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America’s electoral system is one of the most intricate and difficult to understand. That the one with the most popular votes does not win, but the one with the most delegates in the Electoral College, for example. Why is this so?
The Electoral College system was a very early decision in American history. A consensus that was reached among the states that made up the Union at that time, to neutralize a bit the fact that there were some that had a large population and others that had a small population, although an important territory. The fundamental criteria are the inhabitants of each state. But what is happening is that there are practically two elections, certainly, that of the year 2000 and then that of 2016, in which the popular vote ended up favoring the losing candidate.
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Really puzzling thing …
Very loud bells, which force us to think about adopting reforms of the electoral system, which prevent that result from being presented, which is absurd. In a nation like the United States, with the strongest and most traditional democracy in the Western Hemisphere, that must be corrected. What happens is that it is not easy, among other reasons because dismantling the Electoral College system would imply a constitutional reform, which in the American system is extremely difficult.
But what is wrong with adopting the simplest system of democracy, consisting of the one who wins the most popular votes?
Nothing bad. But small states will think otherwise. The other factor has to do with the fact that this system really ended up being imposed as a result of the pandemic, and that is that people could, in the first place, vote in person before the day of the election, but, in addition, they could send their vote by mail.
Donald Trump has yet to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory.
Chris Kleponis EFE / Drew Angerer. AFP
And the logical thing would be that the deadline for the arrival of those votes by mail would be the day of the elections, so that no votes continue to be received after the close of the polls …
It is really a combination of factors, some of a logistical nature and others, the result of the way electoral regulations operate in the respective states. The logistical problem is that there were so many votes that were sent by mail that they did not arrive, and the states and the operation of the mail, because it entered into crisis.
We are talking about four years ago there were 1,500,000 votes by mail, and this time there were 100 million, between the votes by mail and the anticipated ones. And counting them requires many more steps than voting in person …
The airmail has to deliver all those envelopes, in the states where they correspond. Each envelope must then be opened and the signature checked. It is a very difficult logistical issue to solve. But in addition, the Trump administration did nothing to facilitate it, fearing it would favor Biden, and did not give the postal system extra resources to expedite it.
And the third problem with the vote-by-mail system is when it should be counted. If in advance, or after the polls close. Florida solved the problem by counting them first, but that also has dangers, because when the results are known before the elections, they can influence those who have not voted …
It seems very important to me that the votes can be tabulated, in their entirety, on election day. It is disturbing for a democracy like the United States that there are votes to be counted for three, four, five days, or who knows how long after Election Day. That generates protests, disenchantment with democracy …
And you suspect that it is the worst thing that can happen to an election. And lawsuits …
Exactly. President Trump himself has encouraged the protests, hinting at the possibility that this was all a perverse result and an attempt to defraud the voter. That is not appropriate. What needs to be done is that the system has to be prepared for a vote count on election day, so that one hundred percent of the votes are counted, even if there is a need after some re-counts.
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What do you have to do to make it work that way?
Well, very surely it will be necessary to establish some type of time limit on the advance with which the voter must put his vote in the mail. It is likely that to ensure that logistics you will have to vote at least seven days before the election …
And whoever does not manage to do so, because they will have to go personally, if they want to vote, on election day …
Exactly. The other thing is that I do believe that the system is here to stay, because many people find it very comfortable, firstly, to send their vote by mail and, secondly, if they want to vote early to avoid long lines that day, that You can do it well in advance of a week before, or up to thirty days before.
The United States does consider Colombia a natural ally and, above all, the main one in the entire region
That’s good without a pandemic, but above all with a pandemic …
But what is unusual, what is incredible is that, in this case, with all the problems of the pandemic, the vote in the United States this time really exceeded all predictions. There was the highest turnout in 100 years of electoral history in the United States.
How do you explain that Latinos and immigrants, who at first seemed like a population that President Trump wanted to confront, were the ones who ended up giving him the victory in Florida?
