Electoral College Endorses Bush

George Walker Bush won the votes Monday to become the nation’s 43rd president in a thoroughly suspenseless election free of haggling, hair-splitting and, mercifully, hanging chads.

Meeting in state capitals across the country, the way the nation’s founders prescribed, the 538 members of the electoral college capped one of America’s messiest elections with a ritual as tidy as a ladies’ tea.

No recount was necessary.

With returns from 50 states and the District of Columbia, the results--just about as expected--were:

President-elect George W. Bush: 271 electoral votes.

Vice President Al Gore: 266.

Abstentions: 1.

Bush went over the top when Nevada bestowed its four electoral votes, giving the Texas governor a single vote more than the 270 needed to win the White House. It was the third-closest electoral vote margin in the nation’s history and becomes official when Congress meets in a joint session next month to tally the results.

There was one small, if inconsequential, surprise: In Washington, D.C., 73-year-old Barbara Lett-Simmons cast a blank ballot to protest the fact that the District of Columbia has no vote in Congress. “Taxation without representation,” she huffed, in true colonial spirit, though she later said she would have voted for Gore if the election had hung in the balance.

That was about it as far as drama or dissent. It may have been that the electors, like the rest of the country, had had quite enough after 37 days of rapid-fire legal reversals and somersaulting fortunes.

The result was a series of gatherings of great pomp and ceremony but little suspense. The sessions were as varied as the states themselves. In Massachusetts, electors showed up in black tie and evening gowns. In Alabama, there were characters dressed as James Madison and Benjamin Franklin. Alaska’s electors met at an Anchorage library.

The voting was tracked live on C-SPAN as well as CNN. The latter featured a running total, a la election night, with no fear of pulling back on projected winners or seeing candidates retract concessions.

In Tallahassee, the center of the postelection turmoil, the ceremony awarding Florida’s precious 25 electoral votes was brief. Gov. Jeb Bush, presiding inside the Senate chamber, mixed heroic understatement with look-on-the-bright-side cheer as he proclaimed Florida’s vote “one of the most exciting elections I’ve been involved in.”

“I hope that the higher voter participation, the sense of passion, of being involved in the political process, won’t wane,” said Bush, who helped deliver the state and make his brother president-elect.

With that, the 25 electors--ranging from mayors to real estate magnates to homemakers--completed their constitutionally appointed task with assembly-line precision. Each elector had been chosen by the state Republican Party and appointed by Jeb Bush, so their faith was never in question.

The procedure, requiring each elector to sign a paper ballot and nine documents confirming the vote, took place in silence, save for the calling of each elector’s name. The whole process took less than 20 minutes. Afterward, participants hugged and exchanged high-fives.

“Of all I’ve done in public life, this was probably the most exciting,” said John Thrasher, a former state representative and ex-speaker of the Florida House. “It was an adrenaline rush. The electricity of being there--just superb.”

In Colorado, the state’s eight electors gathered in Gov. Bill Owens’ wood-paneled office at the State Capitol. Among them was Robert Dieter, a “turncoat” Democrat who changed party affiliation to vote for Bush, his college roommate.

The mood was far from solemn, with the Republican governor--sporting an elephant necktie--instructing the five men and three women, “Remember, your guy is B-U-S-H,” an apparent reference to the nationwide campaign to persuade GOP electors to switch their votes.

“Not if you put a gun to my head,” said Marcy Benson, who said she received one polite call asking her to vote for Gore. “He said, ‘Think about the popular vote.’ I told him that’s not the way the game is played. I’m not elected for my opinion. Anyone who knows me knows better than to ask me to change my vote.”

The electoral college was conceived by the nation’s founders as a way of placing a check on popular sentiment by leaving the ultimate election of the president in the hands of presumably wiser and more dispassionate elders. Over time, however, the role of the electoral college has evolved to a point where, today, its members basically rubber-stamp the state-by-state election results.

