What is the electoral college?
The electoral college is the mechanism by which the president and vice president of the United States are elected. (Per Merriam-Webster, a college is “an organized body of persons engaged in a common pursuit or having common interests or duties,” or “a group of persons considered by law to be a unit.”)
Electors are first mentioned in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number 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 Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
There are currently 538 electors (hence the name of Nate Silver’s website):
Note that the Constitution gives each state legislature the power to determine how its electors are appointed. In other words, there is no constitutional right to vote for presidential electors; should its legislators so choose, any state could choose its electors through some method other than a popular vote—as was often the case during the nation’s first few decades.
Today, of course, every state holds a popular election for its presidential and vice presidential electors. In 1845, Congress fixed the date of this election as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of a year divisible by four.
Electors are first mentioned in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number 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 Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
There are currently 538 electors (hence the name of Nate Silver’s website):
- One elector for each U.S. representative = 435 electors
- The size of the House of Representatives was fixed at 435 by the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929.
- After each census, the distribution of representatives—and thus electors—is reapportioned to reflect changes to each state’s population; thus California, which currently has 53 representatives—the most of any state—had 52 representatives in the 1990s, 45 in the 1980s, and only 2 when it first joined the union, in 1850. (This page contains a pdf that lists the representatives apportioned to each state following each census.)
- One elector for each U.S. senator = 100 electors
- Three electors for the District of Columbia, per the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution.
Note that the Constitution gives each state legislature the power to determine how its electors are appointed. In other words, there is no constitutional right to vote for presidential electors; should its legislators so choose, any state could choose its electors through some method other than a popular vote—as was often the case during the nation’s first few decades.
Today, of course, every state holds a popular election for its presidential and vice presidential electors. In 1845, Congress fixed the date of this election as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of a year divisible by four.
How does the electoral college work?
Prior to Election Day
During a presidential election (and a vice presidential election—technically, these are separate elections), people vote for the electors who represent a particular political party. So first each party must choose its slate of electors for each state where it appears on the ballot. (In what follows, “state” refers also to the District of Columbia.) Keep in mind that each state has its own ballot. As our two major parties, the Democratic and Republican Parties automatically appear on every state’s ballot, but other parties must meet certain criteria. (You can find links to ballot access laws for each state here.) In the 2016 election, for example, the Libertarian Party also appeared on every state’s ballot, but the Green Party appeared on the ballot in only 44 states, and the Constitution Party appeared in only 24 states. I remain unsure how electors are chosen for independent or write-in candidates—probably because, to my knowledge, no such candidate has ever threatened to win an electoral vote—but I assume each state has laws for such a contingency. (This blog, for what it’s worth, is interesting speculation.) Thus, in what follows I shall focus on party nominees rather than independent or write-in candidates.
Prior to Election Day each political party represented on the ballot in a state must deliver to that state’s board of elections a list of the party’s electors: one elector for each electoral vote. Different parties in different states have different processes for choosing electors—you can read state-by-state summaries here—but it’s generally safe to assume that a party chooses loyalists who can be counted on to vote for its presidential and vice presidential nominees. The Constitution sets few restrictions:
On Election Day
On Election Day, ballots list each party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees (but not, in most states, the party’s electors), along with any independent candidates. Each voter may cast one vote for a ticket consisting of both nominees for a party; states do not give voters the option to “split” their ticket by selecting the presidential nominee from one party and the vice presidential nominee from another party. Thus, a typical state’s ballot gives the false impression that voters are choosing a pair of candidates, when in fact they are choosing a slate of electors who shall likely, but not necessarily, vote for the desired candidates. (More on this uncertainty below.)
When the polls close in a state, the votes are tallied and the winning ticket is announced. In 48 states plus the District of Columbia, the ticket that wins a plurality of votes statewide receives all the electoral votes for that state, regardless of the margin of victory. In fact, no official votes have yet been cast; instead, as described in the next section, the party whose nominees win a state’s popular vote shall send its entire slate of electors for that state to vote for president and vice president.
In contrast, two states—Maine and Nebraska—use the district system to award electoral votes. In these states, two electoral votes (one per senator) are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote, and one electoral vote is awarded to the winner of each of the state’s congressional districts (one per representative).
After Election Day
The results of the election, though typically consistent with the popular vote, are not official until the electors cast their votes.
During a presidential election (and a vice presidential election—technically, these are separate elections), people vote for the electors who represent a particular political party. So first each party must choose its slate of electors for each state where it appears on the ballot. (In what follows, “state” refers also to the District of Columbia.) Keep in mind that each state has its own ballot. As our two major parties, the Democratic and Republican Parties automatically appear on every state’s ballot, but other parties must meet certain criteria. (You can find links to ballot access laws for each state here.) In the 2016 election, for example, the Libertarian Party also appeared on every state’s ballot, but the Green Party appeared on the ballot in only 44 states, and the Constitution Party appeared in only 24 states. I remain unsure how electors are chosen for independent or write-in candidates—probably because, to my knowledge, no such candidate has ever threatened to win an electoral vote—but I assume each state has laws for such a contingency. (This blog, for what it’s worth, is interesting speculation.) Thus, in what follows I shall focus on party nominees rather than independent or write-in candidates.
