Alexander S. Belenky
This is the first book in Russian that describes the system of electing a U. S. President. Look at the following statements concerning U.S. Presidential elections:
1. The system of electing a U.S. President (the election system) was never designed to service the popular will.
2. The currently existing election system does not follow some major ideas of the Founding Fathers.
3. Certain election rules are such that if they were to be applied, an intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court in the election being in progress would be almost inevitable.
4. Amendment 12 of the U.S. Constitution contains at least six puzzles relevant to U.S. Presidential elections with answers that have remained unknown for more than 200 years.
5. The text of the U.S. Constitution contains a mathematically incorrect clause.
6. Skillfully using the election system may allow a U.S. Presidential candidate to win the U.S Presidency with, for instance, less than 30% of the nationwide popular vote.
7. The application of some of the election rules can lead to a constitutional crisis in the country.
8. When Americans cast their votes in U.S. Presidential elections, they do not vote for President or for Vice President, despite what they may see on the ballots or on the voting machines.
9. The “winner-take-all” principle does not encourage U.S. Presidential candidates to fight for each and every vote in a state or in DC.
10. Many statements about the Electoral College mechanism aimed at substantiating its presence in the election system, including those in the government publications, are no more than myths of their authors, no matter how plausible these myths may seem.
11. An electoral tie in the Electoral College may be resolved not necessarily in favor of a person voted for as President who has support from at least 26 delegations in the House of Representatives.
12. There is no need to abolish the Electoral College mechanism in order to make every cast vote valuable in deciding the election outcome.
If these statements have drawn your attention, and you are interested in finding explanations, this book is written for you, and you will find these explanation in it.
The system of electing a U.S. President (the election system) is very logically designed. This system has existed for more than 200 years, and many of its basic principles and conceptions have remained unchanged. Numerous attempts to make changes in these principles or even replace this system with a more understandable direct popular election system have so far failed. At the same time, some changes that have been made in the initial design of the system have engendered logical flaws in certain election rules and have made these rules fuzzy. These fuzzy rules are not given much attention in the media, since, under the existing two major party political system in the country, U.S. Presidential elections are usually decided in the Electoral College.
Many proponents of the Electoral College mechanism try to substantiate this mechanism by claiming that the existing election system reflects ideas of the Founding Fathers embedded in the U.S. Constitution. However, the election system that was meant by the Founding Fathers and the election system that is currently in use are two substantially different election systems though both of the them employ the Electoral College mechanism.
The existing election system and a direct popular system of electing a U.S. President (if it were introduced) would produce the same election outcomes only in a narrow spectrum of possible developments in U.S. Presidential elections. Moreover, the system of electing a U.S. President was never designed to service the popular will, and a U.S. President is not, generally, a President of the American people and is not elected by the nation as a whole.
The book addresses these and many other aspects of the system of electing a U.S. President. It is written in the form of questions and answers, which, from the author's viewpoint, is the best one for setting forth any educational information. However, even this form of presenting the material of the book may require certain intellectual efforts from the reader for comprehending numerous intricacies of the system of electing a U.S. President.
Alexander S. Belenky is Visiting scholar at the MIT Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals. He is the author of books and scientific articles in the field of optimization and game theory and their applications. His recent books on U.S. presidential elections include Extreme Outcomes of US Presidential Elections (2003), Winning the US Presidency: Rules of the Game and Playing by the Rules (2004), and How America Chooses Its Presidents (2007). His recent articles include The 2004 Election: Local Polls and Campaign Strategies (2004), The 2004 Election: How It Can Be Won (2004), Competitive Strategies of U.S. Presidential Candidates in Election Campaigns (2005), Calculating the Minimal Fraction of the Popular Vote To Win the U.S. Presidency in the Electoral College (2005), To Queue or Not To Queue? In a U.S. Presidential election, that should NOT be a question! (with Richard C. Larson) (2006), Voting shouldn’t require a heroic act of patience (with Richard C. Larson) (2006), Faulty system for democracy (with Richard C. Larson) (2007), District vote proposal falls short (2008), Massachusetts should reject the National Popular Vote Plan (2008), Belenky: counting the votes for President (2008), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: three proposals to introduce the National Popular Vote in US presidential elections (2008), A 0-1 knapsack model for evaluating the possible Electoral College performance in two-party US Presidential elections (2008), Belenky: Avoid electoral crisis by putting the people first (2008).He was an invited guest on radio and TV talk shows throughout the country in the course of the 2004 election campaign. Alexander S. Belenky holds two M. S. degrees (in engineering and in mathematics), Ph.D. in systems analysis and mathematics, and D.Sc. in applications of mathematical methods. He also holds the academic rank of Professor of applications of mathematical methods.
