Title: THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
1THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
2Two Alternatives considered by the Framers
- Indirectly
- Through Congress , State Legislatures, or some
other group - Directly
- By majority vote of the people
3Through Congress
- Disadvantages
- State legislatures might use their power to upset
the balance of power between the national and
state governments - Congress might use their power to upset the
balance of power between executive and
legislative branches
4Directly through popular vote
- Disadvantages
- The people could not be personally familiar with
the candidates and their qualifications - Mob rule
- Ignorance of the masses
- More advantage to states with larger populations
- candidates would ignore the smaller states
5The Clever Compromise ?
6Original Provisions of the Electoral College
- Each state selects Electors (members of the
Electoral College) - of Electors per state of Senators and
Representatives in Congress from that state - Method of how states choose electors determined
by the State Legislatures
7Original Provisions of the Electoral College
- Each elector casts two votes (intended to be one
for President and one for Vice President) - The candidate with the highest of votes , if a
majority, becomes President - The candidate with the second highest of votes
becomes Vice President
8Original Provisions of the Electoral College
- In the case of a tie OR if no one candidate
received a majority of electoral votes (51) the
House of Representatives would select the
President from the top three candidates by
majority vote with each state having only one
vote - What is the difference between a majority and a
plurality ?
9Original Intentions
- Electors would be the most enlightened and
respectable citizens from each state - They were to be free agents in choosing the
people best qualified to fill the nations' two
highest offices - Didnt expect too many Presidents to get the
required majority electoral votes needed
10Electoral College
11Election of 1796
- Washington declines a third term
- Political Parties had formed
- John Adams Federalist
- Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican
- John Adams got the most electoral votes
President - Thomas Jefferson got the second most electoral
votes Vice President
12Election of 1800
- Party Nominations for President and Vice
President - Candidates for the Electoral College pledged to
vote for their Partys Presidential ticket - The automatic casting of electoral votes in line
with those pledges - New Problem President and Vice President
receive same number of votes - Jefferson , Burr tie House of Representative
decide
1312th Amendment
- Separated the presidential and vice presidential
elections - "The electors shall name in their ballots the
person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice President."
14Related Documents
- U.S. Constitution
- Article 2 Section 1,2,3,4
- 12th Amendment
- Federalist 68 (Alexander Hamilton Publius)
http//www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/federal/fed68.ht
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15The Electoral College Today
- Electors as rubber stamps of the popular vote
results in each state - Winner Take All System
- The Presidential ticket receiving the largest
popular vote in the state wins all of that states
electoral votes - Usually only the names of the Presidential and
Vice Presidential candidates are listed on the
ballot - used in all states but two
- Maine and Nebraska use the district plan
16Present Day Election Timeline
- Popular Election
- First Tuesday in November (winner of the election
usually known by midnight) - Electoral College votes cast in States
- Monday after the second Wednesday in December
- Electoral College votes counted in WADC
- January 6
17If no candidate wins a majority of electoral
votes (270 out of 538 today) then the election is
thrown to the House of Representatives.
18THREE MAJOR FLAWS IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
- 1.The winner of the popular vote is not
guaranteed the presidency - 2.Electors are not required to vote in accord
with the popular vote - 3.Any election might have to be decided in the
House of Representatives
19FLAW 1
- The winner of the popular vote can lose the
Electoral vote - Two contributing factors
- Winner take all feature of the electoral college
system - The way the electoral votes are distributed among
the states
20Minority Presidents
- FOUR TIMES IN HISTORY POPULAR VOTE WINNERS LOST
THE ELECTION - 1824 - JQ Adams
- 1876 - R. B. Hayes
- 1888 - Benjamin Harrison
- 2000 - George W. Bush
21- Eleven times in history the Electoral College
winner only won a plurality of the popular vote - Polk(1844),Taylor (1848),Buchanan (1856),Lincoln
(1860),Garfield (1880), Cleveland (1884, 1892),
Wilson (1912, 1916), Truman (1948), JFK (1960),
Nixon (1968), Clinton (1992,1996)
22Main Point of Flaw 1
- The winner take all factor produces an electoral
vote that at best reflects a distorted popular
vote.
23FLAW 2
- Electors are not required to vote in accord with
the popular vote - Faithless electors possible.
- In no case has the vote of a faithless elector
effected the outcome of a presidential election
but the potential is there
24FLAW 3 Any election might have to be decided in
the House of Representatives
- A state with a small population would have as
much weight as the most populous state - If the representatives of a state were so divided
that no candidate was favored by a majority the
state loses its vote completely - A strong 3rd Party would make it difficult to get
the majority needed to select a winner and could
cause a deadlock
25Proposed Reforms
- The District Plan
- The Proportional Plan
- Direct Popular Election Plan
- The National Bonus Plan