Elections, Electors, and the Electoral College
By Janet Newlan Bower
The Electoral College is an example of the interdependency and the sovereignty of the government of the United States and the 50 individual states. It is this meeting of delegates to the Electoral College, representatives from each state, that elects the nation’s president and vice-president at their state level. The Electors meet only at the state level, there is no national gathering. (Please see the Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 1.)
Every four years, preliminary to the election of the presidency, the states each gather as many electors as it has U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives from each political party running a presidential candidate.
The total number of possible electoral votes is 535, the total number of representatives to Congress, plus 3 from the District of Columbia (23rd Amendment, 1961.) The electoral voting throughout the country at the individual state level is known as the Electoral College. These votes are sent to Congress to be counted. The candidate who wins a majority of Electors’ votes, 270 or majority plus 1, is elected President. The electors hold a second vote, at the same time, for Vice President.
How do states determine the Electors? Each political party running a candidate for president that election is asked to submit a list of potential Electors to their state’s Secretary of State. This is done several months in advance to give state officials time to check the proposed elector’s qualifications. There are some limitations on electors such as neither members of congress nor federal employees may participate. The electors are to be independent citizens.
Political parties usually select potential Electors who donate large amounts of money or spend much time volunteering, or both. It is an honor to be selected as a pontiential Elector.
Presidential elections are held every four years, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. It is here the public influences the outcome of the election by voting for the political party it supports. While each party in the state puts forth a number of Electors, the candidate’s name is provided to save printing costs and voter frustration.
The political party that wins the majority of public votes on election day will send it’s Electors to the state capital . All but two states, at the current time, assume a winner-takes-all policy. Nebraska and Maine require proportional representation.
So, you say, in a way the public does determine who will win the presidency–not exactly.
Once the general election is held, the governor of each state submits a Certificate of Ascertainment to Congress and the National Archives. It lists the names of those candidates running for President and Vice President with the names of the Electors who represent them. It also states the winner of the election and the Electors who will meet at the state capitol.
Those chosen Electors will meet at their state capitol on the first Monday after third Wednesday of December and cast their vote. Each elector may vote for whomever he or she wishes for President and for Vice President separately. It makes no difference who the party supported, it is entirely up to the elector for whom to vote. The vote is public so the electors’ decisions will be known immediately.
How can the states guarantee the electors will vote for the persons supported by their party? The states cannot make such a guarantee. Each elector is free to vote for whomever he or she wants. There are only 15 incidences of an Elector voting against his or her party in our entire history
Is this a threat to the public’s vote? No.
The Constitution uses a number of psychological techniques in its application of democratic-representative government. If a person has spent a great deal of money or time with a party, would that person commit political suicide by voting against the candidates? Not likely.
Once the Electors have voted a Certificate of Vote is prepared at their meeting. The votes are recorded on this certificate and it, too, is sent to Congress and the National Archives.
On January 6th of the next year both houses of Congress meet to count the electoral votes. The President of the Senate presides and will announce the election of the President and the Vice President.
If a majority is not received for the presidency, the election moves to the House of Representatives where each state has one vote. The Senate is responsible for electing the Vice President if no majority of electoral votes is received.
The President-Elect will take the oath of office on January 20th.
The original electoral concept held a major flaw that became apparent as soon as political party identification began in 1796. George Washington, elected in 1789 and 1792, refused to identify with the growing political divisions into parties. He, and others, felt if this identification continued, eventually politicians would put party ahead of country. And that’s what such identification did.
The election of 1796 saw John Adams elected President. Thomas Jefferson received the second most votes in the Electoral College and was elected Vice President. This conflict in political and economic philosophy, Federalist versus Jeffersonian Republican, led to a disastrous four years for Adams as Jefferson bedeviled him at every turn.
The loophole in the electoral process was epitomized in the election of 1800. Thomas Jefferson, and his running mate, Aaron Burr, won the election. However, the final decision was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives since both had received the same number of electoral votes.
As the House votes for President, it votes by state with each state having one vote. On the first vote Jefferson and Burr received the same number of votes, as they did in the second and third and further votes. Finally Jefferson suggested to Burr that he step down for a vote, then Jefferson would be elected President. Burr could then run and be elected Vice President.
This sounded good to everyone except Burr, who thought perhaps the House really wanted him president rather than Jefferson. After 35 votes, the Federalists finally agreed to support Jefferson, giving him the presidency. Burr was then elected Vice President. There was a chill in the White House.
Jefferson was so angry he instructed the Jeffersonian Republican leaders in both houses (the party also took control of both houses in Congress) to create a constitutional amendment that would prevent such a fiasco from every happening again.
Both houses of Congress voted to approve the 12th Amendment. It was sent to the states and agreed to by two-thirds of them. It states that electors will vote twice, once for the president and once for the vice-president. The restriction of only one vote for one’s state’s candidate remained.
The 12th Amendment completed the election process for the two most important offices in the administrative branch of government. Other amendments added voters to the public’s participation, but the actual system of election was finalized under Jefferson’s presidency.
The Electoral College is a reflection of the federalist system of government in the United States. There is no “federal” government, that was a nick-name given the United States’ military in the American Civil War; much like the moniker, Uncle Sam, given to the government of the United States during WWI.
The government of the United States is a sovereign entity with the ability to strongly affect the lives of those within it’s borders if the occasion demands. But the 50 states are also sovereign governments with strong influence of the citizens within it’s borders. Both the national and state governments must cooperate together to make this country function efficiently. The election of the President and Vice-President is just one example of American federalism in action.
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Copyright 2015 Janet Newlan Bower
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