a nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization whose purpose is to
promote political responsibility
through informed and active participation in government
How the
Electoral College Works an election resource for
voters
provided by the League of Women Voters of New Jersey Education
Fund information from the Federal Election
Commission
The current workings of the Electoral College are the result of
both design and experience. As it now operates:
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
