Electing the President: Electoral Colleges, Controversies, & Popular Voting with Dr. Thomas J Davis

Popular voting is touted as a cornerstone of US governance. Since the nation’s beginning, voting rights issues have shaped America’s democratic processes. Ceaseless controversies have reflected an ongoing struggle over who should vote, and how, when, and where voters should vote. The presidential election cycle has tended to magnify controversies every four years over expanding or limiting voting and, particularly, over voting for the U.S. president, that combines popular voting with the Electoral College’s formal election of the president. Reviewing the Constitutional provisions and legal framework for US federal and presidential elections, invites us to reflect on how the US federal system works in qualifying voters and in directing the counting of the votes on which the nation’s government rests.

This program is cohosted by MVCA. This is an in-person program.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Thomas J. Davis is an historian, lawyer, and professor emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, where he taught U.S. constitutional and legal history. Dr. Davis also taught as a visiting professor of law at the ASU College of Law. He received his PhD in U.S. history from Columbia University in the City of New York and his JD cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Law in New York. He has been an AZ Humanities Public Scholar Nominee and served as Arizona’s State Scholar for the 2020-21 Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, Museum on Main St. (MoMS), Smithsonian Institution, traveling exhibition. AZ Humanities bestowed on Dr. Davis the 2021 Founder’s Community Partner Award, recognizing his work “to further public humanities through sustained collaboration and exemplary community outreach.”