Malcolm Rivera
The Electoral College is a process that was established by the Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. The College consists of 538 electors, with each state having as many electors as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress. The District of Columbia has three electors. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The term electoral college does not appear in the original Constitution, and over the years, there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate it.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Was the Electoral College in the original Constitution? | Yes, the Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution. |
| How was it established? | It was established as 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. |
| What is the Electoral College? | It is a process, not a place. |
| Who are the electors? | Each state has as many "electors" in the Electoral College as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress. |
| How are electors chosen? | The voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College. |
| How are the President and Vice President elected? | The electors in each state meet to select the President and Vice President of the United States. |
| How many electors are there? | There are 538 electors in total, including Washington, D.C.'s three electors. |
| How many votes are required to elect the President? | A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. |
| When do electors vote? | The electors vote in mid-December after the general election. |
| Who counts the electoral votes? | Congress meets in a joint session to count the electoral votes. |
| When is the next Electoral College vote? | The next Electoral College vote is scheduled for December 17, 2024. |
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What You'll Learn
- The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College
- The term Electoral College was not used in the original constitution
- The Electoral College is a process, not a place
- The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States
- The Electoral College has been criticised as archaic and ambiguous
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The 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 Founding Fathers established it 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 consists of 538 electors, and a majority of 270 electoral votes are required to elect the President. Each state has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.
The original plan of the Electoral College was based upon several assumptions and anticipations of the Framers of the Constitution. The 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 choice would be made decisively with a "full and fair expression of the public will" but also maintaining "as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder". Individual electors would be elected by citizens on a district-by-district basis. Voting for the President would include the widest electorate allowed in each state.
Since the mid-19th century, when all electors have been popularly chosen, the Electoral College has elected the candidate who received the most (though not necessarily a majority) popular votes nationwide, except in four elections: 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. A case has also been made that it happened in 1960. In 1824, when there were six states in which electors were legislatively appointed, rather than popularly elected, the true national popular vote is uncertain. The electors in 1824 failed to select a winning candidate, so the matter was decided by the House of Representatives.
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The term Electoral College was not used in the original constitution
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. However, the term "Electoral College" was not used in the original Constitution. Instead, Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers debated for months, with some arguing that Congress should pick the president and others insisting on a democratic popular vote. The Electoral College was their compromise. The 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 term "Electoral College" first came into general usage in the early 19th century to collectively describe the electors selected to cast votes for president and vice president. The phrase was first written into federal law in 1845, and today it appears in 3 U.S.C. § 4.
The Electoral College has been criticised as "archaic" and "ambiguous", and many proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate it. However, it would take a constitutional amendment to change the process, requiring a two-thirds supermajority in Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
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The Electoral College is a process, not a place
The process of using electors comes from the Constitution. Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress (House and Senate). The District of Columbia has three electors, bringing the total number of electors to 538. Each state's political parties choose their slate of potential electors. The selection of electors varies by state. Voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College. The state executive of each state then signs the Certificate of Ascertainment to appoint the electors chosen in the general election.
The electors meet in their states and vote for the President and Vice President. The electors cast two ballots—one for Vice President and one for President. Electors cannot vote for a Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidate from their home state. The electors' votes are then counted by Congress in a joint session. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives.
The Electoral College has been criticised as "archaic" and "ambiguous", and there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate it. However, it would take a constitutional amendment to change the process, which requires a two-thirds supermajority in Congress plus ratification by three-fourths of the states.
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The Electoral College elects the President and Vice President of the United States
The Electoral College is a process 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 College consists of 538 electors, with each state having as many electors as it has members of Congress (House and Senate). Washington, D.C. is also allocated 3 electors and is treated like a state for Electoral College purposes under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution.
The process of the Electoral College involves the selection of electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College, and on Election Day, these electors are appointed by the State Executive of each state. The electors then meet in their respective states in mid-December to cast their votes for President and Vice President. Congress then meets in a joint session on January 6 to count the votes, and the President-Elect is sworn in as President on January 20.
The Electoral College was established in part because the Founding Fathers struggled to devise a way to select the President and Vice President. The College was designed to reflect the "sense of the people" at a particular time, independent of the influence of "foreign powers" or factions in Congress or state legislatures. The electors were expected to be more knowledgeable and responsible and to exercise independent judgment when voting. However, the term "Electoral College" does not appear in the Constitution, and the original plan did not include a vote for Vice President. Instead, the person who received the second-most votes after the President became Vice President.
The Electoral College has been criticized as "archaic" and "ambiguous," and there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate it. It is possible to win the Electoral College but lose the popular vote, as has happened five times in history. Despite this, the Electoral College still exists, and changing the process would require a constitutional amendment, which has not been passed by Congress despite numerous proposals.
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The Electoral College has been criticised as archaic and ambiguous
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 term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution; instead, Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to "electors". The 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 Electoral College has been criticised for giving too much power to swing states and allowing the presidential election to be decided by a handful of states. It has also been criticised for undermining representative democracy and the notion of one person, one vote. The Electoral College has been described as rooted in slavery and racism, and it has been argued that it was originally advocated by slaveholders as a way to prop up slavery.
The Electoral College has also faced criticism for its impact on third parties, who have not fared well in the system. Third-party candidates with regional appeal have won blocs of electoral votes but have not come close to seriously challenging the major party winner. In recent years, the debate over the continued use of the Electoral College has resurfaced, particularly during the 2016 presidential election when Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than 2.8 million votes but won the Electoral College and the presidency.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, 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 election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. It is a formal body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States.
Each state has a number of "electors" equal to its number of Representatives and Senators in Congress. The District of Columbia has three electors. Voters in each state choose these electors to serve in the Electoral College. The electors then meet in their states and cast their votes for President and Vice President.
The Founding Fathers debated for months on how to elect the President, with some arguing for a Congressional vote and others for a democratic popular vote. The Electoral College was their compromise.
Yes, but it would require a Constitutional amendment. Over the past 200 years, there have been more than 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College.
