Sean Nikas, an elector in the Electoral College, stands in front of the Oregon State Capitol on Thursday, Dec. 10. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Over a month after the November general election, Salem resident Sean Nikas will cast his vote for president and vice president of the United States. This vote will really count.
Nikas, 55, is one of Oregon’s seven electors in the Electoral College, which under the U.S. Constitution directly elects the president and vice president.
On Monday, Dec. 14, electors will gather in state capitals across the country. There they are expected to cast 306 votes for former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and 232 for President Donald Trump.
With Covid restrictions in place, Nikas said that just the electors will gather in the state Senate chambers to cast the votes before a federal judge. While Nikas said it’s exciting to serve as an elector, it was never a personal goal. He thinks it’s funny that he’s participating in what he considers an antiquated institution.
“This whole Electoral College thing is very old fashioned,” he said. “We don’t need to continue to rule ourselves as a democracy with things from 200 years ago, like this.”
In Oregon, like other states, voters don’t vote directly for presidential candidates but instead for a slate of electors nominated by each party. Under the U.S. Constitution, the number of each state’s electors is equal to its Congressional delegation.
The Democratic Party of Oregon designates the chairs of its five congressional districts as electors along with the party’s chair and vice-chair. After Democratic nominee Biden won Oregon with nearly 57% of the vote, the Democratic Party’s slate of electors was picked to cast their votes for the state.
As the chair of the Democratic Party’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Salem, Nikas was tapped as one of Oregon’s electors.
Only relatively recently did Nikas, who works as a real estate broker, get involved in politics and Biden wasn’t his first choice for president. Nikas said in 2015 he started volunteering for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bid for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
A long-time small business owner, Nikas said that affording health insurance for three or four employees has become increasingly difficult over the last five to 10 years. Nikas said he was drawn to Sanders’ call for a single-payer health care system, often called “Medicare for All.”
“That’s one of the things that really speaks to me,” he said. “We can’t get the same rates that you can for big businesses or major corporations, so it makes it hard for us to compete when trying to get good employees.”
While Sanders’ campaign was unsuccessful, Nikas said he started making friends with others involved in local politics and stayed involved. He went on to serve as the volunteer coordinator for Sally Cook’s successful campaign for Salem City Council in 2016. The same year, he became the chair of the Small Business Caucus for the Democratic Party of Oregon.
In 2018, the chair position for the party’s congressional district that includes Salem, became open. The chair is elected by a committee of delegates from the party’s county affiliates. Nikas figured that his skill set managing projects would be a good fit for duties that involve party building and directing volunteers to help with local campaigns.
Even though he supported Sanders’ 2020 presidential run, Nikas said he likes Biden too.
The Electoral College has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after giving Trump his 2016 victory despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. It’s also been criticized for giving smaller, rural and predominantly white states an outsized influence.
The Democratic Party of Oregon is among those calling for the president and vice president to be picked by the popular vote. Molly Woon, the party’s spokeswoman, said in an email that in 2018 the state Democratic Party made it a legislative priority for Oregon to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
The compact is an agreement among states to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote once enough join to pick the president. So far, 15 states and Washington, D.C. (accounting for 196 electoral votes) have joined. In 2019, the Oregon Legislature voted to enter the compact.
Nikas said that he can understand why the Electoral College might have been logistically useful to conduct a national election before modern communication and transportation infrastructure was available. But now the popular vote should pick the president and vice president, he said.
“We don’t need to operate the same way,” said Nikas.
Since becoming an elector, Nikas said he hasn’t encountered anyone upset that he’s part of the institution. Instead, his friends and family think it’s “a great gas, it’s kind of fun.” He’s also encountered people who know nothing about the Electoral College.
“And other people get kind of excited because you’re an elector they’re actually meeting,” he said. “I’ve never been famous or anything, so it’s a strange feeling.”
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Contact reporter Jake Thomas at 503-575-1251 or [email protected] or @jakethomas2009.
