ELECTORAL COLLEGE 



1979 



ELECTORAL COMMISSION 



The final decree of the Convention is given 

 in the second clause of Article II, Section I, of 

 the Constitution: 



"Each State shall appoint, in such manner as 

 the Legislature thereof may direct, a numher of 

 Electors, equal to the whole number of Senators 

 and Representatives to which the State may be 

 entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Rep- 

 resentative, or person holding an office of trust 

 or profit under the United States, shall be ap- 

 pointed an Elector." 



Congress was given power to determine the 

 day of choosing the electors and that on which 

 they should give their votes; this power is 

 exercised at present under Act of Congress of 

 February, 1887, as amended in October, 1888. 



Each state in choosing electors acts inde- 

 pendently of every other state. One may nom- 

 inate its electors for the state at large, so 

 that each citizen votes for the total number; 

 another may have an elector for each Con- 

 gressional district and two electors for the 

 whole state, corresponding to its Senators. 

 Nomination is sometimes in primary elections, 

 sometimes in party conventions. Electors are 

 chosen on the first Tuesday after the first Mon- 

 day in November. Usually the whole body of 

 electors chosen by a state is of one political 

 party. As soon as all ballots have been 

 counted, the governor of each state must certify 

 to the Secretary of State of the United States 

 the names of the electors selected and the full 

 circumstances attending their choice. 



The electors in each state meet in their 

 state capital on the second Monday of January 

 following the November election, and there 

 ballot for President and Vice-President. Up 

 to that date, although everybody knows who 

 are to be the next President and Vice-President, 

 not a single vote has been cast for these offi- 

 cials. The electors have full legal right to 

 cast their ballots for whomsoever they please, 

 except that of the men they name for President 

 and Vice-President one at least "shall not be 

 an inhabitant of the same state as themselves" 

 (Article XII, Amendments). However, there 

 is the strongest moral obligation to vote for 

 the men placed in nomination at the national 

 convention of their party during the preceding 

 summer. There never has been a case where 

 an elector has disappointed his constituents by 

 voting otherwise than as expected by the peo- 

 ple who chose him. 



Three copies are made of the record of the 

 vote of the electors. One copy is filed in the 

 office of the secretary of state at the state 

 capital; one is given to the United States Dis- 



trict Judge in the Federal district in which the 

 state capital is located; the third is forwarded 

 by special messenger (one of the electors) to 

 the Secretary of State of the United States. 



Congress is required to be in session on the 

 second Wednesday of February following the 

 meeting of the electoral college. At 1 o'clock 

 in the afternoon of that day the Senate ftnd 

 the House of Representatives meet as one 

 body in the hall of the House of Representa- 

 tives, presided over by the President of the 

 Senate. The Secretary of State sends the 

 reports from the various state*, and the seals 

 are broken by the presiding officer, who an- 

 nounces the vote of each state. Not until 

 the result of the' complete count is announced 

 can the election be concluded formally and 

 legally. 



Even at this stage it may happen that no 

 election has resulted, for the law requires the 

 successful candidate for President to have re- 

 ceived a majority of electoral votes. If no 

 candidate has a majority, then the House of 

 Representatives must elect a President and 

 the Senate a Vice-President. In this case the 

 vote in the House of Representatives is by 

 states, each state having one vote. The wish 

 of the majority of each state delegation shall 

 determine the vote of its state, and the choice 

 must be from the three men receiving the 

 highest vote in the electoral college. In the 

 Senate the choice must be from the two men 

 receiving the highest vote for Vice-President in 

 the electoral college. 



Because the electoral college no longer ac- 

 tually chooses the nation's .chief executive, as 

 the framers of the Constitution intended, but 

 is merely the instrument in a formal and 

 rather expensive procedure, there has been 

 much talk of abolishing it and choosing the 

 President by direct vote. The number who 

 favor doing so was increased by the elr-tmn 

 of 1916, in which the candidate receiving tin- 

 minority of the popular vote very nearly ob- 

 tained a majority of the electoral vote. E.D.F. 



Consult Bryce's American Commonwralth for 

 the views of an eminent KmrUnhmun on the 

 electoral system of the United States. 



ELEC'TORAL COMMISSION, a commission 

 appointed by the United States Congress to de- 

 cide the Presidential election of 1876, which 

 both Republicans and Democrats claimed to 

 have won. The Commission was appointed 

 on January 28, 1877, to investigate the electoral 

 returns from Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and 

 South Carolina, from which states conflicting 



