Omar Bennett
The Electoral College is a process that was established by the Founding Fathers in the US Constitution. The College is comprised of 538 electors from the states and the District of Columbia who meet to select the President and Vice President of the United States. While the College is mandated by the Constitution, the term Electoral College does not appear in the document, and the Constitution does not specify how electors are chosen. The Electoral College has been a source of controversy, with critics arguing that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation, and supporters arguing that it ensures presidential candidates have broad appeal.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Founding Fathers' intention | To establish a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. |
| Constitution's reference | Refers to "Electors" and "electors", but not to the "Electoral College". |
| Amendment | The 12th Amendment ratified in 1804 provides for separate votes for president and vice president and specified that those individuals must be from different states. |
| Number of Electors | 538 |
| Electors' votes for President | Requires a simple majority of 270 or more electoral votes. |
| Electors' votes for Vice President | The person receiving the second-most votes becomes the Vice President. |
| Electors' appointment | Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. |
| Electors' qualification | Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. |
| Electors' voting | Electors meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state as themselves. |
| Counting of votes | Congress meets in a joint session to count the electoral votes. |
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What You'll Learn
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College
The Electoral College is a group of presidential electors formed every four years during the presidential election to vote for the President and Vice President. The number of electoral votes each state can exercise is equal to its Congressional delegation, which is the number of Senators (two) plus the number of Representatives for that state. Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. The Founding Fathers intended for electors to be elected in their districts, but today, electors are not required to be popularly elected.
The process of the Electoral College consists of the selection of electors, the meeting of electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. A majority of 270 votes is required to elect the President and Vice President. The voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College, and the State Executive of each state signs the Certificate of Ascertainment to appoint the electors chosen in the general election.
The Electoral College has been a matter of ongoing debate in the United States since its inception, with critics arguing that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation. There have been many proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, but it would require a Constitutional amendment to make any changes.
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The term Electoral College does not appear in the Constitution
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College is a process, not a place. It is a group of presidential electors formed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president.
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". The Constitution does not explicitly require states to popularly elect their electors. The Constitution is silent on whether states or the electors themselves can ultimately decide which candidate gets the electors' votes. The Constitution provides no express role for the states after the appointment of its presidential electors, and once appointed, electors are free to vote as they choose.
The United States Constitution refers to "Electors" and "electors", but neither the phrase "Electoral College" nor any other name is used to describe the electors collectively. 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. The phrase was first written into federal law in 1845, and today the term appears in 3 U.S.C. § 4, in the section heading and in the text as "college of electors".
The Electoral College has been a subject of ongoing debate in the United States since its inception at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, becoming more controversial by the latter years of the 19th century, up to the present day. Over the past 200 years, more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as "archaic" and "ambiguous", and its polling showed that 69% of lawyers favored abolishing it in 1987. However, surveys of political scientists have supported the continuation of the Electoral College.
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The Constitution does not require states to popularly elect their electors
The United States Constitution refers to "Electors" and "electors", but neither the phrase "Electoral College" nor any other name is used to describe the electors collectively. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Constitution does not require states to popularly elect their electors.
The Constitution is silent on whether states or the electors themselves can decide which candidate gets the electors' vote. The Supreme Court has not addressed this issue, but in McPherson v. Blacker (1892), it upheld that Congress can set the date for the Electoral College to meet, and states could determine how electors were apportioned and chosen. The Constitution provides no express role for the states after the appointment of its presidential electors, and once appointed, electors are free to vote as they choose.
The Electoral College is a group of presidential electors formed every four years during the presidential election to vote for the president and vice president. The number of electoral votes each state exercises is equal to its congressional delegation, which includes two senators and the state's representatives. Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. The Founding Fathers intended for electors to be "selected by their fellow citizens from the general mass".
The Electoral College has been a topic of ongoing debate in the United States, with critics arguing that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation. There have been many proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, and it remains a controversial aspect of the US political system.
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The Electoral College has changed little since 1804
The Electoral College is the formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. It was established by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
The term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution, but the process is part of the original design of the US. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to "electors", and the process for electing a US president can be traced back to 1787.
Since 1804, there have been over 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, and it has been criticised as "archaic" and "ambiguous". However, it would require a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College, and the closest Congress has come to amending it was during the 91st Congress (1969-1971), when a resolution to eliminate the Electoral College passed the House but failed to pass the Senate.
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The Electoral College is a process, not a place
The term "Electoral College" does not appear in the Constitution, but the process is outlined in Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, and the 12th Amendment. The College is made up of 538 electors, with 535 from the 50 states and an additional three from the District of Columbia, granted by the 23rd Amendment. A majority of 270 votes is required to elect the President and Vice President.
The process of the Electoral College can be broken down into three main steps: the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The selection of electors is determined by each state, with most using a "winner-take-all" system where the candidate who wins the state's popular vote is awarded all of that state's electors. The electors then meet and vote, and finally, Congress meets in a joint session to count the votes and certify the election results.
The Electoral College has been a subject of ongoing debate, with critics arguing that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation and that it reduces voter turnout in most states. There have been numerous proposals to reform or abolish the Electoral College, but any changes would require a Constitutional amendment due to its foundational role in the US political system.
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Frequently asked questions
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution, but the process is part of the original design of the U.S.
The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The number of electoral votes exercised by each state is equal to that state's congressional delegation, which is the number of Senators (two) plus the number of Representatives for that state.
The Electoral College can be abolished, but it would require a constitutional amendment. Over the past 200 years, more than 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College.
