The
Electoral College decides who will be elected the U.S. President and Vice President
of the U.S.
The reason
there is an Electoral College is due to a compromise and many factors in 1787:
·
Fear of a
very charismatic speaker winning a popular vote of the voters
·
There were
no political parties
·
The extant
13 States had very slow and poor communications (horses):
o
No Radio
o
No Telegraph
o
No Phones
o
No TV
o
No Internet
·
A compromise
with Slaveholder States for them to sign the ratification of the Constitution:
o
Due to the
importance of the number of Representatives of each States’ Legislature,
Slaveholder States demanded their slaves be counited as 3/5 a person
·
Women could
not vote
·
Slaves could
not vote
·
Indians
could not vote
·
Other
non-Whites could not vote
·
Poor White
men could not vote
What is the
Electoral College?
The
Electoral College is not a physical place. It is a process which includes the:
·
Selection of
electors
·
Meeting of
electors who cast votes for the President and Vice president
·
Counting of
the electors’ votes by Congress
In other
U.S. elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote. But the President and Vice President
are not elected directly by citizens. Instead, they are chosen through the
Electoral College process. The process of using electors comes from the U.S. Constitution (Article
II, Section 1; amended by the 12th Amendment.)
Who is in
the Electoral College?
Each State
gets as many electors as it has members of the U.S. Congress (House and
Senate). Including Washington, D.C.’s 3 electors (see 23rdAmendment), there are 538 electors in all (435 House, 100 Senate & 3
Wash DC). Each State’s political parties choose their own slate of
potential electors.
How does the
Electoral College process work?
After you
cast your ballot for President, your vote goes to a statewide tally. In 48 of
the 50 States (and Washington DC), the winner gets all the electoral votes for
that State. Maine and Nebraska assign their electors using a proportional
system.
A Presidential
candidate needs at least 270 of the 538 electors’ votes (50% of 538 + 1 --- to
win).
In most
cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you
vote. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when
the electors meet in their States. While the Constitution does not require
electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their State's popular vote, some States
do. The rare elector who votes for someone else may be fined, disqualified, and
replaced by a substitute elector. Or they may even be prosecuted by their
state.
What happens
if no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes?
If no
candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of
Representatives. However,
the Constitution specifies in Article II, Section 1 that if this occurs, there
are 2 requirements:
·
A majority
of States must be present for the vote
·
Each State
only gets 1 vote
How to
change the Electoral College
The
Electoral College process is in the U.S. Constitution. It would take a
constitutional amendment to change the process.
