| Presidential Elector |
Article Index for Presidential |
Website Links For United States |
Information AboutPresidential Elector |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT UNITED STATES ELECTORAL COLLEGE | |
| united states electoral collegeunited states electoral college | |
| united states presidential elections | |
| electoral college | |
| electoral systems | |
|
and 2008 ]] The United States Electoral College is a term used to describe the 538 Presidential Electors who meet quadrennially to cast the electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States; their votes represent the most important component of the presidential election. The Presidential Electors are elected by the "popular vote" on the day traditionally called "election day." Presidential Electors meet in their respective state capitol buildings (or in the District of Columbia) 41 days following "election day," never as a national body. At the 51 meetings, held on the same day, the Electors cast the electoral votes. The "electoral college," like the national convention, is an Indirect element in the process of electing the President. Provisions for the mechanics of presidential elections were established by Article Two , Section One, of the United States Constitution . The 12th Amendment provided that each Elector vote separately for president and vice president. Today, the mechanics of the presidential election are administered by the National Archives And Records Administration via its Office Of The Federal Register . Electors are chosen in a series of state elections held on the same day ("election day"). The number of electoral votes of each state is the sum of its number of U.S. Senators (always two) and its U.S. Representatives; the District of Columbia has three electoral votes. In each state, voters vote for a slate of pre-selected candidates for Presidential Elector, representing the various candidates for President. State ballots, however, are designed to suggest that the voters are voting for actual candidates for President. Most states use what is termed the "short ballot," in which a vote for one party (such as Democratic or Republican) is interpreted as a vote for the entire slate of Presidential Electors. In these states, with rare exceptions, one party wins the entire electoral vote of the state (by either plurality or majority). Maine and Nebraska choose Presidential Electors using what is termed the "Maine Method," which makes it possible for the voters to choose Electors of different political parties and "split" the electoral vote of these two states. The Presidential Electors of each state (and DC) meet 41 days following the "popular vote" to cast the electoral votes. The Electors ballot first for President, then for Vice President. On rare occasions, an Elector does not cast the electoral vote for the party's national ticket, usually as a political statement; these people are called " Faithless Electors ." Each Elector signs a document entitled the "Certificate of Vote" which sets forth the electoral vote of the state (or DC). One original Certificate of Vote is sent by certified mail to the Office of the Vice President. One month following the casting of the electoral votes, the U.S. Congress meets in joint session to declare the winner of the election. If a candidate for President receives the vote of 270 or more Presidential Electors, the presiding officer (usually the sitting Vice President) declares that candidate to be the ''president-elect'', and a candidate for vice president receiving 270 or more electoral votes is similarly declared to be the ''vice president-elect''. The process has several exceptions and provisos, which are considered in the main body of this article. The nature of the process and its complication have been critiqued, with its detractors raising several alternative means of electing the president. This issue was revisited following the Presidential Election of 2000 when Democratic candidate Al Gore won the majority of the national vote, but failed to win the majority of the Electoral College. Advocates of the current system have similarly set forth arguments for its advantages. ELECTORAL COLLEGE MECHANICS The election of the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States is Indirect . Presidential electors are selected on a state by state basis as determined by the laws of each state. Currently each state uses the popular vote on Election Day to appoint electors. Although ballots list the names of the presidential candidates, voters within the 50 states and the District Of Columbia are actually choosing Electors from their state when they vote for President and Vice President. These Presidential Electors in turn cast the official (electoral) votes for those two offices. Although the nationwide popular vote is calculated by official and media organizations, it does not determine the winner of the election. Apportionment of electors The present allotment of electors by state is shown in the article List Of U.S. States By Population . The size of the electoral college has been set at 538 since the election of 1964. Each state is allocated as many electors as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress . Since the most populous states have the most seats in congress, they also have the most electors. The states with the most are California (55), followed by Texas (34) and New York (31). The smallest states by population, Alaska , Delaware , Montana , North Dakota , South Dakota , Vermont , and Wyoming , have three electors each. Because the Number Of Representatives For Each State is determined Decennially by the United States Census , the electoral votes for each state are also determined by the Census every ten years. The number of electors is equal to the total membership of both houses of Congress (100 Senators and 435 Representatives) plus the 3 electors allocated to the District Of Columbia , totaling 538 electors. A candidate must receive a majority of votes from the electoral college (currently 270) to win the Presidency. If in either election for President or Vice-President no one receives a majority, the election is determined by Congress (the House votes with each state's delegation casting one vote for presidential candidates, and the Senate votes for vice presidential candidates). Under the 23rd Amendment , the District of Columbia is allocated as many Electors as it would have if it were a state, except that it cannot have more Electors than the least populous state. The least populous state (currently Wyoming ) has 3 Electors, so the District cannot have more than 3 Electors. However, without this restriction, the population of the District of Columbia would still entitle it to only 3 electors. In fact, based on its population per electoral vote, the District of Columbia is the second most highly represented portion of the electorate, after