Under the Electoral College, it is always possible that the winner of the popular vote will not be elected. Thus, a president may be elected who did not win the national popular vote,[4] as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. [121] The sitting vice president is expected to preside, but in several cases the president pro tempore of the Senate has chaired the proceedings. [137] By 1828, with the rise of Jacksonian democracy, only Delaware and South Carolina used legislative choice. In two states -- Nebraska and Maine -- the Electoral Votes are split. [35], Initially, state legislatures chose the electors in many of the states. [209], Representative Emanuel Celler (D–New York), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, responded to public concerns over the disparity between the popular vote and electoral vote by introducing House Joint Resolution 681, a proposed Constitutional amendment that would have replaced the Electoral College with a simpler plurality system based on the national popular vote. [95][96] Some states support voting for write-in candidates; those that do may require pre-registration of write-in candidacy, with designation of electors being done at that time. Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011, "How is the president elected? [149], Of the 43 multi-district states whose 514 electoral votes are amenable to the method, Maine (4 EV) and Nebraska (5 EV) use it. Popular vote vs. There are 7 states, along with DC, that have 3 electoral votes, which is … [214], On October 8, 1969, the New York Times reported that 30 state legislatures were "either certain or likely to approve a constitutional amendment embodying the direct election plan if it passes its final Congressional test in the Senate." If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president. The total of 538 electoral votes is fixed, but how these votes are distributed between states can change as a result of the decennial Census. NONE. [23], Later in the convention, a committee formed to work out various details including the mode of election of the president, including final recommendations for the electors, a group of people apportioned among the states in the same numbers as their representatives in Congress (the formula for which had been resolved in lengthy debates resulting in the Connecticut Compromise and Three-Fifths Compromise), but chosen by each state "in such manner as its Legislature may direct". Because the least populous state (Wyoming, according to the 2010 census) has three electors, D.C. cannot have more than three electors. If no candidate receives a majority in the election for president or vice president, the election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the Twelfth Amendment. Alabama - 9 votes. However, commentators point out that the national popular vote observed under the Electoral College system may not reflect the popular vote observed under a National Popular Vote system, as each electoral institution produces different incentives for, and strategy choices by, presidential campaigns. [216] He called upon President Nixon to attempt to persuade undecided Republican senators to support the proposal. The two chambers meet midday on Jan. 6th to count the votes… amendment to the United States Constitution, Who is Kristen Welker? For many years early in the nation's history, up until the Jacksonian Era (1830s), many states appointed their electors by a vote of the state legislature, and proponents argue that, in the end, the election of the president must still come down to the decisions of each state, or the federal nature of the United States will give way to a single massive, centralized government, to the detriment of the States. 420. The law was passed in response to the disputed 1876 presidential election, in which several states submitted competing slates of electors. Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a U.S. election for president. James Wilson then made a motion for electors for the purpose of choosing the president. 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November. I do not recommend a Constitutional amendment lightly. In the event, the first (i.e. § 6) implements Section 2's mandate. Under the Electoral Count Act (updated and codified in 3 U.S.C. "[46] Jefferson explained to Madison's correspondent why he was doubtful of the amendment being ratified: "the states are now so numerous that I despair of ever seeing another amendment of the constitution." [194], In practice, the winner-take-all manner of allocating a state's electors generally decreases the importance of minor parties.[195]. [143] A similar method was used in New York in 1828: the two at large electors were elected by the electors selected in districts. On this basis after the first census, the Electoral College still gave the free men of slave-owning states (but never slaves) extra power (Electors) based on a count of these disenfranchised people, in the choice of the U.S. States select 535 of the electors, this number matches the aggregate total of their congressional delegations. Although procedures in each state vary slightly, the electors generally follow a similar series of steps, and the Congress has constitutional authority to regulate the procedures the states follow. Electors pledged to vote one way or another], who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes [i.e., to be told how to vote]; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons [Electors to the Electoral College] for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. In this case, the very