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 District of Columbia has three electoral votes because the 23rd Amendment granted it the same number of votes as the least populated State. Therefore, the total number of electors is 538.

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 United States at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by registered mail. The Certificates of Ascertainment must be submitted as soon as practicable, but no later than the day after the meetings of the electors, which occur on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. The Archivist transmits the originals to NARA's Office of the Federal Register (OFR). The OFR forwards one copy to each House of Congress and retains the original.

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, Nebraska and Maine, do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those States, there could be a split of electoral votes among candidates through the State's system for proportional allocation of votes.  

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.

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