How Are Members Of The Electoral College Selected

Evolution From Unpledged To Pledged Electors

The Founding Fathers intended that each elector would be elected by the citizens of a district, and that elector was to be free to analyze and deliberate regarding who is best suited to be president.

In Federalist No. 68 Alexander Hamilton described the Founding Fathers’ view of how electors would be chosen:

A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated … They have not made the appointment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men , who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have EXCLUDED from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office … Thus without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task free from any sinister bias . Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it.”

In 1833, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story detailed how badly from the framers’ intention the Electoral Process had been “subverted”:

So Who Are These Electors Now

In the Washington case, In re Guerra, the states supreme court ruled that the electors pledges to vote for the candidate of their party were enforceable. However, the federal appeals court in Denver ruled that they are not, rejecting the argument that the power to appoint electors necessarily includes the power to remove them and to cancel an already-cast vote. That court noted that the Constitution was silent on the question and interpreted that silence to mean that states lack the power to remove electors.

So, who are these electors?In general, they are, as Jackson called them, party lackeys. In most states, they are selected at political conventions by the state party committee or by members of party leadership. They are chosen over a wide timespan, from early in the presidential election year to just weeks before the contest, though most are selected during the summer. And while their names may or may not appear on the ballot, they are the people you vote for when you cast your vote for president.

Electors vote as expected about 99 percent of the time. Over the last century, just 19 electors bucked the system to vote their conscience. Remarkably, 10 did so in 2016. Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of an election, though in 1836, they threw the vice-presidential election of Richard Johnson to a contingent election in the Senate after Virginias electors refused to vote for him due to his relationship with Julia Chinn, an enslaved person.

Louisiana Casts Its 8 Electoral Votes For Trump

From Holmes Lybrand and Liz Stark

Louisianas electors cast their eight votes for President Trump during their meeting on Monday in Baton Rouge.

Trump defeated Biden by roughly 19 percentage points, about 59% to 40%.

Republicans have won Louisiana in the last six presidential elections.

The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results. Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which is today.

Watch the moment:

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Alabama Casts Its 9 Electoral Votes For Trump

From CNN’s Jenn Agiesta and Ethan Cohen

Alabamas electors cast their nine votes for President Trump during their meeting on Monday in Montgomery.

Trump won Alabama by more than 25 percentage points, or about 62% to 36% for President-elect Joe Biden.

Alabama has supported the Republican candidate in 11 straight presidential elections. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to carry the state in 1976.

While announcing the popular vote results for both candidates, Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, used the phrase president-elect to refer to Biden. This is notable, because most GOP elected officials in Congress have not used that title, even though Biden was projected to win the White House five weeks ago.

Remember: The meeting of electors is the next major step in the Electoral College process to affirm the general election results. Electors are required by law to vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is Dec. 14.

It takes 270 electoral votes of the 538 available to become president.

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Article Ii Section 1 Clauses 2 And 3

Section 1

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:

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.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

• Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 and the Campaign for a National Popular Vote

Common Interpretation

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How Electors Are Chosen

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

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis/Getty Images

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states that electors cant be a member of Congress, or hold federal office, but left it up to individual states to figure out everything else. According to the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, electors also cant 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 state in the U.S. Congress. State legislatures are responsible for choosing electors, but how they do this varies from state to state. Until the mid-1800s, it was common for many state legislatures to simply appoint electors, while other states let their citizens decide on electors.

Today, the most common method of choosing electors is by state party convention. Each political partys 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 partys central committee.

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Correlation Between Popular Vote And Electoral College Votes

Since the mid-19th century, when all electors have been popularly chosen, the Electoral College has elected the candidate who received the most popular votes nationwide, except in four elections: 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. In 1824, when there were six states in which electors were legislatively appointed, rather than popularly elected, the true national popular vote is uncertain. The electors in 1824 failed to select a winning candidate, so the matter was decided by the House of Representatives.

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The system, the framers decided, was a middle ground between electing the president by Congress and by a popular vote, and would be a quadrennial institution of electors that only met in their individual states, making “it harder to corrupt the process,” Pildes said, as some feared foreign interference.

Who are the electors?

Every four years, both political parties choose their electors in the months before the election to cast votes at a meeting set for the “Monday after the second Wednesday in December of presidential election years,” which falls on Dec. 14 this year, according to federal law.

The electors meet in each of their respective states and the nation’s capital to cast separate ballots for president and vice president at places determined by the state legislature. The candidates who receive a majority of the vote are formally elected to the White House.

The process for choosing the electors varies by state, with some nominating their electors at party conventions, while others leave it to voters to elect them during the primary process.