Wyoming.http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html 2006 Census estimates How states currently select electors Presidential elector candidates are nominated by their state political parties in the summer before the Election Day. Each state provides its own means for the nomination of electors. In some states, such as Oklahoma, the Electors are nominated in primaries the same way that other candidates are nominated. Other states, such as Virginia and North Carolina, nominate electors in party conventions. In Pennsylvania, the campaign committees of the candidates name their candidates for Presidential Elector (an attempt to discourage Faithless Electors ). All states require the names of all Electors to be filed with the Secretary of State (or equivalent) at least a month prior to election day. However, under the 14th Amendment , candidates who hold a federal office are barred from being electors (an error made, but corrected, before both the 2000 and 2004 elections {Link without Title} ). On election day, voters cast ballots for slates of Presidential Electors pledged to the candidates for president and vice president. In most states, the candidates who win the popular vote have their entire slate of Electors elected. At the time of the state canvass of the vote, the Secretary of State (or equivalent) signs a special form called the Certificate of Ascertainment which sets forth the people appointed to the office of Presidential Elector, along with the number of votes cast for every party's slate of Elector nominees. These Certificates of Ascertainment are forwarded to the Office of the Vice President to be used to verify that the people who cast the electoral votes are in fact the people who were elected for that purpose. Two states do not elect the Presidential Electors as a single slate. Maine and Nebraska elect two electors by a statewide ballot and choose their remaining Electors by congressional district. The method has been used in Maine since 1972 and Nebraska since 1991 , though neither has split its electoral votes in modern elections. State Meetings of Presidential Electors The Presidential Electors meet in their respective state capitals (or DC) 41 days following election day, at which time they cast their electoral votes. The "electoral college" never meets as one national body. Although the procedure in each state varies, the Electors generally follow a similar series of steps. The meeting is opened by the election certification official (often the secretary of state), who reads the Certificate of Ascertainment - the document setting forth who was chosen to cast the electoral votes. Those present answer to their name, and they then fill any vacancies in their number. The next step is the selection of a President or Chairman of the meeting, sometimes with a vice chairman also. The Electors sometimes choose a Secretary, often not an Elector, to take the minutes of the meeting. In many states, political officials give short speeches at this point in the proceedings. When the time for balloting arrives, the Electors choose one or two people to act as tellers. Some states provide for the placing in nomination of a candidate to receive the electoral votes (the candidate for President of the political party of the Electors). Each Elector submits a written ballot with the name of a candidate for President. In New Jersey, the Electors cast ballots by checking the name of the candidate on a pre-printed card; in North Carolina, the Electors write the name of the candidate on a blank card. The tellers count the ballots and announce the result. The next step is the casting of the vote for Vice President, which follows a similar pattern. After the voting is complete, the Electors complete the "Certificate of Vote." This documents states the number of electoral votes cast for President and Vice President. The state election official usually has pre-printed forms ready, and the tellers usually only write down the number of votes cast for appropriate candidates. Five copies of the Certificate of Vote are completed and signed by each Elector. Multiple copies of the Certificate of Vote are signed, in order to provide multiple originals in case one is lost. One copy is sent to President of the U.S. Senate (the sitting Vice President of the United States) by certified mail. A staff member of the Office of the Vice President collects the Certificates of Vote as they arrive and prepares them for the joint session of Congress. The Certificates are arranged in alphabetical order and placed in two special mahogany boxes. The states Alabama through Missouri (including DC) are placed in one box, and the states Montana through Wyoming are placed in the second box. Faithless electors See Also: Faithless elector A Faithless Elector is one who casts an electoral vote for someone other than whom they have pledged to elect. On 158 occasions, electors have not cast their votes for president or vice president to whom they were pledged. Of those, 71 votes were changed because the original candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote. Two votes were not cast at all when electors chose to abstain from casting their electoral vote for any candidate. The remaining 85 were changed by the elector's personal interest or perhaps by accident. Usually, the faithless electors act alone. An exception was in 1836 when 23 Virginia electors changed their vote together. In that year, Martin Van Buren's Vice Presidential running mate, Richard Johnson, did not receive the minimum votes to become the Vice President but ultimately won the office on the first ballot by the United States Senate in 1837. There are laws to punish faithless electors in 24 states. While no faithless elector has ever been punished, the constitutionality of state ''pledge'' laws was brought before the Supreme Court in 1952 ('' Ray V. Blair '', 343 U.S. 214). The court ruled in favor of state laws requiring electors to pledge to vote for the winning candidate, as well as remove electors who refuse to pledge. As stated in the ruling, electors are acting as a function of the state, not the federal government. Therefore, states have the right to govern electors. The constitutionality of state laws punishing electors for actually casting a faithless vote, rather than refusing to pledge, has never been decided by the Supreme Court. In any event, a state may only punish a faithless elector after-the-fact; it has no power to change his or her vote. As electoral slates are normally chosen by the political party and/or the party's presidential nominee, electors are usually those with high loyalty to the party and its candidate, and a faithless elector runs a greater risk of party censure than governmental action. Joint Session of Congress and the Contingent Election Federal law mandates that Congress assemble in joint session on the sixth day of the calendar year following the meetings of the