The Electoral College

Special Cases

If no candidate has won a majority—today, at least 270 of 538 electoral votes—the election is put to the House of Representatives. This happened in 1800 and in 1824. The House chooses a President from among the top three candidates voted for by the electoral college. Each State delegation has one vote, and at least 26 votes are needed. If the House fails to choose a President by January 20, the 20th Amendment provides that the newly elected Vice President shall act as President until a choice is made.

Which statement is true about electors and members of Congress?

Members of Congress are chosen by voters, but electors are not.

Counting the Electoral Votes

The Constitution provides that the date Congress sets for the electors to meet "shall be the same throughout the United States." (Article II, Section 1, Clause 4) The 12th Amendment provides that "the Electors shall meet in their respective States." The electors therefore meet at their State capital on the date set by Congress, now the Monday after the second Wednesday in December. There they each cast their electoral votes, one for President and one for Vice President. The electors' ballots, signed and sealed, are sent by registered mail to the president of the Senate. Who has won a majority of the electoral votes, and who then will be the next President of the United States, is usually known by midnight of election day, more than a month before the electors cast their ballots. But the formal election of the President and Vice President takes place in early January.

Choosing Electors

The electors are chosen by popular vote in every State on the same day: the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year. So the 2016 presidential election is set for November 8, 2016. In every State except Maine and Nebraska, the electors are chosen at large. That is, they are chosen on a winner-take-all basis. The presidential candidate—technically, the slate of elector-candidates nominated by the party—who receives the largest number of popular votes in a State regularly wins all of that State's electoral votes. Today, the names of the individual elector-candidates appear on the ballot in only a handful of States. In most States, only the names of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are listed. They stand as "shorthand" for the elector slates.

The 20th Amendment

also says that "the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified" by Inauguration Day. Congress has done so, in the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. The Speaker of the House would "act as President . . . until a President or Vice President shall have qualified." If no one receives a majority of the electoral votes for Vice President, the Senate decides between the top two candidates. It takes a majority of the whole Senate to elect. The Senate has chosen a Vice President only once: Richard M. Johnson in 1837.

the Constitution

provides for the election of the President by the electoral college, in which each State has as many electors as it has members of Congress. The Framers expected the electors to use their own judgment in selecting a President. Today the electors, once chosen, are, in fact, just "rubber stamps." They are expected to vote automatically for their party's candidates for President and Vice President. In short, the electors go through the form set out in the Constitution in order to meet the letter of the Constitution, but their behavior is far from the original intent of that document.