What happened was that President Trump applied a strategy, go personally to Florida and do all kinds of political acts, congregations, assemblies of all kinds, and he went to all the important corners and managed to convince Latinos that they had gone Well with the Trump administration, they have had better jobs, they have had better quality jobs. And he also convinced them that the arrival of the Democratic Party meant a risk from the political point of view, because it could bring socialism to the United States.And the Latinos bought the speech, that’s what happened, because Biden also did the effort to come to Florida, but failed to persuade Latinos. Cubans are easy to convince because, of course, they are terrified of the possibility that socialism will end up influencing American politics, but other Latinos, whether Colombian or Venezuelan, have the same concern and then really the president’s speech Trump worked there.
Well, there is also the theory that although Trump lost, there will be ‘Trumpism’ for a long time. You believe?
Well, I think a message to be drawn from the election results in the US is that Biden could have won, but Trump managed to mobilize a large number of people. Nearly half of the voting population in the United States bought Trump’s message. And that has to be registered by the Democratic Party as well.
Hence, in his victory speech, Biden offered to unite America … He is aware of this great polarization.
Even the media was very averse to Trump’s proposals, with very few exceptions, probably from a couple of radio stations and, of course, from Fox television. And it is normal for the media to have a determining influence on how people vote, and yet half of the US vote went with Trump. It’s funny, because Trump’s proposal was very far-right, and we had always thought that to really be successful in politics, at least in the United States, you had to be more central, and Trump broke all those prejudices.
On this point, Biden is an ideologically moderate man. The one that is quite marked is its vice president, Kamala Harris. That is why some fear that Biden’s high age will serve to use him as a Trojan horse so that, God forbid, if something happens to him, Kamala Harris will rule, and from there down, all the Sanders, the Pocahontas … .
At the same time, the reason the Democratic Party ended up picking Biden was precisely because of mistrust of, say, the party’s left leaning. It is also curious that we are dealing with a 78-year-old man who, no matter how healthy he may be, does not have the same physical and intellectual vigor that is required to assume the task of being president of the United States. But Biden’s moderate stance, which did not scare the Americans, indicates with his victory that they are not interested in leftist adventures there.
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That capitalism was saved, that it is not threatened, and that the US will probably have a less populist government.
So is. Biden represents, let’s put it this way, the center of American politics, and he poses no challenge to either Wall Street or American industry. In other words, he is a person who is going to continue with what the Americans call the mainstream, the politics of the center, which has fundamentally oriented all the presidents, some with some left-wing accent, others with some right-wing accent.
Finally, do you think we will be able to regain that bipartisan relationship that we had managed to build with the United States Government?
Hope so. It is very important for Colombia. We need to restore the trust of both parties, of which Colombia is an ally without ideological positions. It is important to rebuild the relationship, which I don’t think has suffered, let’s put it that way, irreparably.
Do you think the Biden government is going to retaliate?
No. The United States does consider Colombia a natural ally and, above all, the main one in the entire region. Although it is likely that they will make the representatives of Colombian diplomacy feel it. But I think that, at the end of the day, the Biden government is going to work well with the Colombian government.
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Do you think that with this triumph of Biden the possibilities of rethinking our diplomatic handling with Venezuela are opened?
Yes. There is an opportunity, because we have been without relationships for two years now and, honestly, that has not worked well. One has to be realistic on these issues, and the relationship with the United States will very surely change in relation to Venezuela. Probably, the State Department will have a much more realistic position to approach the Government of Venezuela, and have conversations as they did during the Obama administration. It could be the gateway for Colombia to join a bit of that initiative to rethink it, because a country like Colombia, well, cannot simply do without relations with its main neighbor, that is not sensible … If not There is certainty that the Maduro government is going to fall, because we have to talk to Venezuelans again, there is no other option. It is necessary to do without, let us put it this way, ideological positions and particularly favoritism. Americans, fundamentally, base their international relations, their international politics, on what their president perceives to be in the interest of the United States. And Colombia should do the same. Think about what is best for her in her relationship with Venezuela.
Maria Isabel Rueda
Special for THE TIME
On Twitter: @MIsabelRueda
