Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland is wishing now that she had stayed awake more often in her political science classes years ago.

        Because now the Cleveland Republican finds herself as part of the curriculum in a real-life civics lesson in the biggest college of them all — the Electoral College.

Deborah Burstion-Donbraye (left), who worked for George W. Bush, says she won't change her electoral vote. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        “This Electoral College thing is no longer just political theory for me. This is real,” said Ms. Burstion-Donbraye, one of Ohio's 21 electors. A former journalist who worked in George W. Bush's administration in Texas, she now heads up the Ohio Republican Party's minority outreach program.

        The 538 Americans who gather in state capitols after a presidential election every four years to cast their states' electoral votes are usually relegated to the back pages, performing a necessary but unglamorous task.

        But this year, with an astonishingly close presidential contest that may not be decided for weeks, suddenly the electors are figures of substance.

        In the Electoral College system, each state is allocated a number of electors equal to its number of U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats. In the case of Ohio, that number is 21. In Kentucky, it's eight.

        Before the election, each party submits to the Ohio secretary of state a list of 21 electors it wants to cast its electoral votes, should the party's candidate win the state's popular vote.

        The same process took place before the election in Kentucky.

        The people selected are usually those active in party affairs, like Ms. Burstion-Donbraye; people who raise large amounts of money for the party, like Cincinnati businessman Mercer Reynolds; or state and local elected officials, like Ohio House Speaker JoAnn Davidson.

        In Ohio, Kentucky and all but two states — Nebraska and Maine — the winner of the state popular vote takes all the electoral votes, meaning that only the people on the list submitted by the winning candidate's party cast ballots.

        If electors change their mind and cast a ballot for a candidate who did not win the popular vote in Ohio, they can be found guilty of a misdemeanor criminal offense.

        After the votes are cast Dec. 18, they are sealed and sent to the president of the U.S. Senate — Vice President Al Gore — who will open them and read them to Congress in early January.

        Ms. Burstion-Donbraye said there is no chance she would change her vote and doubts that any other Ohio elector will.

        “When someone suggests that,” Ms. Burstion-Donbraye said, “it gets my gag reflex going.”

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