The Electoral College

On Thursday, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, proposed an overhaul of America’s presidential election laws that included awarding the presidency based on popular vote, instead of using the Electoral College. “The goal is simple: one person, one vote,” Nelson said.

Many people, however, don’t know much about the Electoral College, but this will explain how the electoral college system works and what role your vote will play.

A BRIEF HISTORY

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution first designed the Electoral College and stated that each state was allocated a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives. It was supposed to work without political parties and without national campaigns while maintaining balance.

It lasted through only four elections following the emergence of political parties, when in 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (both of the Democratic-Republican Party) received the same number of votes. The tie was resolved by the House of Representatives after 36 tries and led to the Twelfth Amendment.

The Twelfth Amendment requires that each elector cast a single vote for president and a separate vote for vice president rather than casting two votes for president with the runner-up being made vice president. The Amendment also stipulates that if no one receives an absolute majority of electoral votes for president, the U.S. House of Representatives will select the president from among the top three candidates with each state casting one vote. If no one receives an absolute majority for vice president, the U.S. Senate will select the vice president from among the top two candidates.

CHOOSING ELECTORS

Although the individual party candidates for elector are seldom listed on the ballot, the expression “Electors for” usually appears on the ballot in front of each set of candidates for president and vice president, or else the state law specifies that votes cast for candidates are to be counted as being for the delegates pledged to those candidates). For this reason, voters are actually casting a vote for the electors of presidential and vice presidential candidates rather than the candidates themselves.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE TODAY

Each state is allocated 2 electors based on its number of U.S. Senators plus the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade according to the size of each state’s population).

The political parties or independent candidates in each state submit to the state’s chief election official a list of individuals pledged to their candidate for president and equal in number to the state’s electoral vote.

Members of Congress and employees of the federal government are prohibited from serving as an elector.

After their caucuses and primaries, major parties nominate their candidates for president and vice president in their national conventions, typically held in the summer preceding the election.

On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November in years divisible by four, people in each state cast ballots for the party slate of electors representing their choice for president and vice president.

The presidential ticket which gets the most popular votes in a state wins all the electors of that state. (Maine and Nebraska are exceptions; two electors are chosen by statewide popular vote and the remainder by the popular vote within each congressional district.)

On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December, each state’s electors meet in their state capitals and cast their electoral votes — one for president and one for vice president.

In order to prevent electors from voting only for “favorite sons” of their home state, at least one of their votes must be for a person from outside their state. (This is typically not a problem since parties nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates from different states.)

The electoral votes are sealed and transmitted from each state to the President of the Senate who, on the following January 6, opens and reads them before both houses of Congress.

The candidate for president with the most electoral votes is declared president; the same applies to vice president.

In the event no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral votes for president, the U.S. House of Representatives selects the president from among the top three candidates with each state casting only one vote and an absolute majority of the states being required to elect. The same applies to the vice president; however, the U.S. Senate makes the selection.

At noon on January 20, the duly elected president and vice president are sworn into office.

CONCLUSION

The Electoral College has existed for over 200 years in over 50 presidential elections but several attempts have been made to get rid of it. What do you think? Should the Electoral College be abolished?

Related Links/ References:
Wikipedia
How Stuff Works
FEC Office of Election Administration

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