Voting for voters

The question of the manner in which the President was to be elected was debated at great length at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Eventually, the matter was referred to a ‘‘committee on postponed matters’’, which arrived at a compromise: the electoral college system.

Size of the College

The electoral college, as established by the Constitution and modified by the 12th and 23rd Amendments, currently includes 538 members: one for each Senator and Representative, and three for the District of Columbia (under the 23rd Amendment of 1961). It has no continuing existence or function apart from that entrusted to it.

Each state has a number of electoral votes equal to the combined numerical total of its Senate and House delegation. Since the size of state delegations in the House of Representatives may change after the reapportionment mandated by the decennial census, the size of state representation in the electoral college has similarly fluctuated.

Selection of Electors

The Constitution left the method of selecting electors and of awarding electoral votes to the states. In the early years, many states provided for selection of electors by the state legislatures. Since 1864, all states have provided for popular election of electors for President and Vice-President.

According to practices adopted universally by the states beginning early in the 19th century, popular votes are cast for a unified ticket of party candidates for President and Vice-President. This insures that they will be of the same party, avoiding a source of potential partisan divisiveness in the executive branch.

General Ticket System

In 48 states and the District of Columbia, all electoral votes are awarded to the slate that receives a plurality of popular votes in the state. This practice is variously known as the general ticket or winner-take-all system. The general ticket system usually tends to exaggerate the winning candidates’ margin of victory, as compared with the share of popular votes received. For instance, in 1996, Bill Clinton and Al Gore won 49.2 per cent of the popular vote, as compared with 40.7 per cent by Bob Dole and Jack Kemp. The Democrats’ electoral vote margin of 379 to 159 was a much higher 70.4 per cent of the total, due to the fact that the Democratic ticket received a plurality vote in 32 states and the District of Columbia.

District System

Currently, Maine and Nebraska provide the only exception to the general ticket method, awarding one electoral vote to the ticket gaining the most votes in each of their congressional districts, and awarding the remaining two (representing their senatorial allotment) to the winners of the most votes statewide. This variation, more widely used in the 19th century, is known as the district system.

The Faithless Elector

The founding fathers intended that individual electors be free agents, voting for the candidates they thought most fit to hold office. In practice, however, electors are not expected to exercise their own judgment but, rather, to ratify the people’s choice by voting for the candidates winning the most popular votes in their state. Despite this understanding, there is no constitutional provision requiring electors to vote as they have pledged. Over the years, a number of electors have voted against the voters’ instructions, known as the phenomenon of the unfaithful, or faithless, elector.

Although a number of states have laws which seek to bind the electors to the popular vote winners, the preponderance of opinion among constitutional scholars holds that electors remain free agents. Moreover, all of the seven votes of the faithless electors between 1948 and 1988 were recorded as cast.

The most recent occurrence was in 1988, when a West Virginia Democratic elector voted for Lloyd Bentsen for President and Michael Dukakis for Vice-President.

Winning the Presidency

The 12th Amendment of the Constitution requires that winning candidates receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270 of the 538 total).

Once the voters have chosen the members of the electoral college, the electors meet to ratify the popular choices for President and Vice-President. The Constitution provides (again, in the 12th Amendment) that they assemble in their respective states. Congress has established the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following their election as the date for casting electoral votes, at such place in each state as the legislature directs.

In practice, the electors almost always meet in the state capital, usually at the State House or Capitol Building, often in one of the legislative chambers. The votes are counted and recorded, the results are certified by the Governor and forwarded to the President of the US Senate (the Vice-President).

The electoral vote certificates are opened and counted at a joint session of the Congress held, as mandated, on January 6 following the electors’ meeting (or, by custom, on the next day, if it falls on a Sunday); the Vice-President presides. Electoral votes are counted by the newly elected Congress, which convenes on January 3. The winning candidates are then declared to have been elected.

Minority Presidents

A major criticism of the electoral college is that it could deny victory to the candidate with the most popular votes, which can occur when one ticket wins the requisite majority of electors but gets fewer popular votes than its opponent(s).

The Constitution, in the 12th Amendment, provides for cases in which no slate of candidates receives the required electoral college majority, a process usually referred to as contingent election. Under these circumstances, the House of Representatives elects the President, choosing from among the three candidates receiving the most electoral votes, with each state casting a single vote.

In the event contingent election is necessary, the House has two weeks between counting the electoral votes (January 6) and Inauguration Day (January 20) in which to elect a President. If it is unable to do so during this time, the Vice President-elect, assuming one has been chosen by the electors or the Senate, serves as acting President until the House resolves its deadlock. In the event the Senate has been similarly unable to elect a Vice-President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives serves as Acting President until a President or Vice-President is elected, but he must resign the offices of both Speaker and Representative in order to so serve. In the event there is no Speaker, or the Speaker fails to qualify, then the President Pro-tempore of the Senate (the longest serving Senator of the majority party) becomes Acting President, under identical resignation requirements.

Sunday Inaugurals

In a tradition dating to the 19th century, Presidents are not publicly inaugurated on Sundays. When January 20 falls on that day, a brief private inauguration is held, usually in the East Room of the White House, with a public ceremony the next day. This occurred most recently in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan was privately installed for his second term on Sunday, January 20, and publicly inaugurated on Monday, January 21. Inauguration Day next falls on a Sunday in the year 2013.

In a tradition dating to Andrew Jackson’s first inaugural in 1829, Presidents were previously installed at outdoor ceremonies at the East Front of the US Capitol (facing the Supreme Court). Vice-Presidents were customarily sworn in the Senate Chamber until 1933, when the two ceremonies were held jointly for the first time, a practice which continues.

On seven occasions since 1837, the presidential inaugural has been held elsewhere than the East Front. In 1909, due to inclement weather, William Howard Taft was installed in the Senate Chamber; in 1945, in consideration of the President’s health and wartime security demands, Franklin D Roosevelt was sworn in for his fourth term on the South Portico of the White House; in 1981, 1989, 1993, and 1997, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton were inaugurated at the West Front of the Capitol (facing the Mall); and in January 1985, due to inclement weather, President Reagan was publicly installed for his second term in the Capitol Rotunda.

The West Front venue appears to have gained wide acceptance since 1981, and may be expected to continue to be the site of future inaugurals, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Courtesy the Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, April 2000, The Library of Congress