ChAPTER EighT • CAmPAigns AnD ElECTions 185
Elector
A member of the electoral
college, which selects
the president and vice
president. Each state’s
electors are chosen
in each presidential
election year according
to state laws.The Electoral College
Some people who vote for the president and vice president think that they are voting
directly for a candidate. In actuality, they are voting for electors who will cast their bal-
lots in the electoral college. Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution outlines in detail
the method of choosing electors for president and vice president. The framers of the
Constitution did not want the president and vice president to be selected by the “excitable
masses.” Rather, they wished the choice to be made by a few supposedly dispassionate,
reasonable men (but not women).The Choice of Electors. Electors are selected during each presidential election year.
The selection is governed by state laws. After the national party convention, the electors
are pledged to the candidates chosen. Each state’s number of electors equals that state’s
number of senators (two) plus its number of representatives. The total number of electors
today is 538, equal to 100 senators, 435 members of the House, and 3 electors for the
District of Columbia. (The Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, added electors for
the District of Columbia.)The Electors’ Commitment. A plurality of voters in a state chooses a slate of elec-
tors. Those electors are pledged to cast their ballots on the first Monday after the sec-
ond Wednesday in December in the state capital for the presidential and vice- presidential
candidates of their party.^11 The Constitution does not, however, require the electors to
cast their ballots for the candidates of their party, and on rare occasions so-called faithless
electors have voted for a candidate to whom they were not pledged.
The ballots are counted and certified before a joint session of Congress early in
January. The candidates who receive a majority (270) of the electoral votes are certified
as president-elect and vice president–elect. According to the Constitution, if no candidate
receives a majority of the electoral votes, the election of the president is decided in the
House of Representatives from among the candidates with the three highest numbers
of votes, with each state having one vote (decided by a plurality of each state delega-
tion). The selection of the vice president is determined by the Senate in a choice between
the two candidates with the most votes, each senator having one vote. The House was
required to choose the president in 1801 (Thomas Jefferson), and again in 1825 (John
Quincy Adams).Problems with the Electoral College system. It is possible for a candidate to
become president without obtaining a majority of the popular vote. There have been
many “minority” presidents in our history, who did not win a majority of the popular vote,
including Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard
Nixon (in 1968), and Bill Clinton. Such an event becomes more likely when there are
important third-party candidates.
Perhaps more distressing is the possibility of a candidate’s being elected when an
opposing candidate receives a plurality of the popular vote. This has occurred on four
occasions—in the elections of John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876,
Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and George W. Bush in 2000. All of these candidates won
elections in which an opponent received more popular votes than they did. Such results
have led to calls for replacing the electoral college with a popular-vote system.- In Maine and Nebraska, electoral votes are based in part on congressional districts. Each dis-
trict chooses one elector. The remaining two electors are chosen by a plurality of all votes cast
statewide.
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