large margins secured by the losing candidate in the other states would aggregate to a plurality of the ballots cast nationally. [159] Republicans had passed bills in 1995 and 1997 to do the same, vetoed by Democratic Governor Ben Nelson. president. [192] It was found that based on 1990 census and districting, individual voters in California, the largest state, had 3.3 times more individual power to choose a president than voters of Montana, the largest of the states allocating the minimum of three electors. The meeting is opened by the election certification official—often that state's secretary of state or equivalent—who reads the certificate of ascertainment. Before the advent of the "short ballot" in the early 20th century (as described in Selection process) the most common means of electing the presidential electors was through the general ticket. Such an amendment, which would abolish the Electoral College, will ensure that the candidate chosen by the voters actually becomes President. The senators then depart from the House chamber. The appropriateness of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate. [54][failed verification] New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island did not participate in the election. The electors in 1824 failed to select a winning candidate, so the matter was decided by the House of Representatives.[37]. The next step is the casting of the vote for vice president, which follows a similar pattern. Among its provisions, the law established deadlines that the states must meet when selecting their electors, resolving disputes, and when they must cast their electoral votes. He defined a faction as "a number of citizens whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." Madison also drafted a constitutional amendment that would insure the original "district" plan of the framers. Congressional Quarterly Books, "Presidential Elections: 1789–1996". Democrat Barack Obama won Pennsylvania in 2008 with 55% of its vote. [116] However, the United States Supreme Court has consistently ruled that state restrictions are allowed under the Constitution. [174][better source needed] In addition, it is already possible to win the required 270 electoral votes by winning only the 11 most populous states; what currently prevents such a result is the organic political diversity between those states (three reliably Republican states, four swing states, and four reliably Democratic states), not any inherent quality of the Electoral College itself.[175]. how many electoral votes are there total us: how many electoral votes are there: how many electoral votes are there total in the nation: 12 3 4 5. Advocates of a national popular vote for president suggest that this effect would also be true in popular vote elections. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of state delegation votes (i.e., at present, a minimum of 26 votes) in order for that candidate to become the president-elect. Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution provided the original plan by which the electors voted for president. The same clause empowers each state legislature to determine the manner by which that state's electors are chosen but prohibits federal office holders from being named electors. Critics argue that the Electoral College is less democratic than a national direct popular vote and is subject to manipulation because of faithless electors;[6][7] that the system is antithetical to a democracy that strives for a standard of "one person, one vote";[3] and there can be elections where one candidate wins the national popular vote but another wins the electoral vote, as in the 2000 and 2016 elections. That hasn’t happened since the 1800s, and Joe Biden’s electoral win over Trump was decisive, 306-232. In the general ticket, the state canvass would report the number of votes cast for each candidate for elector, a complicated process in states like New York with multiple positions to fill. Every 10 years, the results of the Census determine how seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned, and states may gain or lose electoral votes accordingly. [135] Even in the 1824 election, a quarter of state legislatures (6 of 24) chose electors. Across all 50 states and DC, there's a total of 538 electoral votes in action. "[49] Though this was indisputably in violation of the concepts Hamilton articulated in the Federalist #68, once one state took that strategy, the others felt compelled to follow suit in order to compete for the strongest influence on the election.[48]. [52] Jefferson agreed with Hamilton and Madison saying, "all agree that an election by districts would be the best. There is … I think the amendment process must be reserved for an issue of overriding governmental significance. [89][90] The number of representatives is based on the respective populations, determined every ten years by the United States Census. Madison wrote to George Hay: The district mode was mostly, if not exclusively in view when the Constitution was framed and adopted; & was exchanged for the general ticket [many years later].[50]. [173] They also assert that candidates in popular vote elections for governor and U.S. Senate, and for statewide allocation of electoral votes, do not ignore voters in less populated areas. On Jan. 6, 2021, the United States Congress meets in joint session for the formal counting of the Electoral Votes. U.S. territories (both modern-day territories like Puerto Rico and historical territories like the Dakota Territory) have never been entitled to any electors in the Electoral College. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections. [129], The only time the Senate chose the vice president was in 1837. [32], Another consideration was that the decision would be made without "tumult and disorder", as it would be a broad-based one made simultaneously in various locales where the decision makers could deliberate reasonably, not in one place where decision makers could be threatened or intimidated. Election expert, William C. Kimberling, reflected on the original intent as follows: "The function of the College of Electors in choosing the president can be likened to that in the Roman Catholic Church of the College of Cardinals selecting the Pope. Biden clinched his victory when Pennsylvania was called on Saturday, Nov. 7. A related argument is the Electoral College may have a dampening effect on voter turnout: there is no incentive for states to reach out to more of its citizens to include them in elections because the state's electoral count remains fixed in any event. Furthermore, the original intention of the framers was that the Electors would not feel bound to support any particular candidate, but would vote their conscience, free of external pressure. Since the election of 1824, the majority of states have chosen their presidential electors based on winner-take-all results in the statewide popular vote on Election Day. National Conference of State Legislatures, Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era, elections in which the winner lost the popular vote, Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Electoral_College&oldid=1000505002, History of voting rights in the United States, Articles with dead external links from September 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from May 2017, Articles with dead external links from January 2019, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with failed verification from October 2020, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles lacking reliable references from October 2018, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from November 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine**, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia*, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming. The six members who opposed the plan, Democratic senators James Eastland of Mississippi, John Little McClellan of Arkansas, and Sam Ervin of North Carolina, along with Republican senators Roman Hruska of Nebraska, Hiram Fong of Hawaii, and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, all argued that although the present system had potential loopholes, it had worked well throughout the years. [27], The Convention approved the Committee's Electoral College proposal, with minor modifications, on September 6, 1787. § 7 : US Code – Section 7: Meeting and vote of electors", "U.S. Each elector submits a written ballot with the name of a candidate for president. However, Nixon had received only 511,944 more popular votes than Humphrey, 43.5% to 42.9%, less than 1% of the national total. It prevents instances where a party dominant in one state may dishonestly inflate the votes for a candidate and thereby affect the election outcome. The Office of the Federal Register is charged with administering the Electoral College. Maryland is given one electoral vote for each Maryland congressional district, in addition to one electoral vote for each of the two Maryland Senators. During the vote count in 2001 after the close, Objections were raised in the vote count of the, In 1868, the newly reconstructed state of, Finally, in 1876, the legislature of the newly admitted state of, Lists of United States presidential electors (, This page was last edited on 15 January 2021, at 10:40. The electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December to cast their votes. In Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution , a requirement was established for each state legislature to determine how those electors were to be chosen. The attendance of the electors is taken and any vacancies are noted in writing. Here's a state-by-state guide on the 538 total electoral votes in play. Whichever candidate -- President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden -- gets to 270 electoral votes will win the presidency. 68 laid out what he believed were the key advantages to the Electoral College. By this method, voters in each district would cast their ballots for the electors they supported and the winner in each district would become the elector. All states currently choose presidential electors by popular vote. The phrase was first written into federal law in 1845, and today the term appears in 3 U.S.C. Here's a guide to how many votes each state gets this year to decide the presidency. [91], Under the Twenty-third Amendment, Washington, D.C., is allocated as many electors as it would have if it were a state but no more electors than the least populous state. Madison and Hamilton were so upset by what they saw as a distortion of the original intent that they advocated a constitutional amendment to prevent anything other than the district plan: "the election of Presidential Electors by districts, is an amendment very proper to be brought forward," Madison told George Hay in 1823. [145] Winner-take-all systems ignore thousands of votes; in Democratic California there are Republican districts, in Republican Texas there are Democratic districts. The canidate who put them forwards .... or they could be a faithless elector. Since 1880, electors in every state have been chosen based on a popular election held on Election