How the Electoral
College Works
The current workings of the Electoral
College are the result of both design and experience. As it now
operates:
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Each State is allocated a number of
Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus
the number of its U.S. Representatives (which may change each decade
according to the size of each State's population as determined in
the Census).
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The political parties (or independent
candidates) in each State submit to the State's chief election
official a list of individuals pledged to their candidate for
president and equal in number to the State's electoral vote.
Usually, the major political parties select these individuals either
in their State party conventions or through appointment by their
State party leaders while third parties and independent candidates
merely designate theirs.
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Members of Congress and employees of
the federal government are prohibited from serving as an Elector in
order to maintain the balance between the legislative and executive
branches of the federal government.
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After their caucuses and primaries,
the major parties nominate their candidates for president and vice
president in their national conventions traditionally held in the
summer preceding the election. (Third parties and independent
candidates follow different procedures according to the individual
State laws). The names of the duly nominated candidates are then
officially submitted to each State's chief election official so that
they might appear on the general election ballot.
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On the Tuesday following the first
Monday of November in years divisible by four, the people in each
State cast their ballots for the party slate of Electors
representing their choice for president and vice president (although
as a matter of practice, general election ballots normally say
"Electors for" each set of candidates rather than list the
individual Electors on each slate).
-
Whichever party slate wins the most
popular votes in the State becomes that State's Electors-so that, in
effect, whichever presidential ticket gets the most popular votes in
a State wins all the Electors of that State. [The two exceptions to
this are Maine and Nebraska where two Electors are chosen by
statewide popular vote and the remainder by the popular vote within
each Congressional district].
-
On the Monday following the second
Wednesday of December (as established in federal law) each State's
Electors meet in their respective State capitals and cast their
electoral votes – one for president and one for vice president.
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In order to prevent Electors from
voting only for "favorite sons" of their home State, at least one of
their votes must be for a person from outside their State (though
this is seldom a problem since the parties have consistently
nominated presidential and vice presidential candidates from
different States).
-
The electoral votes are then sealed
and transmitted from each State to the President of the Senate who,
on the following January 6, opens and reads them before both houses
of the Congress.
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The candidate for president with the
most electoral votes, provided that it is an absolute majority (one
over half of the total), is declared president. Similarly, the vice
presidential candidate with the absolute majority of electoral votes
is declared vice president.
-
In the event no one obtains an
absolute majority of electoral votes for president, the U.S. House
of Representatives (as the chamber closest to the people) selects
the president from among the top three contenders with each State
casting only one vote and an absolute majority of the States being
required to elect. Similarly, if no one obtains an absolute majority
for vice president, then the U.S. Senate makes the selection from
among the top two contenders for that office.
-
At noon on January 20, the duly
elected president and vice president are sworn into office.
Occasionally questions arise about what
would happen if the presidential or vice presidential candidate died
at some point in this process. For answers to these, as well as to a
number of other "what if" questions, readers are advised to consult a
small volume entitled After the
People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President edited by
Walter Berns and published in 1983 by the American Enterprise
Institute. Similarly, further details on the history and current
functioning of the Electoral College are available in the second
edition of Congressional Quarterly's
Guide to U.S. Elections, a real goldmine of information,
maps, and statistics.
Text and notes from the state of Maryland's Web page.
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