what is the electoral vote

Varying by state, electors may also be elected by state legislatures or appointed by the parties themselves.[103]. "No one faithful to our history can deny that the plan originally contemplated, what is implicit in its text, that electors would be free agents, to exercise an independent and nonpartisan judgment as to the men best qualified for the Nation's highest offices."[43]. The latter had, in the compromise, relinquished counting two-fifths of their slaves and, after 1810, were outnumbered by 15.4% to 23.2%. 13536. Since the framers had not anticipated party-line voting and there was no mechanism for indicating a separate choice for president and vice president, the tie had to be broken by the Federalist-controlled House of Representatives. The vice president's unpopularity has grown, even amid the White House's efforts to repair her public image ahead of 2024. California and Texas have the largest number of electoral votes with 55 and 38 votes respectively; less populous states like Alaska only have three. [T]he members of the General Conventiondid indulge the hope [that] by apportioning, limiting, and confining the Electors within their respective States, and by the guarded manner of giving and transmitting the ballots of the Electors to the Seat of Government, that intrigue, combination, and corruption, would be effectually shut out, and a free and pure election of the president of the United States made perpetual. Of 918 elections for governor between 1948 and 2009, for example, more than 90% were won by candidates securing more than 50% of the vote, and none have been won with less than 35% of the vote.[215]. What's The Electoral College And How It Differs From The Popular Vote "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.". Some state leaders began to adopt the strategy that the favorite partisan presidential candidate among the people in their state would have a much better chance if all of the electors selected by their state were sure to vote the same waya "general ticket" of electors pledged to a party candidate. Since ballots did not distinguish between votes for president and votes for vice president, every ballot cast for Burr technically counted as a vote for him to become president, despite Jefferson clearly being his party's first choice. In 2000 George W. Bushs narrow 271266 electoral college victory over Al Gore, who won the nationwide popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, prompted renewed calls for the abolition of the electoral college, as did Donald Trumps 304227 electoral college victory in 2016 over Hillary Clinton, who won the nationwide popular vote by nearly three million votes. Supreme Court rejects Trump-backed controversial election theory - CNN On September 8, 1970, the Senate commenced openly debating the proposal,[235] and the proposal was quickly filibustered. They noted that James Madison believed the question of counting slaves had presented a serious challenge, but that "the substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections. I think the amendment process must be reserved for an issue of overriding governmental significance. The 2020 election has been described as one of the most important in history, and it has gotten heated on more than one occasion. Get Presidential Election Information for My State, What Congress Does in the Electoral College, Historical Electoral College Facts and Results, National Association of State Election Officials, National Association of Secretaries of State, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Archives and Records Administration. The founders thought that the use of electors would give our country a representative president, while avoiding a corruptible national election. The party which wins a state has its electors formally vote for its candidate. 10 that the greater the population and expanse of the Republic, the more difficulty factions would face in organizing due to such issues as sectionalism. It was a compromise between a popular vote by citizens and a vote in Congress. Although many people believe that the president and vice . Alabama certificate showing the state's electors' votes, Lawyers are continuing to spar in the case of a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump who is facing possible disbarment in California for developing a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at keeping Trump in power following the 2020 election, Learn about the working process of the U.S. electoral college, Understand the role of the U.S. In 1800, the Democratic-Republican Party again nominated Jefferson for president and also again nominated Aaron Burr for vice president. [148] By 1828, with the rise of Jacksonian democracy, only Delaware and South Carolina used legislative choice. Within just a few years of the ratification of the Constitution, however, both phenomena became permanent features of the political landscape of the United States. The House continues balloting until it elects a president. The suitability of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate. The electoral college was proposed near the end of the convention by the Committee on Unfinished Parts, chaired by David Brearley of New Jersey, to provide a system that would select the most qualified president and vice president. [12], In 48 of the 50 states, state laws mandate that the winner of the plurality of the statewide popular vote receive all of that state's electoral votes. This happened in 2016, 2000, and three times in the 1800s. An argument by critics for eliminating the Electoral College is Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in swing states. However, appointment by state legislature can have negative consequences: bicameral legislatures can deadlock more easily than the electorate. An objection supported by at least one senator and one representative will be followed by the suspension of the joint session and by separate debates and votes in each House of Congress; after both Houses deliberate on the objection, the joint session is resumed. Like the other congressional district methods, this would have distributed the electoral votes based on the popular vote winner within each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts; the two statewide electoral votes would be awarded based on which candidate won the most congressional districts. Proponents of the current system argue the collective opinion of even a small state merits attention at the federal level greater than that given to a small, though numerically equivalent, portion of a very populous state. [7] This is because the number of electors each state appoints is equal to the size of its congressional delegation, each state is entitled to at least three regardless of population, and the apportionment of the statutorily fixed number of the rest is only roughly proportional. A republican government (i.e., representative democracy, as opposed to direct democracy) combined with the principles of federalism (with distribution of voter rights and separation of government powers), would countervail against factions. Populous states in which pre-election poll results show no clear favorite are inundated with campaign visits, saturation television advertising, get-out-the-vote efforts by party organizers, and debates, while four out of five voters in the national election are "absolutely ignored", according to one assessment. United States Electoral College Votes by State | Britannica The choice would be made decisively with a "full and fair expression of the public will" but also maintaining "as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder". [229], On September 30, 1969, President Nixon gave his endorsement for adoption of the proposal, encouraging the Senate to pass its version of the proposal, which had been sponsored as Senate Joint Resolution1 by Senator Birch Bayh (DIndiana). [209], In practice, the winner-take-all manner of allocating a state's electors generally decreases the importance of minor parties.