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AS Americans, and everyone else, gears up for the US presidential election on the first Tuesday in November this year, there is one notable feature about the electoral process.
The Electoral College was established by the founding leaders of revolutionary America, according to the US National Archives (click here for original article).
The College is a constitutional electoral process, not a physical building, established partly as a compromise between election by US Congress and by popular vote.
HOW IT WORKS
The process consists of a selection of electors, who vote for the president and vice-president, and counting of electoral votes by US Congress.
The American Constitution contains very few provisions relating to the qualifications of electors although the post-Civil War 14th Amendment bans state officials who took part in insurrection or rebellion from serving as electors.
NUMBERS
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors with a majority of 270 electoral votes needed to elect the president.
Each state has the same number of electors as it does Congress members: one for each member in the House of Representatives and two Senators.
The District of Columbia, in which the capital is located, is allocated three electors and treated like a state for the Electoral College.
THE ELECTORS
Each candidate running for president in a state has a group of electors (known as a slate) who are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party in that state. State laws can vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are.
GENERAL ELECTION
The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Voting for a presidential candidate means the voter is choosing their candidate’s preferred electors.
Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the presidential candidate who wins thar state’s popular vote; Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation”.
AFTERWARDS
After the general election, a state’s executive prepares a certificate of ascertainment naming all individuals on the slates of each candidate, the number of votes each individual received and which individuals were appointed state electors.
The state’s certificate is sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to become part of official records of the election.
The meeting of electors takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election. They meet in their states to cast their votes for president and vice-president on separate ballots.
These votes are recorded on a Certificate of Vote prepared at the meeting. The state’s Certificate of Vote is sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and to NARA.
JANUARY
Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6 in the new year.
Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber for the official count of votes.
The Vice-President of the US, as Senate President, presides over the count in a strictly ministerial manner and announces the results.
The Senate President then declares who has been elected President and Vice President of the US.
The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in on January 20.
