Have you ever wondered how America’s Electoral College works and what it means for you?
Here is the inside story of how the process works and how the Electoral College impacts on our government.
* The process begins with all states being allocated a number of Electors. How many electors are allocated is equal to 1) the number of its U.S. senators i.e. two – plus 2) the number of its U.S. representatives. The latter will change each ten years according to the size of the population contained within that state (as determined by the Census).
* Each state’s political parties or independent candidates submit a list of people pledged to their candidate for president to the state’s chief election official. This number is equal to the State’s electoral vote. In most cases the major political parties will select these people in their State party conventions or via appointment by their State party leaders. Third parties and independent candidates will simply designate the people on their list.
* Employees of the federal government and members of Congress are not allowed to serve as an Elector. This is so that the balance between legislative and executive branches of the federal government can be upheld.
* Once the caucuses and primaries have been held, the main political parties can nominate their candidates for president and vice president in their national conventions.
* The national conventions are usually held in the summer prior to the election but third parties and independent candidates will generally follow schedules relative to the specific laws of their State. The names of the nominees are now submitted to each State’s chief election official who is responsible for making sure that they are listed on the general election ballot.
* On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November in years divisible by four, the citizens of every State cast their vote for the party slate of Electors. This vote is representative of their choice for president and vice president. However, as a rule general election ballots usually say “Electors for” the groups of candidates rather and don’t list the individual Electors on each slate.
* The party slate that gains the most popular votes in the State now becomes that State’s Electors. This means that the presidential ticket that gets the most popular votes in a State will win all the Electors of that State. There are, however, two exceptions to this rule namely: Maine and Nebraska. In these states two Electors are picked by means of statewide popular vote and the rest by the popular vote within each Congressional district.
* On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December (established in federal law) each State’s Electors hold a meeting in their State capital and cast their electoral votes for president and vice president. * To curtail the Electors from voting only for their favorites at least one of their votes has to be for a person from another State. This isn’t usually a problem because the parties generally nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates from other States.
* Once the electoral votes are cast they are sealed and relayed from each State to the President of the Senate. On January 6, they are opened and read in front of both houses of the Congress. ]
* Whichever presidential candidate has the most electoral votes becomes president, as long as it is an absolute majority with one over half of the total being in favor. In much the same way, the vice presidential candidate who wins the absolute majority of electoral votes will be declared vice president.
* Where none of the candidates gains an absolute majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House of Representatives must choose the president from the top three candidates, with each State casting only one vote and an absolute majority of the States needed to elect.
* Where there is no absolute majority for vice president, the U.S. Senate will choose from among the top two candidates for that office.
* At noon on January 20, the president and vice president will be sworn into office.
Some obvious questions arise. Such as what would happen if the presidential or vice presidential nominees died while this process was underway. For answers to questions like these and any other questions you may have about how the Electoral College works I recommend reading a little book called: ‘After the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President edited by Walter Berns and published in 1983 by the American Enterprise Institute.
If you would like to obtain more detail on the history and present structure of the Electoral College these can be found in the second edition of Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections. It contains a wealth of information, maps, and statistics on this subject.
As an American citizen it is your duty to learn and understand how your government operates and a basic understanding of how the Electoral College functions to provide for the smooth workings of democracy is integral to this understanding. Seeking knowledge about how your Electoral College and government works goes a long way to becoming more involved in what our country really means.