Why do we have the electoral college? How does it work?

Answer 1

We have it originally because the founding fathers did not want the president to be directly elected.

The original thought was that each state legislature would appoint a number of the leading citizens of the state as electors. These electors would then vote for two people (only one of whom could be a resident of the state). The expectation was that, in each state, there would be one or two people from the state who would split the electors and that the other votes from that state would go to national figures. The further expectation was that, when all the votes were counted, there would be a consensus group of leading candidates with nobody getting a majority of the votes. At that point, the House of Representatives would decide between the top five candidates with each state having one vote and an absolute majority needed to be elected. Under this original system, the person who finished first became President and the person who finished second became Vice-President.

This original plan did not take into account the rise of national political parties. By the fourth election (1800), national political parties (as opposed to state political parties) had gained control of the state legislatures. As a result, the electors did not operate independently in each state, but instead, voted for a national ticket of two candidates. The result was that the two candidates of the Democratic-Republicans (Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr) tied. In response to this change, the Twelfth Amendment was adopted. Under the Twelfth Amendment, each elector still had two votes but one vote was specifically designated as being for President and one vote was specifically designated as being for Vice-President.

The language of the Twelfth Amendment still technically controls the process of the electoral college. Each state gets one elector vote for each member of the House (ranging from one to fifty-three depending on population) and one electoral vote for each member of the Senate (two per state). Thus, the total number of electors per state ranges from three (several states) to fifty-five (California). In addition, a separate constitutional amendment gave the District of Columbia three electors. The total number of electors is now five hundred thirty-eight (538) which means that it takes 270 electoral votes to be elected. If no candidate gets 270 votes, the House decides which of the top three candidates is elected (again voting by states with an absolute majority -- 26 -- needed to be elected). Likewise if no vice-presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the Senate chooses the vice-president (but only between the top two with an absolute majority of the Senate -- 51 votes -- needed to be elected.

While the language of the Twelfth Amendment technically controls, the actual practice does not quite follow the language of the text. In all states, the state legislatures have delegated the task of choosing the electors to the voters.

In each state, all political parties on the ballot that have a presidential candidate (and all independent candidates for president) submit a list of their nominees for the elector positions. These nominees tend to be chosen at the state party convention but, regardless of how chosen, they have a history of loyalty to the party. In almost all of the states (excluding Maine and Nebraska), the electors of the presidential candidate who gets the most votes statewide are elected. In Maine and Nebraska, two electors are elected statewide. The other electors in Maine and Nebraska are elected by congressional district which makes it theoretically possible for a candidate to lose statewide but still pick up an elector (as both states currently have more than one congressional district).

On the date designated by federal statute, the individuals who have been chosen as electors meet in their state capitol and cast their votes for President. While, theoretically, these individuals are free to vote their conscience, they have for the most part voted for the nominees of their party. In the past 100 years, no elector pledged to the winning candidate has failed to vote for the nominee of their party. Over the past 100 years, only a tiny number of electors pledged to a candidate who lost nationally have cast a protest vote for a different person (rarely more than one or two per election).

The record of the vote is then sealed and transmitted to Congress where the votes of all the states are opened in early January and counted.

Why we still have it is two reasons. First, it is the traditional design. Periodically there are suggestions to amend the Constitution to abolish the electoral college, but none of them have ever made it to the floor of Congress. Second, because the electoral college favors small states, such an amendment could only be adopted if the small states were willing to give up that additional power. I have yet to see a small state Representative or Senator say that they would support such an amendment.

Answer 2

The United States Electoral College is a term used to describe the 538 President Electors who meet every 4 years to cast the electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States; their votes represent the most important component of the presidential election. The Presidential Electors are elected by the popular vote on the day traditionally called election day. Presidential Electors meet in their respective state capitol buildings (or in the District of Columbia) 41 days following election day, never as a national body. At the 51 meetings, held on the same day, the Electors cast the electoral votes. The electoral college, like the national convention, is an indirect element in the process of electing the president.

Provisions for the mechanics of presidential elections were established by Article Two, Section One, of the United States Constitution. The 12th Amendment provided that each Elector vote separately for president and vice president. Today, the mechanics of the presidential election are administered by the National Archives and Records Administration via its Office of the Federal Register.

Electors are chosen in a series of state elections held on the same day (election day). The number of electoral votes of each state is the sum of its number of U.S. Senators (always two) and its U.S. Representatives; the District of Columbia has three electoral votes. In each state, voters vote for a slate of pre-selected candidates for Presidential Elector, representing the various candidates for President. State ballots, however, are designed to suggest that the voters are voting for actual candidates for President. Most states use what is termed the short ballot, in which a vote for one party (such as Democratic or Republican) is interpreted as a vote for the entire slate of Presidential Electors. In these states, with rare exceptions, one party wins the entire electoral vote of the state (by either plurality or majority). Maine and Nebraska choose Presidential Electors using what is termed the Maine Method, which makes it possible for the voters to choose Electors of different political parties and split the electoral vote of these two states.

The Presidential Electors of each state (and DC) meet 41 days following the popular vote to cast the electoral votes. The Electors ballot first for President, then for Vice President. On rare occasions, an Elector does not cast the electoral vote for the party's national ticket, usually as a political statement; these people are called faithless Electors. Each Elector signs a document entitled the Certificate of Vote which sets forth the electoral vote of the state (or DC). One original Certificate of Vote is sent by certified mail to the Office of the Vice President.

One month following the casting of the electoral votes, the U.S. Congress meets in joint session to declare the winner of the election. If a candidate for President receives the vote of 270 or more Presidential Electors, the presiding officer (usually the sitting Vice President) declares that candidate to be the president-elect, and a candidate for vice president receiving 270 or more electoral votes is similarly declared to be the vice president-elect.

The process has several exceptions and provisos, which are considered in the main body of this article.

The nature of the process and its complication have been critiqued, with its detractors raising several alternative means of electing the president. This issue was revisited following the Presidential Election of 2000 when Democratic candidate Al Gore won the plurality of the national vote, but failed to win the majority of the Electoral College.

Advocates of the current system have similarly set forth arguments for its advantages.