[210]. Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution provided the original plan by which the electors voted for president. That's partially correct. That could change on Nov. 3 of course, because all House seats are up for election. This may result in greater proportionality. Since the 1824 election, the majority of states have chosen their presidential electors based on winner-take-all results in the statewide popular vote on Election Day. Candidates want the magic number of electoral votes. These certificates are opened during a joint session of Congress, held on January 6[93] unless another date is specified by law, and read aloud by the incumbent vice president, acting in his capacity as president of the Senate. [151], The Constitution gives each state legislature the power to decide how its state's electors are chosen[147] and it can be easier and cheaper for a state legislature to simply appoint a slate of electors than to create a legislative framework for holding elections to determine the electors. [70], At the Constitutional Convention, the college composition, in theory, amounted to 49 votes for northern states (in the process of abolishing slavery) and 42 for slave-holding states (including Delaware). [79], Besides the Constitution prohibiting Congress from regulating foreign or domestic slave trade before 1808 and a duty on states to return escaped "persons held to service",[80] legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar argues that the college was originally advocated by slaveholders as a bulwark to prop up slavery. *Although not a state, the District of Columbia is allotted electors. A related argument is the Electoral College may have a dampening effect on voter turnout: there is no incentive for states to reach out to more of its citizens to include them in elections because the state's electoral count remains fixed in any event. It was established by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution and modified by the 12th and 23rd Amendments. The framers of the Constitution established the Electoral College in the Constitution to forge a compromise between those who wanted the president to be elected by members of Congress and those who wanted a president elected by a popular vote. The top ten states all possess 15 to 55 votes and constitute 19.6% of the fifty states plus Washington, D.C. Electors are nominated by the party and, usually, they vote for the ticket to which are promised. For instance, recounts occur only on a state-by-state basis, not nationwide. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. [187][bettersourceneeded] In addition, it is already possible to win the required 270 electoral votes by winning only the 12 most populous states; what currently prevents such a result is the organic political diversity between those states (three reliably Republican states, four swing states, and five reliably Democratic states), not any inherent quality of the Electoral College itself.[188]. [153] Nebraska split its electoral votes for the first time in 2008, giving John McCain its statewide electors and those of two congressional districts, while Barack Obama won the electoral vote of Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. The United States of America is a federal republic that consists of component states. [119] Before 1950, the Secretary of State's office oversaw the certifications, but since then the Office of Federal Register in the Archivist's office reviews them to make sure the documents sent to the archive and Congress match and that all formalities have been followed, sometimes requiring states to correct the documents. [94] If there is a tie, or if no candidate for either or both offices receives an absolute majority, then choice falls to Congress in a procedure known as a contingent election. After you cast your ballot for president, your vote goes to a statewide tally. While the Constitution does not require electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote, some states do. The law was passed in response to the disputed 1876 presidential election, in which several states submitted competing slates of electors. The decision on vice president goes to the newly elected Senate, with each senator casting a vote. In Hawaii and Washington state, five electors cast ballots for Sen . Arguments for and against the electoral college. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was a career politician who many thought would be the winner, and who in fact led in many polls. Because there is now an even number of electoral votes, a tie is feasible. There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. Beginning in 1804 there was a definite trend towards the winner-take-all system for statewide popular vote. Third-party candidates with broad national support are generally penalized in the electoral collegeas was Ross Perot, who won 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992 and no electoral votesthough candidates with geographically concentrated supportsuch as Dixiecrat candidate Strom Thurmond, who won 39 electoral votes in 1948 with just over 2 percent of the national voteare occasionally able to win electoral votes. Learn how to get a voter registration card and what you can do if you need a replacement. Electors pledged to vote one way or another], who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes [i.e., to be told how to vote]; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons [Electors to the Electoral College] for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. Following the 1790 census, the most populous state in the 1790 Census was Virginia, with 39.1% slaves, or 292,315 counted three-fifths, to yield a calculated number of 175,389 for congressional apportionment. This is because the president is not chosen. Elections where the winning candidate loses the national popular vote typically result when the winner builds the requisite configuration of states (and thus captures their electoral votes) by