Presidential Electors to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election.http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode03/usc_sup_01_3_10_1.html 3 U.S. Code, Chapter 1. The meeting is held at 1:00 p.m. in the hall of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Vice President is expected to preside, but in several cases the President Pro Tempore of the Senate has presided. The Vice President and the Speaker of the House sit at the podium, with the Vice President in the seat of the Speaker of the House. Senate pages bring in the two mahogany boxes and place them on tables in front of the Senators and Representatives. Each branch appoints two tellers to count the vote. Relevant portions of the Certificate of Vote are read for each state, in alphabetical order. If there are no objections, the presiding officer declares the result of the vote and, if applicable, states who was elected President and Vice President. The Senators then depart from the House chamber. If no candidate for President receives an absolute electoral majority 270 votes out of the 538 possible, then the new House Of Representatives is required to go into session immediately to vote for President. In this case, the House of Representatives chooses from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each state delegation has a single vote, decided by majority decision (an evenly divided state delegation is considered to abstain). A candidate receiving the majority of votes of all states (currently 26) is declared the ''president-elect.'' If no candidate receives a majority, the House proceeds to a second ballot and continues balloting until a candidate receives a majority of the state unit votes. This situation would most likely occur only when more than two candidates receive electoral votes, but could theoretically happen in a two-person contest if each received exactly 269 electoral votes. As Of 2007 , the Democratic Party controls 26 state delegations, and the Republican Party controls 20. If no candidate for Vice President receives an absolute majority of electoral votes, then the United States Senate must do the same, with the top two vote getters for that office as candidates. The Senate votes in the normal manner in this case, not by States. If the Senate is evenly split on the matter, then the sitting Vice President is entitled to cast a tie-breaking vote. If the House of Representatives has not chosen a winner in time for the inauguration (noon on January 20 ), then the Twentieth Amendment specifies that the new Vice President becomes Acting President until the House selects a President. If the winner of the Vice Presidential election is not known by then either, then under the Presidential Succession Act Of 1947 , the Speaker of the House of Representatives would become Acting President until the House selects a President or the Senate selects a Vice President. As Of 2004 , the House of Representatives has chosen the President on two occasions, in 1800 and in 1824 . The Senate has chosen the Vice President once, in 1837 . HISTORY The Electoral College is intended to dilute the votes of population centers that may have different concerns from the majority of the country. The system is designed to require presidential candidates to appeal to many different types of interests, rather than those of a specific region or state. The College enabled the Founding Fathers to deftly incorporate the Connecticut Compromise and Three-fifths Compromise into the system of choosing the President and Vice President, sparing the convention further acrimony over the issue of state representation. In the Federalist Papers No. 39, James Madison argued that the Constitution was designed to be a mixture of Federal (state-based) and National (population-based) government. The Congress would have two houses, one federal and one national in character, while the President would be elected by a mixture of the two modes, giving some electoral power to the states and some to the people in general. Both the Congress and the President would be elected by mixed federal and national means. {Link without Title} Historical precedent for indirect election Original plan The term "Electoral College" is not used in the United States Constitution, and it was not until the early 1800s that it came into general usage as the designation for the group of citizens selected to cast votes for President and Vice President. It was first written into Federal law in 1845 , and today the term appears in , in the section heading and in the text as "college of electors." Article II, Section 1, Clause II of the Constitution says, "Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector." It then goes on to describe how the electors vote for President. ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF CHOOSING ELECTORS The current system of choosing Presidential Electors is called the "short ballot." In all states, voters choose among slates of candidates for the associated Elector; only a few states list the names of the Presidential Electors on the ballot. (In some states, if a voter wishes to write in a candidate for president, the voter also is required to write in the names of candidates for Elector.) Before the advent of the "short ballot" in the early twentieth century, the most common means of electing the Presidential Electors was through the "General Ticket." The General Ticket is quite similar to the current system and is often confused with it. In the General Ticket, voters cast ballots for individuals running for Presidential Elector (while in the short ballot, voters cast ballots for an entire slate of Electors). In the General Ticket, the state canvass would report the number of votes cast for each candidate for Elector, a complicated process in states like New York with multiple positions to fill. Both the General Ticket and the short ballot are often considered At Large or winner-takes-all voting. The short ballot was adopted by the various states at different times; it was adopted for use by North Carolina and Ohio in 1932 (possibly the first year in which it was used). Alabama was still using the General Ticket as late as 1960 and was one of the last states to switch to the short ballot. Interstate compact This proposal calls for an Interstate Compact whereby individual states agree to allocate their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The agreement is triggered only upon a certain threshold of states enacting electoral reallocation legislation. The state legislatures together would then establish a Direct Vote and effectively circumvent the Electoral College system if enough electoral votes switch. The National Popular Vote Plan recommends that the present manner of allocating electors shall remain in force until enough states have signed on as to account for a majority of electoral votes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|