The Electoral College
The Electoral College was
established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the
president by Congress and election by popular vote.
The Electoral College is
not a place, it is a process.
The Office of the Federal
Register coordinates the functions of the Electoral College on behalf of the
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the States, the Congress,
and the American People. It also operates as an intermediary between the
governors and secretaries of state of the various States and the Congress. It
also acts as a trusted agent of the Congress in the sense that it is responsible
for reviewing the legal sufficiency of the
Certificates of Ascertainment (confirm the names of the
appointed electors) and
Certificates of Vote (contain the elector's votes for president
and vice president) before the House and Senate accept them as evidence of
official State action.
The number of electors
per state is the number of members the state has in the House of Representatives
plus two for each senator. The total number of electors in the Electoral College
is therefore 435, the number of members of the House of Representatives plus 100
for the number of state senators. The
The slates of electors
are generally chosen by the political parties. State laws vary on the
appointment of electors. The States prepare a list of the slate of electors for
the candidate who receives the most popular votes on a Certificate of
Ascertainment. The Governor of each State prepares seven original Certificates
of Ascertainment. The States send one original, along with two authenticated
copies or two additional originals to the Archivist of the
There are 48 States that
have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States,
whichever candidate receives a majority of the vote, or a plurality of the
popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate) takes all
of the State's electoral votes. Only two States,
The electors meet in each
State on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. A majority of
270 electoral votes is required to elect the President and Vice President. No
Constitutional provision or Federal law requires electors to vote in accordance
with the popular vote in their State.
If no candidate receives
a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President
from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each
State delegation has one vote. The Senate would elect the Vice President from
the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator
would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fail to
elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting
President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.