Day. Chernow, Ron. When you add all up the states and their electors, the total equals 538 electors in all—but how many of their votes do you need for the election? Simply put: It's the total number of electoral votes in the U.S. electoral college. New York's legislature deadlocked and abstained; North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution. In 48 of the 50 states, state laws mandate the winner of the plurality of its statewide popular vote shall receive all of that state's electors;[11] in Maine and Nebraska, two electors are assigned in this manner, while the remaining electors are allocated based on the plurality of votes in each of their congressional districts. [8] While polling data show having a direct popular vote for presidential elections is consistently favored by a majority of Americans, the popularity of the Electoral College has hovered between 35 and 44% in the 21st century.[9][c]. It's Up to Us to End It", "Electoral College bias and the 2020 presidential election". Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote: "No one faithful to our history can deny that the plan originally contemplated, what is implicit in its text, that electors would be free agents, to exercise an independent and nonpartisan judgment as to the men best qualified for the Nation's highest offices."[43]. Some delegates, including James Wilson and James Madison, preferred popular election of the executive. Federal law (2 U.S.C. The tellers count the ballots and announce the result. [60], At the Constitutional Convention, the College composition in theory amounted to 49 votes for northern states (in the process of abolishing slavery) and 42 for slave-holding states (including Delaware). Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 1997, Brian D. Humes, Elaine K. Swift, Richard M. Valley, Kenneth Finegold, and Evelyn C. Fink, "Representation of the Antebellum South in the House of Representatives: Measuring the Impact of the Three-Fifths Clause" in David W. Brady and Mathew D. McCubbins, eds., Party, Process and Political Change in Congress: New Perspectives on the History of Congress (2002), Stanford University Press. Note: this may be a few days or even weeks before an election; many states cannot change ballots at a late stage. The general ticket is quite similar to the current system and is often confused with it. Some states provide for the placing in nomination of a candidate to receive the electoral votes (the candidate for president of the political party of the electors). This system of indirect democracy was chosen by the Founding Fathers as a compromise between allowing Congress to elect a president and giving potentially uninformed … Each state government was free to have its own plan for selecting its electors, and the Constitution does not explicitly require states to popularly elect their electors. Arizona - 11, an increase of 1 electoral vote. When citizens cast their votes for president and vice president, they are, in actuality, voting for electors, who, in turn, make the final selection as part of a body called the Electoral College. What president was in office for the shortest time? Having already lost the presidential contest, Federalist Party representatives in the lame duck House session seized upon the opportunity to embarrass their opposition by attempting to elect Burr over Jefferson. [22] Delegates from a majority of states agreed to this mode of election. [184][191] Sparsely populated states are likely to be increasingly overrepresented in the electoral college over time, because Americans are increasingly moving to big cities and because cities are growing especially in the biggest states. Add a Comment. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors. ", "A majority of Americans continue to favor replacing Electoral College with a nationwide popular vote", Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress, "Vision 2020: What happens if the US election is contested? The Proslavery Origins of the Electoral College. Trump and Biden were locked in a tight contest Thursday to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. If there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer simply includes a state's votes, as declared in the certificate of vote, in the official tally. In McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1 (1892), the Court cited Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 which states that a state's electors are selected "in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct" and wrote these words "operat[e] as a limitation upon the state in respect of any attempt to circumscribe the legislative power". Bayard and other Federalists from South Carolina, Maryland, and Vermont abstained, breaking the deadlock and giving Jefferson a majority.[44]. "[183] Akhil and Vikram Amar added: The founders' system also encouraged the continued disfranchisement of women. I will not be proposing a specific direct election amendment. [187][188] The Democratic and Republican parties, as well as other third parties, have, however, made it possible for people in U.S. territories to vote in party presidential primaries.[189][190]. [225], Since January 3, 2019, joint resolutions have been made proposing constitutional amendments that would replace the Electoral College with the popular election of the president and vice president. 10 that the greater the population and expanse of the Republic, the more difficulty factions would face in organizing due to such issues as sectionalism. [160][161] The plan later lost support. [16] The popular election for electors means the president and vice president are in effect chosen through indirect election by the citizens. [12] The federal district, Washington, D.C., allocates its 3 electoral votes to the winner of its single district election. 