, you have to have, I believe it's 15%, then you're allowed to do a second go round and move to another corner. So it's not like, you know, you vote once, head out the door, you can vote a second time if your person isn't viable. And so can caucuses and primaries be different in the same state, just between different parties? So can the Democrats and Republicans have a different process? That's exactly how it works here in Iowa. The Republicans have a primary, the Democrats have a caucus. So what other states have caucuses in the United States? I know off the top of my head, Nevada does. I believe South Carolina, one of the things that keeps Iowa first in the nation is the fact that we have a caucus. So like New Hampshire has a primary. If I will work to go to a primary, and again, this is outside of my realm as auditor, I'm talking about now political parties, if Iowa were no longer to do the caucus primary and go strictly to a primary, we would no longer be first because the way politics works is New Hampshire gets to be the first state with a primary where we're the first state with a caucus. I see. So does every registered voter get to participate in caucuses and primaries? If they want to, yes, but you have to show up and be registered for that party that you're there for. So, you know, I just guess kind of picking on you if you're a registered Republican, but if you show up and want a caucus, you would have to change your party affiliation that night to Democrat. Now, same can be said if you're registered D, and you want to go to the Republican primary, you would have to switch your party. So we get a lot of folks that switch parties same way. You cannot be no party on caucus night. If you show up to caucus or primary, you have to pick our D and re register. And so in other states, if there's a primary, they can participate. But in a closed primary, it's the same thing, right? They have to be registered with a party that's having that's having a primary running a primary election. That's absolutely correct. Yep. So how do the caucuses and primaries produce delegates that get to go on to work candidates? So you have to be a diehard person of your party. And laugh because so you have to go to the county level, and then get voted on to go to the state level, get voted on to go to the national level. And I know people that have gone to the state level that really, really want to be that national delegate. And they're willing to be at the state conventional four, five, six in the morning the next day just to get elected. It's all it's just being a part of the party. They want to make sure that you are who you are, that you're going to represent the whether it be Republican, Libertarian or Democratic party that you're going to represent what they want. Okay. And so like once they get to the national conventions, what happens in the national conventions? What do they do for the electoral process? So that's the point where they get to represent just, you know, saying the state of Iowa. They get to say we're giving our votes to and like this case this last year it would have been Joe Biden or you know whoever state voted for whoever you know has won the nomination, they step up and say we're giving our votes for that person. And then those people end up on the national ticket. And so people get to go vote in a general election after that at that point. So what happens once the election is done and you've counted all the ballots? I get to go home and go to bed. No, I mean people don't realize like when you count the ballots it's not just winner take all. Each state has a certain amount of delegates or votes that are allocated it's called the electoral college to the candidate. So like in Iowa's case our electoral votes went for Donald Trump but over in Wisconsin their majority voted for Joe Biden so the electoral votes go to Joe Biden. And you know we saw that with Georgia's probably one at Georgia Arizona probably two of the biggest swing states that normally their electoral votes were always Republican and this go round they happen there you know the citizens in that state voted for the Democrat. You know people get so confused you see where like Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and so Joe Biden but just winning the popular vote doesn't mean you're going to be the president or you know governor whatever so. And so how are electoral voters chosen because they voted at state level right? So who picks them? So that comes down to the parties um they're you know kind of chosen through the you know the higher up you know it's one of those deals where you have to work your way up through the party situation um you know it it's not really you know trying to trying to figure out a way to describe this but it's not like you know so in our case Trump won here in Iowa so the Republican party is going to pick the I believe we have six electoral votes here they'll pick the six people that they know will represent him and vote for him. And so when they are chosen and now the general elections over the majority is going to Donald Trump the Republicans send their electors to Des Moines or Capitol and then what happens? So then they say that they're there for Donald Trump or Joe Biden um we do have states and this is where it gets a little tricky um Nebraska they um do their electoral votes by congressional district so if you go out and look in a map you'll notice that Nebraska had I believe two people even though the majority of citizens voted for Trump they had two districts that the majority voted for Biden so he got those two electoral votes I mean it's I believe Maine's the same way we're not that way here in Iowa but yeah I mean when you start talking about the whole electoral college it gets crazy. So they sign they do their signatures right in front of the governor and then what happens the state who certifies this and sends this to Congress at this point? So it heads to Congress and then Congress has to certify each state which we saw unfortunately the insurrection if you want to call it that at the national capitol where um a few senators didn't want to receive votes from some states which is unfortunate because each state sets its own laws and to me uh the states that they were trying to um I you know if you want to call avoid their votes was ridiculous because they followed the rule of law so. So does the secretary of state in each state sign off on its certification to send it to Congress? Yes along with again then it has to go to the senators and they have to approve it but yes that goes through people need to remember in the United States and this what's kind of funky each state sets its own election laws we don't there's no federal election law so every state is different how they operate. Awesome well is there anything else you want students to know about the voting process or what they can do at their state levels? Just get out and vote it's awesome I mean I know you get out and vote all the time it it's you know it's one of those deals I remind students all the time even when I'm in high schools you know you may not own a house you may be renting an apartment but when it comes to taxes and stuff if there's a tax increase do you think your rent won't go up you know I mean you know when you when you look at voting for bond issues for school districts that type of stuff you know you think to yourself well I don't own a house it doesn't matter no it matters I mean stuff that's gonna you know five 10 15 years down the road affect you so get involved be knowledgeable and ask questions kind of you know like you interviewing me tonight just you know I'm always open I get emails all the time phone calls ask questions don't be afraid to you know get out there vote speak your mind so you know I may not agree with you on how you vote but I'll tell you what it's you know you're right and exercise that right yeah well thank you so much for coming on with us