Frequently Asked
Questions about the U.S. Electoral College
(Information
courtesy of the NARA
- Federal Register)
How did the
terms "Elector" and "Electoral College" come into usage?
The term "electoral
college" does not appear in the Constitution.
Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to
"electors," but not to the "electoral college." In the Federalist
Papers (No. 68), Alexander Hamilton refers to the process of selecting
the Executive, and refers to "the people of each State (who) shall
choose a number of persons as electors," but he does not use the term
"electoral college."
The founders
appropriated the concept of electors from the Holy
Roman Empire (962 - 1806). An elector was one of a number of princes of
the various German states within the Holy Roman Empire who had a right
to participate in the election of the German king (who generally was
crowned as emperor). The term "college" (from the Latin collegium),
refers to a body of persons that act as a unit, as in the college of
cardinals who advise the Pope and vote in papal elections. In the early
1800's, the term "electoral college" came into general usage as the
unofficial designation for the group of citizens selected to cast votes
for President and Vice President. It was first written into Federal law
in 1845, and today the term appears in 3 U.S.C. section 4, in the
section heading and in the text as "college of electors."
Who selects
the Electors?
The process for
selecting electors varies throughout the United
States. Generally, the political parties nominate electors at their
State party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee
in each State. Electors are often selected to recognize their service
and dedication to their political party. They may be State elected
officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political
affiliation with the Presidential candidate. Then the voters in each
State choose the electors on the day of the general election. The
electors' names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of
the candidates running for President, depending on the procedure in
each State.
What are
the qualifications to be an elector?
The U.S.
Constitution
contains very few provisions relating to the qualifications of
electors. Article II, section 1, clause 2 provides that no Senator or
Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under
the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. As a historical
matter, the 14th Amendment provides that State officials who have
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given
aid and comfort to its enemies are disqualified from serving as
electors. This prohibition relates to the post-Civil War era.
A State's
certification of electors on its Certificates
of Ascertainment is generally sufficient to establish the
qualifications of electors.
How does
the Electoral College elect the President?
View a summary of
the Electoral
College process and key dates for election year 2004.
How does the
Electoral College process work in my State?
For information on
the electoral process in your State, you may wish to contact the
Secretary of State of your State.
To find your Secretary of State, go to the web site for the National
Association of Secretaries of State: http://www.nass.org.
Is my vote
for President and Vice President meaningful in the Electoral College
system?
Yes, within your
State your vote has a great deal of significance.
Under the Electoral College system, we do not elect the President and
Vice President through a direct nation-wide vote. The Presidential
election is decided by the combined results of 51 State elections (in
this context, the term "State" includes DC). It is possible that an
elector could ignore the results of the popular vote, but that occurs
very rarely. Your vote helps decide which candidate receives your
State's electoral votes.
The founders of the
nation devised the Electoral College system as
part of their plan to share power between the States and the national
government. Under the Federal system adopted in the U.S.
Constitution,
the nation-wide popular vote has no legal significance. As a result, it
is possible that the electoral votes awarded on the basis of State
elections could produce a different result than the nation-wide popular
vote. Nevertheless, the individual citizen's vote is important to the
outcome of each State election.
What
Federal laws govern the Electoral College system?
For more
information, see:
Must electors
vote for the candidate who won their State's popular vote?
There is no
Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires
electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their
States. Some States, however, require electors to cast their votes
according to the popular vote. These pledges fall into two categories
-- electors bound by State law and those bound by pledges to political
parties.
Which States bind
electors to popular vote results? Refer to Electors
Bound by State Law and Pledges to find out.
The Supreme Court
has held that the Constitution does not require
that electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore,
political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the
parties' nominees. Some State laws provide that so-called "faithless
electors" may be subject to fines or may be disqualified for casting an
invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector. The Supreme Court
has not specifically ruled on the question of whether pledges and
penalties for failure to vote as pledged may be enforced under the
Constitution. No elector has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote
as pledged.
Today, it is rare
for electors to disregard the popular vote by
casting their electoral vote for someone other than their party's
candidate. Electors generally hold a leadership position in their party
or were chosen to recognize years of loyal service to the party.
Throughout our history as a nation, more than 99 percent of electors
have voted as pledged.
How is it
possible for the electoral vote to produce a different result than the
nation-wide popular vote?
It is important to
remember that the President is not chosen by a
nation-wide popular vote. The electoral vote totals determine the
winner, not the statistical plurality or majority a candidate may have
in the nation-wide vote totals. Electoral votes are awarded on the
basis of the popular vote in each State.
Note that 48 out of
the 50 States award electoral votes on a
winner-takes-all basis (as does DC). For example, all 55 of
California's electoral votes go to the winner of that State election,
even if the margin of victory is only 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent.
In a
multi-candidate race where candidates have strong regional
appeal, as in 1824, it is quite possible that a candidate who collects
the most votes on a nation-wide basis will not win the electoral vote.
In a two-candidate race, that is less likely to occur. But it did occur
in the Hayes/Tilden election of 1876 and the Harrison/Cleveland
election of 1888 due to the statistical disparity between vote totals
in individual State elections and the national vote totals. This also
occured in the 2000 presidential election, where George W. Bush
received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a
majority of electoral votes.
What
happens if no presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes?
If no candidate
receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of
Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates
who received the most electoral votes. Each State delegation has one
vote. The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice
Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator
would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives
fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President
Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the
House.
