[226], President Carter's proposed program for the reform of the Electoral College was very liberal for a modern president during this time, and in some aspects of the package, it went beyond original expectations. All states currently choose presidential electors by popular vote. [161][162] The plan later lost support. Here's how Congress responded", "The House just rejected an objection to Pennsylvania's electoral vote", "Objections To Four Swing States' Electors Fall Flat After Senators Refuse To Participate; Hawley Forces Debate On Pennsylvania", "RL30804: The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals, L. Paige Whitaker and Thomas H. Neale, January 16, 2001", "Election evolves into 'perfect' electoral storm", "Apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives Based on the 2010 Census", "2010 Census: State Population and the Distribution of Electoral Votes and Representatives", "Our Electoral College system is weird – and not in a good way", "Legislative Action?, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, November 30, 2000", "Republicans in Virginia, other states seeking electoral college changes", "Pennsylvania looks to alter state's electoral vote system", "Methods of Choosing Presidential Electors", "Michigan split its electoral votes in 1892 election", "Republicans Push to Change Electoral Vote System", "Bill targets Neb. [121] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. The Office of the Federal Register is charged with administering the Electoral College.[83]. As stated in the ruling, electors are acting as a functionary of the state, not the federal government. In a direct national election system, any state that gave women the vote would automatically have doubled its national clout. Neither is this feature attributable to having intermediate elections of presidents, caused instead by the winner-takes-all method of allocating each state's slate of electors. [224] A second motion for cloture on September 29, 1970, also failed, by 53 to 34. Candidates would not pair together on the same. Electoral College Virginia election ballot, November 6, 1861 The Confederate States Electoral College was the institution that elected the president ( Jefferson Davis ) and vice president ( Alexander H. Stephens ) for a six-year term without possibility of re-election for the President. It fixes the basis of representation in Congress. Members of Congress can object to any state's vote count, provided objection is presented in writing and is signed by at least one member of each house of Congress. 'It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. New York's legislature deadlocked and abstained; North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution. [181] If the presidential election were decided by a national popular vote, in contrast, campaigns and parties would have a strong incentive to work to increase turnout everywhere. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any pree stablished body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture. [117] However, the United States Supreme Court has consistently ruled that state restrictions are allowed under the Constitution. However, appointment by state legislature can have negative consequences: bicameral legislatures can deadlock more easily than the electorate. Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution provided the original plan by which the electors voted for president. The meeting is required by … When U.S. citizens cast their presidential election ballots, they’ll be voting for someone like Hagner Mister or Rex Teter. In the First Party System (1795–1823), the Jefferson Republicans gained 1.1 percent more adherents from the slave bonus, while the Federalists lost the same proportion. The system also allows each state the freedom, within constitutional bounds, to design its own laws on voting and enfranchisement without an undue incentive to maximize the number of votes cast. Senate pages bring in two mahogany boxes containing each state's certified vote and place them on tables in front of the senators and representatives. Legal scholars Akhil Amar and Vikram Amar have argued that the original Electoral College compromise was enacted partially because it enabled Southern states to disenfranchise their slave populations. If no candidate for president receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes (since 1964, 270 of the 538 electoral votes), then the Twelfth Amendment requires the House of Representatives to go into session immediately to choose a president. Others have suggested that the compact's legality was strengthened by Chiafalo v. Washington, in which the Supreme Court upheld the power of states to enforce electors' pledges. Researchers have variously attempted to measure which states' voters have the greatest impact in such an indirect election. [151] Maine began using the congressional district method in the election of 1972. This encourages candidates there to court a wide variety of such minorities and advocacy groups. The final tally is printed in the Senate and House journals. But the method by which we elect our President is such an issue. Based on the 2010 census, each representative represented on average 711,000 individuals. Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 of the Constitution authorizes Congress to fix the day on which the electors shall vote, which must be the same day throughout the United States. The compact applies Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which gives each state legislature the plenary power to determine how it chooses electors. Ratification of 38 state legislatures would have been needed for adoption. The meeting is opened by the election certification official—often that state's secretary of state or equivalent—who reads the certificate of ascertainment. [16] The elected president and vice president are inaugurated on January 20. Another method used early in U.S. history was to divide the state into electoral districts. Elections where the winning candidate loses the national popular vote typically result when the winner builds the requisite configuration of states (and thus captures their electoral votes) by small margins, but the losing candidate secures large voter margins in the remaining states. It has often acted as the other states, as in 1992, when George H. W. Bush won all five of Nebraska's electoral votes with a clear plurality on 47% of the vote; in a truly proportional system, he would have received three and Bill Clinton and Ross Perot each would have received one.[143]. [100][102] This method has been used in Maine since 1972 and in Nebraska since 1996. Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment specifies that if the House of Representatives has not chosen a president-elect in time for the inauguration (noon EST on January 20), then the vice president-elect becomes acting president until the House selects a president. This unique presidential election process is colloquially referred to as the “Electoral College,” although that phrase does not appear in the United States Constitution. Hamilton also argued that since no federal officeholder could be an elector, none of the electors would be beholden to any presidential candidate. [83] The meeting is held at 1 p.m. in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. However, Congress may remove this disqualification by a two-thirds vote in each House. Federal law (2 U.S.C. [141], The Constitution gives each state legislature the power to decide how its state's electors are chosen[137] and it can be easier and cheaper for a state legislature to simply appoint a slate of electors than to create a legislative framework for holding elections to determine the electors. The letter read in part: My fourth recommendation is that the Congress adopt a Constitutional amendment to provide for direct popular election of the President. If no candidate receives a majority in the election for president or vice president, the election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the Twelfth Amendment. The rules further stated, "[I]f a majority of the number of senators shall vote for either the said Richard M. Johnson or Francis Granger, he shall be declared by the presiding officer of the Senate constitutionally elected Vice President of the United States"; the Senate chose Johnson.[131]. Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the Speaker of the House would become acting president until either the House selects a president or the Senate selects a vice president. [168][169][170], The elections of 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016 produced an Electoral College winner who did not receive at least a plurality of the nationwide popular vote. [186][193] Sparsely populated states are likely to be increasingly overrepresented in the electoral college over time, because Americans are increasingly moving to big cities and because cities are growing especially in the biggest states. Such an amendment, which would abolish the Electoral College, will ensure that the candidate chosen by the voters actually becomes President. National Conference of State Legislatures, Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era, elections in which the winner lost the popular vote, Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Electoral_College&oldid=1012225409, History of voting rights in the United States, Articles with dead external links from January 2021, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from September 2017, Articles with dead external links from May 2017, Articles with dead external links from January 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with failed verification from October 2020, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2018, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from November 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine**, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia*, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming. [122] The sitting vice president is expected to preside, but in several cases the president pro tempore of the Senate has chaired the proceedings. In the last election, the result could have been changed by a small shift of votes in Ohio and Hawaii, despite a popular vote difference of 1.7 million. [21][22], The Constitutional Convention in 1787 used the Virginia Plan as the basis for discussions, as the Virginia proposal was the first. The Virginia Plan called for Congress to elect the president. However, commentators point out that the national popular vote observed under the Electoral College system may not reflect the popular vote observed under a National Popular Vote system, as each electoral institution produces different incentives for, and strategy choices by, presidential campaigns. 2010 Census Briefs, Table 1. This resulted in the president and vice president being of different political parties. James Wilson then made a motion for electors for the purpose of choosing the president. The Office of the Federal Register is charged with administering the Electoral College. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris make up the Democratic ticket trying to … There are two versions of the congressional district method: one has been implemented in Maine and Nebraska; another was used in New York in 1828 and proposed for use in Virginia. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. "[3] [185], U.S. territories are not entitled to electors in presidential elections. [70], Besides the Constitution prohibiting Congress from regulating foreign or domestic slave trade before 1808 and a duty on states to return escaped "persons held to service",[71] legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar argues that the College was originally advocated by slaveholders as a bulwark to prop up slavery. Newspapers like The New York Times saw President Carter's proposal at that time as "a modest surprise" because of the indication of Carter that he would be interested in only eliminating the electors but retaining the electoral vote system in a modified form. [171] Edwards also asserted that in the 2008 election, the campaigns did not mount nationwide efforts but rather focused on select states. The senators then depart from the House chamber. However, once the Electoral College had been decided on, several delegates (Mason, Butler, Morris, Wilson, and Madison) openly recognized its ability to protect the election process from cabal, corruption, intrigue, and faction. [149], Unlike simple congressional district comparisons, the district plan popular vote bonus in the 2008 election would have given Obama 56% of the Electoral College versus the 68% he did win; it "would have more closely approximated the percentage of the popular vote won [53%]". However, the term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. [171] In 1824, there were six states in which electors were legislatively appointed, rather than popularly elected, so it is uncertain what the national popular vote would have been if all presidential electors had been popularly elected. [182] Individuals would similarly have a stronger incentive to persuade their friends and neighbors to turn out to vote. Here is a basic guide to the electoral college system", "Brown learns he can't serve as Kerry elector, steps down", "Appointment of 2020 Electors for President and Vice President of the United States", "Planning to write in Paul Ryan or Bernie Sanders? [103] After the election, each state prepares seven Certificates of Ascertainment, each listing the candidates for president and vice president, their pledged electors, and the total votes each candidacy received. How did we get the Electoral College? Vor dem Wahlakt in Amerika: Das Electoral College ist so unbeliebt wie nie Von Frauke Steffens , New York - Aktualisiert am 12.12.2020 - 08:59 Critics contend that such disenfranchisement is partially obscured by the Electoral College. [54], In 1789, the at-large popular vote, the winner-take-all method, began with Pennsylvania and Maryland. During the vote count in 2001 after the close, Objections were raised in the vote count of the, In 1868, the newly reconstructed state of, Finally, in 1876, the legislature of the newly admitted state of, Lists of United States presidential electors (, This page was last edited on 15 March 2021, at 08:03. A candidate has to win 270 electoral votes, which is half of the electoral college votes plus one, to reach the White House. An objection supported by at least one senator and one representative will be followed by the suspension of the joint session and by separate debates and votes in each House of Congress; after both Houses deliberate on the objection, the joint session is resumed. Madison also drafted a constitutional amendment that would insure the original "district" plan of the framers. In contrast, states with large populations such as California, Texas, and New York, have in recent elections been considered safe for a particular party—Democratic for California and New York and Republican for Texas—and therefore campaigns spend less time and money there. Opponents of the Electoral College claim such outcomes do not logically follow the normative concept of how a democratic system should function. Because candidates have an incentive to campaign in competitive districts, with a district plan, candidates have an incentive to actively campaign in over thirty states versus about seven "swing" states. Under the Electoral College, however, a state had no such incentive to increase the franchise; as with slaves, what mattered was how many women lived in a state, not how many were empowered ... a state with low voter turnout gets precisely the same number of electoral votes as if it had a high turnout. Some state legislatures simply chose electors, while other states used a hybrid method in which state legislatures chose from a group of electors elected by popular vote. [57], By 1832, only South Carolina legislatively chose its electors, and it abandoned the method after 1860. In Pennsylvania, the campaign committee of each candidate names their respective electoral college candidates (an attempt to discourage faithless electors). 10, James Madison argued against "an interested and overbearing majority" and the "mischiefs of faction" in an electoral system. Additionally, the Twelfth Amendment states a "majority of the whole number" of senators (currently 51 of 100) is necessary for election. [110] Before 1950, the Secretary of State's office oversaw the certifications, but since then the Office of Federal Register in the Archivist's office reviews them to make sure the documents sent to the archive and Congress match and that all formalities have been followed, sometimes requiring states to correct the documents. The attendance of the electors is taken and any vacancies are noted in writing. Objections to the electoral vote count are rarely raised, although it has occurred a few times. The congressional count is the final step in reaffirming Biden’s win, after the Electoral College officially elected him on Dec 14. Under the Electoral Count Act (updated and codified in 3 U.S.C. [74] Historian Eric Foner agrees the Constitution's Three-Fifths Compromise gave protection to slavery.