Eleanor Finch
The Electoral College is a process that decides who will be elected 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 a popular vote of qualified citizens. The College consists of 538 electors, with each state having the same number of electors as it does members in its Congressional delegation. The College has been criticised as archaic and ambiguous, with many proposals made to reform or eliminate it. However, supporters argue that it preserves an important dimension of state-based federalism and guarantees that Presidents will have nationwide support.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To choose the president of the United States |
| Number of Electors | 538 |
| Minimum number of Electors per state | 3 |
| Process | Selection of electors, electors meet and vote for President and Vice President, Congress counts the votes |
| Electors' vote | Electors are not bound to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote |
| Constitutional basis | Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution |
| Amendment | Requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states |
| Public opinion | 69% of lawyers favoured abolishing it in 1987; Americans favoured abolishing it by majorities of 58% in 1967, 81% in 1968, and 75% in 1981 |
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What You'll Learn
- The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise
- The Electoral College is a process, not a place
- The merits of the Electoral College system are debated
- The 12th Amendment was ratified after the 1800 election
- The Constitution does not require electors to vote as the state's popular vote
The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College as a compromise
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 Electoral College is a process, not a place, and consists of 538 electors. The number of electors each state appoints is equal to the size of its congressional delegation, with each state entitled to a minimum of three electors. This allocation has resulted in the runner-up of the nationwide popular vote being elected president in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.
The Founding Fathers crafted this compromise to balance the interests of those who favoured election by Congress and those who preferred a popular vote. The Electoral College was officially adopted towards the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 due to pressure from slave states and small states. Slave states wanted to increase their voting power by counting slaves as three-fifths of a person when allocating electors, while small states wanted to increase their influence by having a minimum of three electors per state.
The Electoral College has been a source of ongoing debate in the United States since its inception, with supporters arguing that it ensures presidential candidates have broad nationwide support and guarantees representation for small states. Critics, on the other hand, argue that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation and consigns most states to "spectator" status, reducing voter turnout and polarizing national politics.
The process of selecting electors and how they vote is determined by each state, with some states requiring electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote. The Electoral College has undergone some changes, such as the expansion of voting rights and the use of the popular vote to determine the appointment of electors by the states. However, as the Electoral College is part of the original design of the Constitution, any substantial reform would require a Constitutional amendment.
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The Electoral College is a process, not a place
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, with each state having the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation. The number of electors is equal to the number of members of the House of Representatives plus two senators. The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and is treated like a state for the purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution.
The Electoral College process has been a subject of ongoing debate in the United States, with critics arguing that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation and consigns most states to "spectator" status in presidential elections. Supporters argue that it requires presidential candidates to have broad appeal across the country and guarantees that Presidents will have nationwide support.
The Electoral College process can only be changed through a Constitutional amendment, which has been proposed numerous times but has never been passed by Congress. The Supreme Court has also ruled on cases related to the Electoral College, such as McPherson v. Blacker, but the specific issue of who decides how individual electors vote has not yet been addressed by the Court.
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The merits of the Electoral College system are debated
The merits of the Electoral College system, which is a process for electing the President and Vice President of the United States, have been debated since its inception at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. 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.
Supporters of the Electoral College argue that it preserves an important dimension of state-based federalism in presidential elections, guaranteeing that Presidents will have nationwide support. They contend that the system requires presidential candidates to have broad appeal across the country to win. The Electoral College also allows each state to have a number of electors equal to its representation in Congress, which gives smaller states a larger say in the election relative to their population.
However, critics of the Electoral College argue that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation. They contend that winner-take-all systems, especially when representation is not proportional to population, do not align with the principle of "one person, one vote". Critics also point out that due to the distribution of electors, individual citizens in states with smaller populations have more voting power than those in larger states. The Electoral College has also been criticised for consigning most states to "spectator" status in presidential elections, reducing voter turnout in these states, and dramatically polarising the nation's politics.
The Electoral College has produced recurring political controversy, and there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate it. In 1969, an amendment to abolish the Electoral College was approved by the House but failed to pass the Senate. The American Bar Association has criticised the system as "archaic" and "ambiguous", and polling has shown that a majority of Americans have favoured abolishing it at various points in time. However, surveys of political scientists have supported the continuation of the Electoral College.
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The 12th Amendment was ratified after the 1800 election
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 that consists of 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 12th Amendment was written, approved by Congress, and ratified within three years of the 1800 election, making it effective for the 1804 election. The amendment was designed to prevent the issues that arose in the 1800 election, where the House of Representatives had to vote between the top three vote-getters, and the House determined the rules for conducting the election. The 12th Amendment has been invoked in subsequent elections, such as the 1836 election, to resolve similar issues regarding the selection of the President and Vice President.
Over the years, there have been numerous proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, with more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject. Critics argue that the Electoral College consigns most states to "spectator" status in presidential elections, reduces voter turnout, and dramatically polarizes the nation's politics. Supporters, however, credit the Electoral College with preserving an important dimension of state-based federalism and argue that it ensures that Presidents will have nationwide support.
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The Constitution does not require electors to vote as the state's popular vote
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 by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College is a process, not a place, and consists of 538 electors. Electors are chosen in advance of the general election by political parties, pledging to vote for the candidate from their party if that candidate wins the most votes in the state.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require electors to act independently, and political parties may require electors to vote for their party's nominee. Electors who vote against their pledge, known as "faithless electors", may be fined, disqualified, and replaced by a substitute elector, or even prosecuted by their state. The Supreme Court decided in 2020 that states can enforce requirements on how electors vote, and a majority of states have laws requiring electors to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state.
The Electoral College system has been criticized for reducing voter turnout in most states, limiting the election's focus to a small number of "swing states", and increasing political polarization. Over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. However, the Electoral College remains a part of the Constitution, and any change to the system would require a Constitutional amendment.
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Frequently asked questions
The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers 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 "deliberative" intermediate institution that uses 538 electors from the states and Washington, D.C. to decide who will be elected President and Vice President of the United States.
The Electoral College process consists of 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 Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution, so it would take a Constitutional amendment to change or abolish it. Over the years, there have been many proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College, but none have been passed by Congress.
Critics of the Electoral College argue that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation and consigns most states to "spectator" status in presidential elections. They also point out that due to the distribution of electors, citizens in states with smaller populations have more voting power than those in larger states.