Why do we
still have the Electoral College?
The Electoral
College process is part of the original design of the
U.S. Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a Constitutional
amendment to change this system.
Note that the 12th
Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and
the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting
electors has substantially changed the process.
Many different
proposals to alter the Presidential election process
have been offered over the years, such as direct nation-wide election
by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the
States for ratification. Under the most common method for amending the
Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in
both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States.
What
proposals have been made to change the Electoral College system?
Reference sources
indicate that over the past 200 years, over 700
proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the
Electoral College. There have been more proposals for Constitutional
amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject.
The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as
"archaic" and "ambiguous" and its polling showed 69 percent of lawyers
favored abolishing it in 1987. But surveys of political scientists have
supported continuation of the Electoral College. Public opinion polls
have shown Americans favored abolishing it by majorities of 58 percent
in 1967; 81 percent in 1968; and 75 percent in 1981.
Opinions on the
viability of the Electoral College system may be
affected by attitudes toward third parties. Third parties have not
fared well in the Electoral College system. Candidates with regional
appeal such as Governor Thurmond in 1948 and Governor Wallace in 1968
won blocs of electoral votes in the South, which may have affected the
outcome, but did not come close to seriously challenging the major
party winner. The last third party or splinter party candidate to make
a strong showing was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 (Progressive, also
known as the Bull Moose Party). He finished a distant second in
electoral and popular votes (taking 88 of the 266 electoral votes
needed to win). Although Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote
nationwide in 1992, he did not win any electoral votes since he was not
particularly strong in any one or several states. Any candidate who
wins a majority or plurality of the popular vote has a good chance of
winning in the Electoral College, but there are no guarantees (See the results
of 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000 elections).
Were any
measures introduced in Congress to change the Electoral College process
by amending the Constitution?
Yes, several joint
resolutions were introduced in the current
Congress and were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The
proposals, all introduced in the House of Representatives, include the
following:
– Voting rights for residents of United States territories and
commonwealths [H.J.RES.101.IH]
– Direct election of the President and Vice President by the popular
vote [H.J.RES.109.IH]
– Right to vote amendment [H.J.RES.28.IH]
– Every Vote Counts amendment [H.J.RES.103.IH]
How do the
538 electoral votes get divided among the States?
The number of
electoral votes allotted to each State corresponds to
the number of Representatives and Senators that each State sends to
Congress. The distribution of electoral votes among the States can vary
every 10 years depending on the results of the United States Census.
One of the primary
functions of the Census is to reapportion the 435
members of the House of Representatives among the States, based on the
current population. The reapportionment of the House determines the
division of electoral votes among the States. In the Electoral College,
each State gets one electoral vote for each of its Representatives in
the House, and one electoral vote for each of its two Senators.
Thus, every state
has at least 3 electoral votes, because the
Constitution grants each State two Senators and at least one
Representative. In addition to the 535 electoral votes divided among
the States, the District of Columbia has three electoral votes because
the 23rd Amendment granted it the same number of votes as the least
populated State.
If a State gains or
loses a Congressional district, it will also
gain or lose an electoral vote. As a result of the Census conducted in
2000, the number of electoral votes allotted to certain States changed
for the 2004 election. See, Allocation
of Electoral Votes based on the 1990 Census and Allocation
of Electoral Votes based on the 2000 Census.
Can
citizens in U.S. Territories vote for President?
No, the Electoral
College system does not provide for residents of
U.S. Territories, such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands
and American Samoa to vote for President. Unless citizens in U.S.
Territories have official residency (domicile) in a U.S. State or the
District of Columbia (and vote by absentee ballot or travel to their
State to vote), they cannot vote in the Presidential election. Note
that prior to the adoption of the 23rd Amendment, DC residents could
not vote in the Presidential election.
The political
parties may authorize voters in primary elections in
Territories to select delegates to represent them at the political
party conventions. But that process does not affect the Electoral
College system.
What would
happen if two candidates tied in a State's popular vote, or there was a
dispute as to the winner?
A tie is a
statistically remote possibility even in smaller States.
But if a State's popular vote were to come out as a tie between
candidates, State law would govern as to what procedure would be
followed in breaking the tie. A tie would not be known of until late
November or early December, after a recount and after the Secretary of
State had certified the election results. Federal law would allow a
State to hold a run-off election.
A very close finish
could also result in a run-off election or legal
action to decide the winner. Under Federal law (3 U.S.C. section 5),
State law governs on this issue, and would be conclusive in determining
the selection of Electors. The law provides that if States have laws to
determine controversies or contests as to the selection of Electors,
those determinations must be completed six days prior to the day the
Electors meet.
Is there an
online source listing the names and voting
records of presidential electors for all previous presidential
elections back to 1789?
We are not aware of
a centralized, comprehensive source. This web site has the information
for the past three elections:
CLICK
HERE to see State Electoral College Links.
How many times
has the Vice President been chosen by the U.S. Senate?
Once. In the
Presidential election of 1836, the election for Vice
President was decided in the Senate.
Martin Van Buren's running mate, Richard M. Johnson, fell one vote
short of a majority in the Electoral College. Vice Presidential
candidates Francis Granger and Johnson had a "run-off" in the Senate
under the 12th Amendment, where Johnson was elected 33 votes to 17.
See also:
CLICK HERE to learn more about
the U.S. Electoral College.
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