Prior to Election Day each political party represented on the ballot in a state must deliver to that state’s board of elections a list of the party’s electors: one elector for each electoral vote. Different parties in different states have different processes for choosing electors—you can read state-by-state summaries here—but it’s generally safe to assume that a party chooses loyalists who can be counted on to vote for its presidential and vice presidential nominees. The Constitution sets few restrictions:
- As previously cited, Article II says that “no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector”; this is generally interpreted to mean that no federal employee may serve as an elector, and indeed states have replaced electors for this very reason.
- Per the 14th Amendment (passed in the wake of the Civil War), no person shall be an elector “who, having previously taken an oath . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” The 14th Amendment also gives Congress the power, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, [to] remove this disability.”
On Election Day
On Election Day, ballots list each party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees (but not, in most states, the party’s electors), along with any independent candidates. Each voter may cast one vote for a ticket consisting of both nominees for a party; states do not give voters the option to “split” their ticket by selecting the presidential nominee from one party and the vice presidential nominee from another party. Thus, a typical state’s ballot gives the false impression that voters are choosing a pair of candidates, when in fact they are choosing a slate of electors who shall likely, but not necessarily, vote for the desired candidates. (More on this uncertainty below.)
When the polls close in a state, the votes are tallied and the winning ticket is announced. In 48 states plus the District of Columbia, the ticket that wins a plurality of votes statewide receives all the electoral votes for that state, regardless of the margin of victory. In fact, no official votes have yet been cast; instead, as described in the next section, the party whose nominees win a state’s popular vote shall send its entire slate of electors for that state to vote for president and vice president.
In contrast, two states—Maine and Nebraska—use the district system to award electoral votes. In these states, two electoral votes (one per senator) are awarded to the winner of the statewide popular vote, and one electoral vote is awarded to the winner of each of the state’s congressional districts (one per representative).
- Currently Maine has two congressional districts and four electoral votes; therefore in Maine it is possible for three electors from one party and one elector from another party to vote for president and vice president.
- Currently Nebraska has three congressional districts and five electoral votes; therefore in Nebraska it is possible for four electors from one party and one elector from another party, for three electors from one party and two electors from another party, etc., to vote for president and vice president.
After Election Day
The results of the election, though typically consistent with the popular vote, are not official until the electors cast their votes.
- On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following Election Day, the winning electors in each state all gather to vote for president and vice president.
- Each elector casts two distinct votes, one for president and one for vice president, in accordance with the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
- Originally, the framers did not distinguish between presidential and vice presidential candidates in this way. Instead, electors voted for the two people they thought most qualified to be president; the only rule, per Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, was that an elector must vote for at least one person from a state other than the elector’s home state. The person who received the majority of votes became president, and the runner-up became vice president. If no candidate won a majority, the House of Representatives determined the president; each state’s congressional delegation received one vote. (The Senate would break any ties for vice president.)
- In America’s first two elections, this process worked as intended: George Washington was unanimously elected president, and John Adams was elected vice president.
- By 1796, however, despite the wishes of the framers, political parties had entrenched themselves in the system. Adams, the nominee of the Federalist Party, received the most votes and was elected president, while his rival Thomas Jefferson, the nominee of the Democratic-Republicans, received the second-most votes and was elected vice president.
- Adams and Jefferson did not work effectively together, so in the election of 1800, the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans each nominated a ticket consisting of a presidential candidate and his running mate. The result was a deadlocked election, as all the Democratic-Republican electors—who outnumbered the Federalist electors—voted for Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr; the House of Representatives finally broke the tie, in favor of Jefferson, after 36 ballots.
- To prevent future deadlocks, the 12th Amendment was ratified. Beginning with the election of 1804, electors have cast separate votes for president and vice president.
- You can read a more detailed account of this history here.
- Neither the Constitution nor federal law requires electors to vote a certain way. Even so, 30 states plus the District of Columbia have laws requiring electors to vote for the winner of the statewide popular vote, and many state parties require their electors to pledge to support the party’s nominees. However, penalties for “faithless electors” who do not vote as pledged are rare. According to FairVote.org, through the 2016 election there have been 167 faithless electors; none has affected the outcome of an election.
- By the end of December, each state’s electoral votes must be sent to Congress, where the votes are officially counted on January 6 of the following year.
- The presidential candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) is elected president. Per the 12th Amendment, if no candidate wins a majority, the House of Representatives chooses the president from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes; each state receives one vote.