small margins, but the losing candidate secures large voter margins in the remaining states. Electoral vote count in Congress: A step-by-step guide - CNN Conversely, the institutional structure of a national popular vote system would encourage candidates to pursue voter turnout wherever votes could be found, even in safe states they are already expected to win, and in safe states they have no hope of winning. [199] This analysis gives a strong advantage to the smallest states, but ignores any extra influence that comes from larger states' ability to deliver their votes as a single bloc. [61] Jefferson agreed with Hamilton and Madison saying, "all agree that an election by districts would be the best. [citation needed] The meeting is opened by the election certification officialoften that state's secretary of state or equivalentwho reads the certificate of ascertainment. Had the recount continued, the Florida legislature was prepared to appoint the Republican slate of electors to avoid missing the federal safe-harbor deadline for choosing electors. Each state delegation votes en bloceach delegation having a single vote; the District of Columbia does not get to vote. COMPARE MEANINGS popular vote electoral vote Click for a side-by-side comparison of meanings. Many of the founding fathers mistrusted direct democracy ("the tyranny of the majority," according to Alexis de Tocqueville) and wanted Congress to choose the President. Electoral College For State Officials", "Congress meets to count electoral votes", "Electors seldom go rogue in casting a state's votes for president", "The one election where Faithless Electors made a difference", "Q&A: Electors almost always follow the vote in their state", "Supreme Court rules 'faithless electors' can't go rogue at Electoral College", "Opinion analysis: Court upholds 'faithless elector' laws", "How Are Electors Selected For The Electoral College? [6] Individual citizens in less populated states with 5% of the Electoral College have proportionately more voting power than those in more populous states,[7] and candidates can win by focusing their resources on just a few "swing states". After the vote, each state sends to Congress a certified record of their electoral votes, called the Certificate of Vote. According to this view, if elections were by popular vote, then states would be motivated to include more citizens in elections since the state would then have more political clout nationally. The system had some unusual results from the start, as evident in the election of 1800, a tie in which Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received an equal number of electoral votes. PDF files require the free Adobe Reader. The slate of electors that represent the winning ticket will vote for those two offices. [92] The meeting is held at 1p.m. in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. However, once the Electoral College had been decided on, several delegates (Mason, Butler, Morris, Wilson, and Madison) openly recognized its ability to protect the election process from cabal, corruption, intrigue, and faction. [66], Since 1836, statewide winner-take-all popular voting for electors has been the almost universal practice. However, Federalist#68, insofar as it reflects the intent of the founders, states that Electors will be "selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass," and with regard to choosing Electors, "they [the framers] have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America." Democrat Barack Obama won Pennsylvania in 2008 with 55% of its vote. Presidential Elections 17891996. [247][248] Those joining the compact will, acting together if and when reflecting a majority of electors (at least 270), pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. (Hamilton. Three electoral votes which were still cast for Greeley, despite him being dead, were rejected. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. Thus, a president who did not win the national popular vote[6] may get elected, as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Gerrymandering is a practice involving the manipulation of electoral district boundaries to marginalize a certain set of voters and increase the influence of others. win the Electoral College but lose the popular vote, the vote goes to the House of Representatives, contact your U.S. senator or your U.S. representative, Directory of U.S. government agencies and departments. "[56] Jefferson explained to Madison's correspondent why he was doubtful of the amendment being ratified: "the states are now so numerous that I despair of ever seeing another amendment of the constitution. Electoral vote Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com This leads to an intense focus on battleground states, as candidates look to boost their electoral advantage by targeting states that can help them reach the needed 270 votes of the 538 up for grabs. Researchers have variously attempted to measure which states' voters have the greatest impact in such an indirect election. He has not shown any sign that he will. The six members who opposed the plan, Democratic senators James Eastland of Mississippi, John Little McClellan of Arkansas, and Sam Ervin of North Carolina, along with Republican senators Roman Hruska of Nebraska, Hiram Fong of Hawaii, and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, all argued that although the present system had potential loopholes, it had worked well throughout the years. 68: 'It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. restrictions on who the electors may vote for. Among its provisions, the law established deadlines that the states must meet when selecting their electors, resolving disputes, and when they must cast their electoral votes. [213][214], Proponents of the Electoral College see its negative effect on third parties as beneficial. The differences in turnout between swing states and non-swing states under the current electoral college system suggest that replacing the Electoral College with direct election by popular vote would likely increase turnout and participation significantly.[194]. Based on its population per electoral vote, D.C. has the third highest per capita Electoral College representation, after Wyoming and Vermont. Even if D.C. were a state, its population would entitle it to only three electors. These top ten states control a total of 256 votes or 47.6% of the available electoral votes. Chernow, Ron. A majority of electoral votes (currently 270 of 538) is . US Voting and Election Resources Historical Facts and Results For State Officials The National Archives supports Executive Order 14019, which promotes access to voting. He defined a faction as "a number of citizens whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." ", "The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline", Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress, "Vision 2020: What happens if the US election is contested?

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