[75]. All jurisdictions use a winner-take-all method to choose their electors, except for Maine and Nebraska, which choose one elector per congressional district and two electors for the ticket with the highest statewide vote. [49] So the slate of electors chosen by the state were no longer free agents, independent thinkers, or deliberative representatives. Although procedures in each state vary slightly, the electors generally follow a similar series of steps, and the Congress has constitutional authority to regulate the procedures the states follow. [17][18][19] The additional three electors come from the Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, providing that the district established pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 as the seat of the federal government (namely, Washington, D.C.) is entitled to the same number of electors as the least populous state. [87] In those states, the winner of the popular vote in each of its congressional districts is awarded one elector, and the winner of the statewide vote is then awarded the state's remaining two electors. The differences in turnout between swing states and non-swing states under the current electoral college system suggest that replacing the Electoral College with direct election by popular vote would likely increase turnout and participation significantly.[181]. The system calls for the creation, every four years, of a temporary group of electors equal to … There was also a debate over how many Electoral College votes a state should receive since congressional districts are determined by population. Irrelevant", "Why the popular vote is a meaningless statistic", "It's Time to End the Electoral College: Here's how", "Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote", "The Electoral College Votes Against Equality", "The electoral college badly distorts the vote. [187][188] Guam has held non-binding straw polls for president since the 1980s to draw attention to this fact. Pennsylvania had voted for the Democratic candidate in the five previous presidential elections, so this was seen an attempt to take away Democratic electoral votes. At the Second Party System (1823–1837) the emerging Jacksonians gained just 0.7% more seats, versus the opposition loss of 1.6%.[66]. [227], Newspaper reaction to Carter's proposal ranged from some editorials praising the proposal to other editorials, like that in the Chicago Tribune, criticizing the president for proposing the end of the Electoral College. Alabama through Missouri (including the District of Columbia) are placed in one box and Montana through Wyoming are placed in the other box. However, Nixon had received only 511,944 more popular votes than Humphrey, 43.5% to 42.9%, less than 1% of the national total. [214], On April 29, 1969, the House Judiciary Committee voted 28 to 6 to approve the proposal. [137] South Carolina used the popular vote for the first time in the 1868 election.[139]. The Electoral College System In America Autoimmune disease, you want to literary critical essays. For instance, recounts occur only on a state-by-state basis, not nationwide. It prevents instances where a party dominant in one state may dishonestly inflate the votes for a candidate and thereby affect the election outcome. The choice was to be made by a majority of the Electoral College, as majority rule is critical to the principles of republican government. It was not until the early 19th century that the name "Electoral College" came into general usage as the collective designation for the electors selected to cast votes for president and vice president. [29] Delegates from states with smaller populations or limited land area, such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland, generally favored the Electoral College with some consideration for states. [33], Additionally, in the Federalist No. [235], It has been argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars the winner-takes-all apportionment of electors by the states; according to this argument, the votes of the losing party are discarded entirely, thereby leading to an unequal position between different voters in the same state. Before the advent of the "short ballot" in the early 20th century (as described in Selection process) the most common means of electing the presidential electors was through the general ticket. On the other hand, three dissenting justices in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), wrote: "[N]othing in Article II of the Federal Constitution frees the state legislature from the constraints in the State Constitution that created it. Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011, "How is the president elected? Its implementation by the states may leave it open to criticism; winner-take-all systems, especially in populous states, may not align with the principle of "one person, one vote". § 7 : US Code – Section 7: Meeting and vote of electors", "U.S. This was similar to how states are currently separated into congressional districts. The present allotment of electors by state is shown in the, The number of electors allocated to each state is based on. [227] The electoral college system is respected for its historical roots and because it does usually reflect the popular vote (48 out of 52 elections since 1804 produced a popular mandate). Voting for president would include the widest electorate allowed in each state. ", "The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections", "Essays on Article II: Presidential Electors", "Presidential Electors for D.C. – Twenty-third Amendment", "Millions of Americans can't vote for president because of where they live", "Puerto Rico: At the center of a political storm, but can its residents vote for president? [62] For the next two decades the three-fifths clause led to electors of free-soil Northern states numbering 8% and 11% more than Southern states. Nebraska has used the congressional district method since the election of 1992. [26][27] Madison acknowledged that while a popular vote would be ideal, it would be difficult to get consensus on the proposal given the prevalence of slavery in the South: There was one difficulty, however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. Arguments against the Electoral College in common discussion focus mostly on the allocation of the voting power among the states. In the event, the first (i.e. [a] Almost 10% of presidential elections under the system have not elected the winners of the nationwide popular vote. "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.". States generally require electors to pledge to vote for that state's winning ticket; to avoid faithless electors, most states have adopted various laws to enforce the electors’ pledge.[14]. [59] Currently, Maine (since 1972) and Nebraska (since 1996) use the district plan, with two at-large electors assigned to support the winner of the statewide popular vote. Brian D. Humes, et al. Individual electors would be elected by citizens on a district-by-district basis. [58], Since 1836, statewide winner-take-all popular voting for electors has been the almost universal practice. Hamilton considered a pre-pledged elector in violation of the spirit of Article II of the Constitution insofar as such electors could make no "analysis" or "deliberate" concerning the candidates. [230][231] Unlike the Bayh–Celler amendment, with its 40% threshold for election, these proposals do not require a candidate to achieve a certain percentage of votes to be elected.[232][233][234]. Some states provide for the placing in nomination of a candidate to receive the electoral votes (the candidate for president of the political party of the electors). Nanti di bulan Desember, wakil pemilih ini berkumpul di ibukota tiap negara bagian dan memberikan suara bagi calon presiden. [30] At the compromise providing for a runoff among the top five candidates, the small states supposed that the House of Representatives, with each state delegation casting one vote, would decide most elections. ", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: May 29", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: June 2", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 4", "James Wilson, popular sovereignty, and the Electoral College", "The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 6", "U. S. Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions", "Presidents Winning Without Popular Vote", "Updating the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Legislation", Draft of a Resolution for the Legislature of New York for the Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, 29 January 1802, "Resolves of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Passed at Their Session, which Commenced on Wednesday, the Thirty First of May, and Ended on the Seventeenth of June, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty. Currently, there are 538 electors, based on 435 representatives, 100 senators from the fifty states and three electors from Washington, D.C. Some delegates, including James Wilson and James Madison, preferred popular election of the executive. Choice of the president should reflect the "sense of the people" at a particular time, not the dictates of a faction in a "pre-established body" such as Congress or the State legislatures, and independent of the influence of "foreign powers". The electors in 1824 failed to select a winning candidate, so the matter was decided by the House of Representatives.[38]. A state's number of electors equals the number of representatives plus two electors for the senators the state has in the United States Congress. If no candi… The word college here refers to a group of people. § 4, in the section heading and in the text as "college of electors". Chernow, Ron. The three-fifths slave-count rule is associated with three or four outcomes, 1792–1860: The first "Jeffersonian" and "Jacksonian" victories were of great importance as they ushered in sustained party majorities of several Congresses and presidential party eras. [211], The closest the United States has come to abolishing the Electoral College occurred during the 91st Congress (1969–1971). The District of Columbia and the seven least populous states—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—have three electors each. If no candidate for vice president receives an absolute majority of electoral votes, then the Senate must go into session to choose a vice president. In Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), and a related case, the Court held that electors must vote in accord with their state's laws. Varying by state, electors may also be elected by state legislatures or appointed by the parties themselves.[94].