- The vice presidential candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) is elected vice president. Per the 12th Amendment, if no candidate wins a majority, the Senate chooses the vice president from between the two candidates who received the most electoral votes; each senator receives one vote.
- The winners are sworn into office on January 20 of the year following the election.
Why do we have an electoral college?
Unlike for previous sections of this post, the question of why the electoral college exists does not have a certain answer—or if it does, I couldn’t find it online. There seem to be two common explanations:
While both explanations seem reasonable, and I do not doubt they are partly correct, neither seems to capture the whole truth. If the framers were so concerned about the quality of the men electing the president, it’s curious they should not have included in the Constitution any words specifying the qualifications of electors, except to say they should not be senators, representatives, or other federal employees. As for the argument about population, “the deepest political divisions in America have always run not between big and small states, but between the north and the south, and between the coasts and the interior.”
This last claim is by Akhil Reed Amar, who argues that “the troubling reason the electoral college exists” is slavery. Specifically, if the president were popularly elected, northern states would have been advantaged over southern states, whose populations included large numbers of non-voting slaves. The electoral college, as envisioned by the framers, did more than simply balance northern and southern interests—by allowing states to count each slave as three-fifths of a free person, it tipped the advantage decisively south. (Technically the three-fifths compromise applied to the House of Representatives, per Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. But of course the majority of presidential electors apportioned to most states equals the state’s delegation to the House.) As Amar points out, in eight of the first nine presidential elections (George Washington though James Monroe), the winner was a slaveholder from Virginia, which thanks to its slaves received more electoral votes than any other state.
- The first is that the framers did not want the president elected by popular vote because they distrusted democracy. FactCheck.org summarizes this argument, supported by quotes from James Madison and Alexander Hamilton: the electoral college is intended to insure the president is chosen, per Hamilton, “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”
- The second, discussed in this article by Andrew Rudalevige, is that the electoral college “is the result of a series of trade-offs between contending interests.” Rudalevige focuses on the tension between large and small states, identifying the electoral college as a way to “protect smaller state populations from having larger states dictate the presidential choice.”
While both explanations seem reasonable, and I do not doubt they are partly correct, neither seems to capture the whole truth. If the framers were so concerned about the quality of the men electing the president, it’s curious they should not have included in the Constitution any words specifying the qualifications of electors, except to say they should not be senators, representatives, or other federal employees. As for the argument about population, “the deepest political divisions in America have always run not between big and small states, but between the north and the south, and between the coasts and the interior.”
This last claim is by Akhil Reed Amar, who argues that “the troubling reason the electoral college exists” is slavery. Specifically, if the president were popularly elected, northern states would have been advantaged over southern states, whose populations included large numbers of non-voting slaves. The electoral college, as envisioned by the framers, did more than simply balance northern and southern interests—by allowing states to count each slave as three-fifths of a free person, it tipped the advantage decisively south. (Technically the three-fifths compromise applied to the House of Representatives, per Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. But of course the majority of presidential electors apportioned to most states equals the state’s delegation to the House.) As Amar points out, in eight of the first nine presidential elections (George Washington though James Monroe), the winner was a slaveholder from Virginia, which thanks to its slaves received more electoral votes than any other state.
How can we eliminate the electoral college?
Amar’s ultimate point is to ask whether Americans should retain an institution that, if he is correct, was invented to redistribute political power to slaveholders. But eliminating the electoral college would require a constitutional amendment; to amend the constitution, two-thirds of the House and Senate most vote for the amendment, which three-fourths of state legislatures must then ratify. (An amendment may also be proposed if two-thirds of state legislatures call for a constitutional convention; no amendment has ever been passed in this way, however.)
Another possibility would be to render the electoral college irrelevant. Remember, there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent each state from awarding its electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide, rather than the statewide, popular vote. Indeed, this is the goal of the National Popular Vote initiative. Currently, 11 states (including the District of Columbia) worth 165 electoral votes have passed a bill pledging to award all their electoral votes to the national winner of the popular vote, but only in the event that states worth another 105 electoral votes pass such a bill. (165 plus 105 equals 270, the majority needed to win the presidency.) So if you oppose the electoral college and you live in a state that has not passed a National Popular Vote bill, urge your legislators to do so.
Another possibility would be to render the electoral college irrelevant. Remember, there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent each state from awarding its electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide, rather than the statewide, popular vote. Indeed, this is the goal of the National Popular Vote initiative. Currently, 11 states (including the District of Columbia) worth 165 electoral votes have passed a bill pledging to award all their electoral votes to the national winner of the popular vote, but only in the event that states worth another 105 electoral votes pass such a bill. (165 plus 105 equals 270, the majority needed to win the presidency.) So if you oppose the electoral college and you live in a state that has not passed a National Popular Vote bill, urge your legislators to do so.
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