U.S. Electoral College

U.S. Electoral College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How it works
Election for President and Vice President of the United States is indirect, for which voting takes place every 4 years in November. Although ballots typically list the names of the Presidential candidates, voters within the 50 states and the District of Columbia actually choose electors when they vote for President and Vice President. These electors in turn cast the official votes for those two offices.

In most states and in D.C., the plurality winner of the popular vote for President within that state receives all of the state's electors, while all other candidates receive none. Only in Maine and Nebraska does the election follow a model more closely based on Congressional Elections: For each congressional district in those two states, the plurality winner of that district receives one "Represenative-like" elector, while the two "Senator-like" electors are given to the plurality winner of the whole state. Neither of the two has actually split its vote as of yet, but many observers believe Maine will split in 2004. Colorado has a vote on introducing yet another system in 2004, simple proportional representation; see below.

Each state's electors meet in their state capitals in December (on first Monday following the second Wednesday, i.e. whatever Monday occurs between December 13th and December 19th inclusive), at which time they cast their electoral votes. Thus the electoral college never meets as one body. The electoral votes are then sealed and sent to the President of the Senate (the current Vice President of the United States), who retains them until the new Congress convenes in January. At that time, the votes are opened and counted in the presence of both houses of Congress. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for President becomes President, and the candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for Vice President becomes Vice-President.

If no candidate receives an absolute electoral majority for President, then the new House of Representatives is required to go into session immediately to vote for President. In this case, the top three electoral vote getters for President are the candidates for the House of Representatives to select from, and the House votes en-bloc by state for this purpose (that is, one vote per state, which is determined by the majority decision of the delegation from that state; if a state delegation is evenly split that state is considered as abstaining). This vote would be repeated if necessary until one candidate receives the votes of more than half the state delegations -- at least 26 state votes, given the current quantity of 50 states in the union.

If no candidate receives an absolute majority of electoral votes for Vice President, then the 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. It is unclear if the sitting Vice President would be entitled to cast his usual tie-breaking vote if the Senate should be evenly split on the matter.

If the House of Representatives has not chosen a winner in time for the inauguration (noon on January 20), then the Consitution specifies that the new Vice President becomes Acting President until the House selects a President. If the winner of the Vice Presidental election is not known by then either, then under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Speaker of the House would become Acting President until the House selects a President.

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Electors
The number of electors assigned to each state is equal to the total number of Senators (always 2) and Representatives that the state has in Congress, but no federal officer or employee, including Senators and Representatives, may serve as an elector. However, electors may be elected state officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate. With the adoption of the 23rd Amendment in 1961, the District of Columbia is treated as a state for purposes of electoral votes, but can in no event choose more electors than the least populous state. (However even without this provision the District's population would have to at least double compared to the 2000 census before it was entitled to more than the minimum 3 electoral college votes.)

There are currently 538 electoral votes available in each presidential election (100 Senators + 435 Represenatives + 3 votes for D.C. = 538 electoral votes). Therefore, candidates must receive a majority of 270 electoral votes to become President and Vice President. In theory even in a pure two-party race, a candidate could win the election by receiving only 23% of all popular votes, if these were distributed in an (for him) ideal way. The fact that there is an even number of electoral votes available since the passing of the 23rd amendment makes a 269/269 tie conceivable, although none has occurred yet. In that case the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives even though only two candidates received any electoral votes.

In most states, the names of the electors do not appear on the ballot at all; instead, a notation on the ballot indicates that voters are selecting the "electors for" followed by the names of the candidates for President and for Vice President. In all but two states, the party that wins the most popular votes selects all of that state's electors, essentially a winner-take-all. In many states, the electors are legally free to cast their votes for anyone they choose, although in some states to vote for someone other than their pledged candidate is a misdemeanor crime, in others a felony, and in a few it is merely illegal without penalty.

In practice, however, electors very rarely vote for a candidate they are not pledged to (as they are chosen by the political parties specifically for voting for that candidate), except as a form of protest vote. Individuals choosing to do this are often referred to as "faithless electors" about which, more below. While it's uncommon to know in advance that an elector may be inclined to vote in an unexpected fashion, recent [Oct-04] news reports (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04284/392803.stm) suggest that South Charleston WV mayor Richie Robb, one of his state's electors, is threatening to do so. Of course if a 269/269 tie was looming on the horizon after Election Day, more electors might see a reason to switch sides, simply to avoid the election being drawn out until January by going into the House of Representatives.

Read the whole article at the link above. Recently, I was asked by a Canadian why we had the electoral college-so here is the anwser. Just wanted to do a little research to make sure I gave him the best reasons!