according to the constitution a states electors would be equal to what

April 08, 2022 Post a Comment

Delegates to the Ramble Convention in 1787 argued over a lot of things, merely ane of their biggest debates was over how the U.s.a. should elect its president.

Some amongst the Founding Fathers believed that straight nationwide election past the people would be the most democratic method. Others argued that a straightforward popular vote was unfair, as information technology would give too much power to larger, more than populous states. They also worried that public opinion could be likewise easily manipulated, and feared direct election might atomic number 82 to a tyrannical leader adamant to catch absolute ability for himself.

The result of this struggle was the Electoral College, the arrangement by which the American people vote not for president and vice president, simply for a smaller group of people, known as electors. These electors and so cast their votes direct for president and vice president, at a meeting held several weeks after the general election.

There are 538 total electors, including ane for each U.S. senator and representative and 3 electors representing the District of Columbia, and presidential candidates demand a majority of 270 votes to win the White House. Most of the time—but not always—the winner of the Electoral Higher is also the winner of the popular vote.

READ MORE: What Is the Electoral College and Why Was It Created?

How Electors Are Chosen

Electoral College electors — Elector Melba McDow, along with other electors, takes the oath of office equally the Electoral College meets at the Texas Capitol in Austin, 2008

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis/Getty Images

Article Two, Section 1 of the Constitution states that electors can't be a member of Congress, or hold federal office, simply left it upwards to individual states to figure out everything else. Co-ordinate to the 14th Subpoena, ratified after the Civil War, electors as well tin can't be anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to its enemies."

The Constitution gave each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of representatives and senators who represent that land in the U.Due south. Congress. State legislatures are responsible for choosing electors, merely how they do this varies from state to state. Until the mid-1800s, information technology was mutual for many state legislatures to but appoint electors, while other states allow their citizens decide on electors.

Today, the nearly common method of choosing electors is by country party convention. Each political party'south state convention nominates a slate of electors, and a vote is held at the convention. In a smaller number of states, electors are chosen by a vote of the state party'due south central committee.

Either mode, political parties usually choose people whom they desire to reward for their service to and support of the party. Electors tin exist elected officials or party leaders in the state, or people who have some kind of personal or professional connexion with the party's candidate.

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WATCH: 'The Founding Fathers' on HISTORY Vault

What Happens on Election 24-hour interval?

Later this initial phase of the procedure, each political party'south presidential candidate emerges with their own slate of potential electors. On Ballot 24-hour interval, when Americans vote for the presidential and vice presidential candidates of a political party, they are actually voting for the slate of electors who have pledged to cast their votes for that party. Electors' names may or may not announced on the ballot below the names of the candidates, depending on the election rules and the format of the ballots in each state.

Then, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, members of the Balloter College run into in their respective states and cast their official votes for president and vice president. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have a winner-have-all arrangement, in which the party whose candidate wins the popular vote in a state appoints all that state'due south electors to the Balloter Higher.

Maine and Nebraska have a "district arrangement." They appoint electors depending on who won the popular vote in each congressional district, plus ii electors who are pledged to vote for the overall winner of the state's popular vote.

Lookout man: America 101: What is the Electoral Higher?

What Are 'Faithless Electors'?

The Constitution doesn't require electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states, and in that location is no federal constabulary that requires this. Merely a number of states take passed laws that threaten to punish and so-called "faithless electors," who do not vote according to the state's pop vote.

Faithless electors take never decided an election, and more than 99 percent of electors in U.S. history take voted as they pledged to practice. Merely as recently as 2016, seven electors broke with their country on the presidential ballot, and 6 did so on the vice presidential ballot. Some of these faithless electors were replaced or fined for their rogue votes, only their votes did not affect the election's outcome.

In 2020, the U.Southward. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does non require that people elected to serve in the Electoral College be costless to vote every bit they choose. Instead, the Court held, states take the constitutional power to forcefulness electors to vote according to their state's popular vote. But while the ruling says states tin prevent faithless electors, information technology does not require that they do so.

At the time of the Court'south decision, 32 states had passed laws that bind electors, while eighteen states had laws on the books giving electors the freedom to vote independently—ensuring that in more than ways than ane, the Electoral College could continue to provide drama for the foreseeable future.