Cramming for the electoral college

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- This time around, a lot more people know what it is

that Lane Sherman does.

The energetic Newport Beach housewife and political activist sits on

that once-obscure political entity, the electoral college.

She was a member of California’s electoral college delegation in 1996,

but there wasn’t much controversy surrounding America’s system of voting

back then.

Four years later, a muddle of a presidential election has made the

general public aware of something Sherman has known all along: the

college, inconspicuous though it may be, wields real political power.

“I can understand that some people don’t find it as interesting as I

do,” she said. “But their lives are influenced by what goes on in the

civic realm.”

Sherman’s life is perhaps more influenced by politics than most. Her

son is Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), and she’s been a workhorse for

his last two campaigns.

Before her son ever set foot in the Capitol, he was steeped in

Sherman’s enthusiasm for the political process. Sherman founded the

Newport Beach Democratic Club in 1971 and raised her children in an

activist’s household.

“Those were the days before computers, before sticky labels,” she

said. “Everything had to be typed out on carbon paper. The kids’ manpower

was very helpful!”

Brad Sherman repaid his mother for her work on his 1996 campaign by appointing her to the electoral college. Each congressional candidate can

appoint one elector.

However, only the electors of the party that wins the state --

Democrats in California’s case -- will vote for the president and vice

president on Dec. 18.

The job, Sherman said, has not turned out to be very glamorous.

For the work of going to Sacramento in December and casting her

electoral ballot, she can expect $10 and a reimbursement of five cents

per mile of travel.

But if electoral college wages won’t pay the bills (or even buy

lunch), Sherman still thinks the institution is worth her attention.

And she’s found that a lot of other people -- from her friends and

neighbors, to CNN journalists -- are giving it their attention this year,

as well.

“They can understand it more now than they could four years ago,” she

said.

Sherman admits, however, that her role as an elector doesn’t give her

any particular insight into what the solution should be for the voting

debacle in Florida.

“I have cousins in Boca Raton,” she said. “They had the butterfly

ballot” which is the source of controversy over voting error. “They were

very confused by it.”

Her sense of what to do about the situation is just about as murky as

that of the average voter.

“There’s something wrong there,” she said. “What should happen? I

don’t know. The Supreme Court will have to make a judgment and we’ll have

to live with it.”