For many, appointment to the electoral college is a reward for party loyalty. Electors receive little more than a free lunch and pocket change toward their transportation to the capital. Usually, they gather in obscurity.

That, of course, changed with this year’s election tempest. Republican members of the electoral college were beseeched in the last five weeks with phone calls, letters, e-mails and other blandishments, urging them either to switch to Gore or stand firm behind Bush.

They also became, for at least one day, celebrities of a sort.

In Sacramento, television cameras lined the gilded state Assembly chambers--more than usually attend the governor’s State of the State address. The balcony was packed with spectators and the electors’ friends and family.

“Yours is a sacred and very important duty,” Gov. Gray Davis told the electors, who cast their 54 votes for Gore with plenty of Florida-inspired humor from the hard-core Democratic audience.

“These ballots will be hand-counted,” Rosalind Wyman, a former Los Angeles councilwoman, told fellow electors.

Afterward, Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres gathered the electors to lobby for his proposal to abolish the electoral college.

Like many Gore supporters, Torres pointed out that Bush won the White House despite losing the popular vote by more than 300,000 votes out of 104 million cast. Asked how many concurred, a majority of electors raised their hands.

“I wrote a paper in college about it and said it was a good thing,” said Elsa Favila, who became an elector thanks to an appointment from her brother-in-law, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress from Southern California. “But after the results of this election, I’m not so sure.”

But Mary Hergert, one of Colorado’s electors, said she used to think the electoral college was outdated. This year’s events changed her mind.

“It’s really been an educational experience for us all,” she said. “I think it needs to be examined weeks from now, after the heat dies down. What you find is that it really give power to the small states, like Colorado. I don’t think we need to change.”

With that, the electors, who earned a state wage of $5 for their labor, went off to lunch at the governor’s mansion.

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Times staff writers Miguel Bustillo in Sacramento and Julie Cart in Denver contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Electoral College Pledges

All 538 electors are gathered in their respective states Monday to cast their votes. Here is a tally.

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ELECTORAL PLEDGED STATE VOTES FOR BUSH GORE Alabama 9 Bush 9 Alaska 3 Bush 3 Arizona 8 Bush 8 Arkansas 6 Bush 6 California 54 Gore 54 Colorado 8 Bush 8 Connecticut 8 Gore 8 Delaware 3 Gore 3 District of Columbia* 3 Gore 2 Florida 25 Bush 25 Georgia 13 Bush 13 Hawaii 4 Gore 4 Idaho 4 Bush 4 Illinois 22 Gore 22 Indiana 12 Bush 12 Iowa 7 Gore 7 Kansas 6 Bush 6 Kentucky 8 Bush 8 Louisiana 9 Bush 9 Maine 4 Gore 4 Maryland 10 Gore 10 Massachusetts 12 Gore 12 Michigan 18 Gore 18 Minnesota 10 Gore 10 Mississippi 7 Bush 7 Missouri 11 Bush 11 Montana 3 Bush 3 Nebraska 5 Bush 5 Nevada 4 Bush 4 New Hampshire 4 Bush 4 New Jersey 15 Gore 15 New Mexico 5 Gore 5 New York 33 Gore 33 North Carolina 14 Bush 14 North Dakota 3 Bush 3 Ohio 21 Bush 21 Oklahoma 8 Bush 8 Oregon 7 Gore 7 Pennsylvania 23 Gore 23 Rhode Island 4 Gore 4 South Carolina 8 Bush 8 South Dakota 3 Bush 3 Tennessee 11 Bush 11 Texas 32 Bush 32 Utah 5 Bush 5 Vermont 3 Gore 3 Virginia 13 Bush 13 Washington 11 Gore 11 West Virginia 5 Bush 5 Wisconsin 11 Gore 11 Wyoming 3 Bush 3 TOTAL 538 271 266

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Source: Associated Press

* One elector in the District of Columbia did not case a vote.