Iowa’s Electoral College members are not bound by law to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, but they said they are very loyal to their party.Republican candidate George W. Bush may end with a razor-thin electoral victory over Gore, and there has been talk of the possibility of electors switching candidates when they cast their votes Dec. 18.However, Eric Bakker, spokesman for the Iowa Secretary of State, said he doesn’t know of any time when Iowa electors switched candidates.”They’re not legally bound by law, but they tend to be hard-core activists within their party,” he said.Delegates are nominated by their political parties and voted on at party conventions, Bakker said. Their names are then submitted to the Secretary of State with the candidate’s petition to be on the state’s ballot.There is an Electoral College member for each of Iowa’s five congressional districts, plus two at-large mem bers who represent the entire state. Ames is in the Third District, represented in the Electoral College by Jeff Heland of Burlington. Iowa’s seven electoral votes all go to the winner of the state, which has been the Democratic candidate for the past four presidential elections.Gore was certified as the winner in Iowa by a slim 4,144-vote margin out of more than 1 million presidential votes cast. Electors will meet at the state capitol building Dec. 18 to cast their votes for president.Lyle Otte of Decorah, Second District elector, was elected by a crowd of 400 at the May convention.”I went to the Second District Democratic Convention in Waterloo in May and was nominated, campaigned by giving a speech and won the election,” he said.

Being a member of the Electoral College is a special opportunity for Otte, since he is an American government teacher at Postville High School.”I’m able to use my own experience in the classroom to help my students understand how the Electoral College works, and this year it’s even more magnified by the closeness of this election,” he said.Otte said he has been active within the Democratic Party for 30 years.”I’ve been active at the local level, mostly,” he said. “I’ve been precinct committee chairperson several times, and I’ve been county chair in several counties, and now I’m secretary of the county central committee.”In addition, Otte has worked on many Democratic campaigns, including Sen. Tom Harkin’s.Emil Pavich of Council Bluffs, Fourth District elector, has been a member of his county Democratic central committee since 1958, was on the Democratic state central committee for six years, was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives for eight years and currently serves on the Council Bluffs City Council. Pavich also was a member of the Electoral College in 1992, when he cast one of Iowa’s seven votes for President Clinton.Pavich said nothing could get him to change his vote.”You’re picked by your party, and you’ve got a moral obligation,” he said.Otte also said he doesn’t think Electoral College members should switch votes.”I believe that when I ran for the job, I told the electors that when I was elected I’d vote for Al Gore for president, and to not do that, I think, would be dishonest,” he said.Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science, said it is “very, very rare” that an elector would vote for a different person than the one to whom he or she is pledged.”Those are called unfaithful electors, and it’s very rare for them to not vote for the candidate of their party if he or she got the majority of votes or plurality of votes in those states,” he said.The Iowa Democratic Party would not be happy with electors who switched votes, Schmidt said.”The Democrats will throw them into Lake Laverne without any clothes on,” he said. “[Switching candidates] is not considered to be a very good thing to do if you’re a delegate.”Though Otte is honored to have been chosen to cast his vote in the Electoral College system, he thinks presidents should be chosen by popular vote.”I believe the Electoral College is something left over from the 1700s,” he said. “I think Americans are well enough informed and up-to-date enough on candidates and issues that we can have a direct popular vote.”Pavich also said he is not a fan of the Electoral College, but he doubts America will ever pick presidents by popular vote.”Probably they ought to consider changing it,” he said. “Basically, Congress should have a discussion about it. I don’t think it’s going to be changed. The debate comes up every time there’s a close election.”