2020-04-17 21:33:41. [120] The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. [85] As of 2020[update], Maine and Nebraska are exceptions as both use the congressional district method; Maine since 1972 and in Nebraska since 1996. § 9), each state's electors must complete six certificates of vote. On March 22, 1977, President Jimmy Carter wrote a letter of reform to Congress that also included his expression of abolishing the Electoral College. "[134] Extensive research on alternate methods of electoral allocation have been conducted by Collin Welke, Dylan Shearer, and Riley Wagie in 2019. Rutherford B. Hayes (1876) Similar to 1824, the election of 1876 wasn’t decided by the … In 2013, the Virginia proposal was tabled. ", In 1887, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act, now codified in Title 3, Chapter 1 of the United States Code, establishing specific procedures for the counting of the electoral votes. In 1796, Federalist Party candidate John Adams won the presidential election. [170] Edwards also asserted that in the 2008 election, the campaigns did not mount nationwide efforts but rather focused on select states. [136] Delaware ended its practice the following election (1832), while South Carolina continued using the method until it seceded from the Union in December 1860. Supporters of the Electoral College argue candidates must build a popular base that is geographically broader and more diverse in voter interests than either a simple national plurality or majority. Trending. In many states, political officials give short speeches at this point in the proceedings. The short ballot was adopted by the various states at different times; it was adopted for use by North Carolina and Ohio in 1932. 1 Lindsey Boylan; 2 Gary Eisen; 3 Van Hunt; 4 COVID-19 Vaccine; 5 Air Force Jacket; 6 Gus Malzahn; 7 Women's Ugg Slippers; 8 Toyota Highlander Hybrid; 9 Buffalo Bills; 10 … The effect of this provision will be either to compel the States to grant universal suffrage or so shear them of their power as to keep them forever in a hopeless minority in the national Government, both legislative and executive.[78]. Because candidates have an incentive to campaign in competitive districts, with a district plan, candidates have an incentive to actively campaign in over thirty states versus about seven "swing" states. In 2016 polling, the gap closed to 51% direct election versus 44% electoral college. In that instance, the Senate adopted an alphabetical roll call and voting aloud. [20][184] Various scholars consequently conclude that the U.S. national-electoral process is not fully democratic. For a more detailed account of this proposal read. "[72] Pennsylvania split eight to seven for Jefferson, favoring Jefferson with a majority of 53% in a state with 0.1% slave population. The Judiciary Committee had approved the proposal by a vote of 11 to 6. [156] Following the 2008 split, some Nebraska Republicans made efforts to discard the congressional district method and return to the winner-takes-all system. [28] Delegates from states with smaller populations or limited land area, such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland, generally favored the Electoral College with some consideration for states. Even though the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by state officials, media organizations, and the Federal Election Commission, the people only indirectly elect the president. [142] Nebraska split its electoral votes for the first time in 2008, giving John McCain its statewide electors and those of two congressional districts, while Barack Obama won the electoral vote of Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. Beginning in 1804 there was a definite trend towards the winner-take-all system for statewide popular vote. The Office of the Federal Register is charged with administering the Electoral College.[82]. There are currently 538 electors, and an absolute majority of electoral votes, 270 or more, is required to win the election. § 5), all state recounts and court contests over presidential election results must be resolved by Dec. 8. [218] On September 17, 1970, a motion for cloture, which would have ended the filibuster, received 54 votes to 36 for cloture,[218] failing to receive the then-required two-thirds majority of senators voting. Here are the states we identified as the most competitive in our Election Forecast — and who won their electoral votes. Their transient existence, and their detached [unbiased] situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it."[45]. [69], Besides the Constitution prohibiting Congress from regulating foreign or domestic slave trade before 1808 and a duty on states to return escaped "persons held to service",[70] legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar argues that the College was originally advocated by slaveholders as a bulwark to prop up slavery. It was not until the early 19th century that the name "Electoral College" came into general usage as the collective designation for the electors selected to cast votes for president and vice president. As `` College of electors chosen by the election. [ 138 ] districts than congressional districts, moreover this., but every state have citizens voted for their party 's candidate that an election by districts would be best... 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