Electoral College

Origins

• Article II Section 1 establishes the Electoral College for choosing the President.

• “Each State shall appoint …a number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled to in Congress…”

• Currently 538 electors: 435 members in the House of Representatives + 100 in the Senate + 3 for DC.

• In PA a slate of electors is chosen in the May Primary preceding the National Election.

• National Election is held the Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November.

• Electors chosen on a winner-take-all basis in most states.

• Electors meet in their states on the Monday after the 2nd Wednesday in December.

• Ballots are signed and sealed and sent to the President of the Senate in Washington DC.

• The ballots are opened and counted on January 6th before a joint session of Congress.

• Candidates with a majority of votes, 270, are declared the winners.

• If no candidate has a majority the President is elected by the House of Representatives and the Vice-president is elected by the Senate.

• In the House each state gets one vote with 26 votes required to win.

• In the Senate a majority of the whole Senate is required to win.

Flaws

• Winner of popular vote may not win the presidency

• Caused by the winner-take-all feature• Also a result of the way electoral votes are

distributed among the states• Each state gets 2 senators regardless of

population.• Happened in 2000 – Gore won popular vote but

lost electoral vote.

• 2nd defect – nothing “requires” the electors to vote for who won the popular vote.

• Has happened on 9 occasions but did not affect the outcome.

• Third defect – election may be decided by the House.

• Has only happened twice.• Presence of a strong 3rd party candidate could

prevent a candidate getting a majority.• Happened in 1800 and 1824• Problem s with this – small states have as

much say as a large state

• If state delegation cannot decide the state would lose its vote.

• Third - a majority is required. A strong 3rd party candidate could prolong the vote past Inauguration Day.

Proposed reforms

• District Plan – electors chosen at the state level the same way members of congress are chosen –

• Two at-large electors – casting their vote the way the state popular vote goes

• Other electors chosen by districts – vote the way the district votes in the popular election.

• Problem – would not eliminate the possibility of loser of popular vote winning the electoral vote.

• Proportional Plan – each candidate would receive the same share of electoral votes as they received in the popular vote.

• Would cure winner-take-all problem • Would be in line with the popular vote for

each state• Because the votes for senators the loser of the

popular vote could still win the electoral vote