The Electoral College

Allocating Electors Among The States

• Each state has electors equal to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress.

• In addition, per the Twenty-third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the District of Columbia has been granted electors as though it were a state.

• Even though the political parties hold primary elections in U.S. territories, U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College.

Allocating Electors Within The States

• Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have adopted a winner-take-all popular vote system:

• the candidate who wins the most votes in the state wins the support of all of that state’s electors.

• In two states, Maine (4 electors) and Nebraska (5 electors), a single elector is allocated within each Congressional district and two electors are chosen by statewide popular vote.

• Maine initiated this practice in 1972; Nebraska, 1992.

Casting The Electoral Votes

• Electors meet in their respective state capitals on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December to cast their electoral votes on separate ballots for President and Vice President.

• Each elector casts one vote for President and one vote for Vice President.

• Electors are technically free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, but in practice an elector pledges to vote for a specific candidate.

The Congressional Certification Of Election

• The Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandates that the Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners (president and vice president) of the election.

• Subsequent federal law sets the date for this joint session of Congress: the sixth day of January in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors.

• The meeting is held at 1:00 p.m. EST in U.S. House of Representatives, and each chamber appoints two tellers to count the vote. If there are no objections, the presiding officer declares the result of the vote. To be valid, an objection must be lodged by both a Senator and a Representative.

Determining The Winners of The Election

• In order to be elected, a candidate must have a majority (since 1964, at least 270) of the electoral votes.

• Should no candidate for President win a majority of the electoral votes, the decision is referred to the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Should no candidate for Vice President possess a majority of the electoral votes, the decision is referred to the U.S. Senate.

Presidential Election By The House of Representatives

• Should there be an electoral vote tie (such as 269-to-269) or no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes (such as 268-267-3), then the U.S. House of Representatives must go into session immediately to select the President.

• The U.S. Constitution limits the House to selecting from the top three Presidential candidates.

• Each state delegation has only one vote and the District of Columbia does not have a vote.

• A candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes (26) to become the President-elect.

Vice Presidential Election By The Senate

• If no candidate for Vice President receives an absolute majority of electoral votes, then the Senate must elect a Vice President.

• The U.S. Constitution limits the Senate to selecting from the top two Vice Presidential candidates.

• At least two-thirds of the Senate must be present for balloting to take place.

• Each state receives two votes, per normal Senate rules.

• According to the Twelfth Amendment, a majority of the whole Senate (51 votes today) is required for election.

http://uspolitics.about.com/od/presidenc1/tp/electoral_college.htm

How The Electoral College Works

The Trouble With The Electoral College

Proposed Reforms• District Plan: This method divides electoral votes by district,

allocating one vote to each district and using the remaining two as a bonus for the statewide popular vote winner.

• Proportional Plan: As a popular alternative, it splits each state’s electoral votes in accordance with their popular vote percentages. This way, a candidate who come in second place in a state with 45% of the popular vote would receive 45% of the electoral votes from that state, instead of 0%.

• Direct Popular Election: The people vote for their candidate, and whoever gets the majority becomes the President. If there is no majority then there are a couple ideas... either with a preference vote with a complicated instant run-off method (don’t worry about the details) or by using a “plurality” rather than a “majority” the person with the most votes wins.

• National Popular Vote Plan: Under the National Popular Vote (NPV) plan, states agree to allocate all of their electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide.

National Popular Vote Plan• The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to

the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

• The bill has been enacted by 11 jurisdictions possessing 165 electoral votes—61% of the 270 electoral votes necessary to activate it, including four small jurisdictions (RI, VT, HI, DC), three medium-size states (MD, MA, WA), and four big states (NJ, IL, NY, CA). The bill has passed a total of 33 legislative chambers in 22 states—most recently by a bipartisan 28–18 vote in the Oklahoma Senate, a 57–4 vote in New York Senate, and a 102–33 vote in NY Assembly.

• The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from state winner-take-all statutes (i.e., state laws that award all of a state's electoral votes to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each separate state).

• Because of these state winner-take-all statutes, presidential candidates have no reason to pay attention to the issues of concern to voters in states where the statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion. In 2012, four out of five states were ignored (see map). Two-thirds of the general-election campaign events (176 of 253) were in just 4 states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and Iowa).

• State winner-take-all statutes adversely affect governance. “Battleground” states receive 7% more federal grants than “spectator” states, twice as many presidential disaster declarations, more Superfund enforcement exemptions, and more No Child Left Behind law exemptions.

• Also, state winner-take-all statutes have allowed candidates to win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide in four of our 57 presidential elections—1 in 14 times. A shift of 59,393 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have elected John Kerry despite President Bush's nationwide lead of over 3,000,000 votes. A shift of 214,393 votes in 2012 would have elected Mitt Romney despite President Obama's nationwide lead of almost 5,000,000 votes.

• The U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1) gives the states exclusive control over awarding their electoral votes: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors…." The winner-take-all rule was used by only three states in 1789.

• The National Popular Vote interstate compact would not take effect until enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough to elect a President (270 of 538). Under the compact, the winner would be the candidate who received the most popular votes from all 50 states (and DC) on Election Day. When the Electoral College meets in mid-December, the national popular vote winner would receive all of the electoral votes of the enacting states.

• The bill ensures that every vote, in every state, will matter in every presidential election.

• The National Popular Vote bill preserves the Electoral College and state control of elections.

April 15, 2014 — New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the National Popular Vote bill, making New York the 10th jurisdiction to

enact the bill, and giving the National Popular Vote bill 61% of the 270 electoral votes needed to bring it into effect.

Fin