How the Electoral College Works
The current workings of the Electoral College are the result of
both design and
experience. As it now operates:
- Each State is allocated a number of Electors equal to the
number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its
U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade according to
the size of each State's population as determined in the
Census).
- 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. Usually, the major
political parties select these individuals either in their State
party conventions or through appointment by their State party
leaders while third parties and independent candidates merely
designate theirs.
- Members of Congress and employees of the federal government
are prohibited from serving as an Elector in order to maintain
the balance between the legislative and executive branches of
the federal government.
- After their caucuses and primaries, the major parties nominate
their candidates for president and vice president in their
national conventions traditionally held in the summer preceding
the election. (Third parties and independent candidates follow
different procedures according to the individual State laws).
The names of the duly nominated candidates are then officially
submitted to each State's chief election official so that they
might appear on the general election ballot.
- On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November in years
divisible by four, the people in each State cast their ballots
for the party slate of Electors representing their choice for
president and vice president (although as a matter of practice,
general election ballots normally say "Electors for" each set of
candidates rather than list the individual Electors on each
slate).
- Whichever party slate wins the most popular votes in the State
becomes that State's Electors-so that, in effect, whichever
presidential ticket gets the most popular votes in a State wins
all the Electors of that State. [The two exceptions to this are
Maine and Nebraska where 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 (as
established in federal law) each State's Electors meet in their
respective 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 (though this is seldom a
problem since the parties have consistently nominated
presidential and vice presidential candidates from different
States).
- The electoral votes are then 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 the
Congress.
- The candidate for president with the most electoral votes,
provided that it is an absolute majority (one over half of the
total), is declared president. Similarly, the vice presidential
candidate with the absolute majority of electoral votes is
declared vice president.
- In the event no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral
votes for president, the U.S. House of Representatives (as the
chamber closest to the people) selects the president from among
the top three contenders with each State casting only one vote
and an absolute majority of the States being required to elect.
Similarly, if no one obtains an absolute majority for vice
president, then the U.S. Senate makes the selection from among
the top two contenders for that office.
- At noon on January 20, the duly elected president and vice
president are sworn into office.
Occasionally questions arise about what would happen if the
pesidential or vice
presidential candidate died at some point in this process.For
answers to these, as well as
to a number of other "what if" questions, readers are advised to
consult a small
volume entitled After the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the
President edited by
Walter Berns and published in 1983 by the American Enterprise
Institute. Similarly,
further details on the history and current functioning of the
Electoral College are
available in the second edition of Congressional Quarterly's
Guide to U.S. Elections,
a real goldmine of information, maps, and statistics.
Electoral
College Homepage