The original Constitutional Convention considered several possible methods of selecting a president. One idea which was quickly rejected was relegating to Congress the duty of appointing the president. But the Founding Fathers recognized the potential for paralyzing party divisiveness, the potential for interference by foreign governments, unseemly corruption and the possible upset in the delicate balance of power between the legislative and executive branches of government.

A second idea was to have the state legislatures select the president. This idea, too, was rejected out of fear that a president so beholden to the state legislatures might permit them to erode federal authority and thus undermine the whole idea of the federation.

A third idea was to have the president elected by a direct popular vote. Direct election was rejected not because the framers of the Constitution doubted that the public would be up to the task but because presidents would always be selected by the most populous states with little regard for political sentiment in the smaller states.

Finally, a "Committee of Eleven" in the Constitutional Convention proposed an indirect election of the president through a college of electors. The Founding Fathers were well schooled in ancient history and its lessons and drew upon the Roman Centurial Assembly system of the Roman Republic. Under that system, the adult male citizens of Rome were divided into groups of 100 - called Centuries. Each Century was entitled to cast one vote for or against proposals laid before them by the Roman Senate. In the Electoral College system, the states serve as the centurial representative and the number of votes are determined by the number of representatives in each state’s congressional delegation. In Nevada there are four electors reflecting our two congressional districts and two senators.

Winner Takes All

Although the millions of citizens who vote in next November’s election rightly think that they are deciding who shall be president, only 538 persons are entitled to vote directly for president and vice president under Article II and Amendment XXIII of the Constitution.

The individual selection of electors is controlled by state not federal law. In Nevada the electors are chosen by the two major political parties with the knowledge that popular victory for the Democratic or Republican candidate will determine which party’s electors cast their votes in December of this year. Although it’s a safe bet that the political parties will choose those who they trust to carry their preference to the College, this does not predetermine how each elector will vote. Nevada’s electors are similarly not legally bound by party dictums (although no elector has ever deviated from his or her party’s wishes). Thus, the Electoral College could well produce a winner in December that was not apparent on election day in November.

The electors meet in their states in early December. Each elector casts two ballots, one for president and one for vice president. The votes are then recorded on certificates, which will be sealed and sent to the president of the Senate and to the archivist of the United States in Washington, DC. On January 6 the certificates will be opened and counted in front of a joint session of Congress.

Electoral Tie Votes Are Possible

What happens if the electoral vote is tied 270 to 270? The answer lies in the Twelfth Amendment:

"From the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by state, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to choose."

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But has this ever happened? Yes. In 1800 the Democratic-Republican electors gave Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr equal numbers of electoral votes. The tie was settled in Jefferson’s favor by the House of Representatives in accordance with the original design of the Electoral College system and, if fact, was the reason for the adoption of the 12th Amendment which effectively prevented this sort of thing from ever happening again.

Electoral College Contrary to Popular Vote? Sometimes!

In the 1872 election Democratic candidate Horace Greely of "Go West, young man" journalistic fame thoughtlessly died during the period between the popular vote and the meeting of the Electoral College. Greely-pledged electors, clearly unprepared for such an eventuality, split their electoral votes among several other Democratic candidates and this enabled Ulysses S. Grant to receive an absolute majority of electoral votes.

Benjamin Harrison’s election in 1889 is really the only clear-cut instance in which the Electoral College vote went contrary to the popular vote. It happened because the incumbent, Democrat Grover Cleveland, ran up huge popular majorities in several of the 18 states which supported him while the Republican Challenger, Benjamin Harrison, won only slender majorities in some of the larger of the 20 states which supported him, most notably in Cleveland’s home state of New York. Even so, the difference between them was only 110,476 votes out of 11 million cast - less than 1 percent of the total. Interestingly in this case, there were few critical issues other than tariffs separating the candidates so that the election seems to have been fought and won more on the basis of superior party organization in getting out the vote than on the issues of the day.

Pros and Cons Of the Electoral College System

In its 200-year history, the Electoral College has had its share of critics and proposed reforms. But it also has staunch defenders (although perhaps less vocal than its critics). Those who object to the Electoral College and favor direct election of the president generally do so on four grounds:

• The possibility of electing a minority president;

• The risk of so-called "faithless" electors;

• The possible role of the Electoral College in depressing voter turnout; and

• The possible failure to accurately reflect the national popular will.

In response to these arguments proponents of the Electoral College point out that it was never intended to reflect the national popular will. In addition they defend the College’s role on philosophical grounds:

• It contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to elected president;

• It enhances the status of minority interests;

• It contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two-party system; and

• It maintains a federal system of government and representation.

 

Conclusion

The Electoral College has performed its function for over 200 years and in over 50 presidential elections by ensuring that the president has both sufficient popular support to govern and that his popular support is sufficiently distributed throughout the country to enable him to govern effectively.

Although there were a few anomolies in its early history none have occurred in the past century. Proposals to abolish the Electoral College, although frequently put forward, have failed largely because alternatives appear more problematical than the College in its present form. The fact that the Electoral College was originally designed to solve one set of problems is a tribute to the genius of the Founding Fathers.

Alabama

9

0

Montana

3

-1

Alaska

3

0

Nebraska

5

0

Arizona

8

1

Nevada

4

0

Arkansas

6

0

New Hampshire

4

0

California

54

7

New Jersey

15

-1

Colorado

8

0

New Mexico

5

0

Connecticut

8

0

New York

33

-3

Delaware

3

0

North Carolina

14

1

District of Columbia

3

0

North Dakota

3

0

Florida

25

4

Ohio

21

-2

Georgia

13

1

Oklahoma

8

0

Hawaii

4

0

Oregon

7

0

Idaho

4

0

Pennsylvania

23

-2

Illinois

22

-2

Rhode Island

4

4

Indiana

2

0

South Carolina

8

0

Iowa

7

-1

South Dakota

3

0

Kansas

6

-1

Tennessee

11

0

Kentucky

8

-1

Texas

32

3

Louisiana

9

-1

Utah

5

0

Maine

4

0

Vermont

3

0

Maryland

10

0

Virginia

13

1

Massachusetts

12

-1

Washington

11

1

Michigan

18

-2

West Virginia

5

-1

Minnesota

10

0

Wisconsin

11

0

Mississippi

7

0

Wyoming

3

0

Missouri

11

0

Total

538