“We have no uniform national system for appointing Electors, which means the legislatures do not have to consult the public at all,”wrote James W. Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., for the National Constitution Center.

How does the Electoral College work?

The president is elected by a college of 538 electors and it takes 270 votes to win.

What happens if there is a tie?

How Far Right Are The 20 Republicans Who Voted Against Mccarthy

By Danielle Ivory, Charlie Smart and Karen YourishUpdated Jan. 4, 2023, 5 p.m. ET

The Republicans who voted against the bid by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California for House speaker include some of the chambers most hard-right lawmakers. Most denied the 2020 election, are members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, or both. Heres a closer look at the 20 lawmakers.

Re-elected representatives

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Electoral Count Act Of 1887

Congress passed and Grover Cleveland signed the Electoral Count Act in 1887 following disputed election results in the 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden . Electors in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon submitted competing electoral vote counts to Congress. In 1877, Grant signed a bill convening an electoral commission consisting of five members of the U.S. House of Representatives, five members of the U.S. Senate, and five justices of the United States Supreme Court to resolve the dispute. A decade later, the Electoral Count Act was passed to address some questions that emerged from the commission’s decision.

The Act places authority for “final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any” of a state’s electors with the state itself. Additionally, it outlines the process by which Congress counts the states’ electoral votes and by which members of Congress can present objections to each state’s submission.

Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022

The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 was a bill signed into law by President Joe Biden on December 23, 2022. The Senate approved the bill, which was attached to a year-end omnibus funding bill, in a 68-29 vote on December 22, 2022. The House approved the bill in a 225-201 vote the following day.

Elements of the bill included:

The Claim: Republican State Legislatures Have The Final Say Over Choosing Electors

The uncertainty over which candidate would secure the required number of Electoral College votes for the presidency ended Nov. 7, after Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won battleground states Pennsylvania and Nevada. Biden has earned 290 votes 20 more than the required 270 versus 232 for his opponent, President Donald Trump, according to USA TODAY.

Despite the popular vote tally, state legislatures have the “final say” in choosing electors to the Electoral College and by extension, the president-elect, according to a claim on Facebook.

“Reminder to the Republican state legislatures, you have the final say over the choosing of electors, not any board of elections, secretary of state, governor, or even court. You have the final say Article II of the federal Constitution. So, get ready to do your constitutional duty,” conservative radio and television show host Mark Levin posted to his Facebook page on Nov. 5.

Levin has hosted “The Mark Levin Show,” a talk radio program, since the early 2000s. He counts fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh among his peers. Levin also hosts a show on Fox: “Life, Liberty and Levin,” according to his website. A lawyer, Levin once served as chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese III during the Reagan administration, according to The Washington Post.

USA TODAY reached out to Levin for comment.

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United States Electoral College

Electoral collegeElectoral college stateDistrict of Columbiapresidential elections20242020 census2020 presidential electionJoe BidenDonald TrumpMaineNebraskadistrict methodwinner-takes-allparty block voting

The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbiaappoints electors pursuant to the methods described by its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation . Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president.

The suitability of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate. Supporters argue that it requires presidential candidates to have broad appeal across the country in order to win, while critics argue that it is not representative of the popular will of the nation when viewed without regard to the states.

Are Associated With The Freedom Caucus

Most of the lawmakers who voted against Mr. McCarthy at least 95 percent are members of the House Freedom Caucus or were recently endorsed by its campaign arm. By contrast, just about a fifth of all House Republicans are estimated to be part of the caucus, founded in 2015 and considered to be one of the farthest-right groups in the House.

In the third round of voting on Tuesday, all 20 of the lawmakers defying Mr. McCarthy voted for Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio instead. Mr. Jordan, who himself voted for Mr. McCarthy, is a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and has repeatedly cast doubt on the 2020 election.

In the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, held Wednesday, the same 20 lawmakers voted for Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, also a member of the Freedom Caucus, instead of Mr. McCarthy. Mr. Donalds joined the group on the third vote, throwing his support to Mr. Jordan after voting for Mr. McCarthy on the first two ballots, and then for himself in the subsequent ballots.

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Similar to Warren, some view the Electoral College as “an artifact of a different time that should change,” Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore, said last month.

More than three-fifths of the country, 61%, support replacing the Electoral College with a popular vote system, a Gallup poll found in September, but there are fissures starkly along partisan lines. Democrats are nearly four times as likely as Republicans to back shifting to an election decided by a popular vote.

For a few decades before the 2016 election, most viewed the Electoral College as tending to favor Democrats, Pildes said, but in the aftermath of the last presidential contest, the system is now seen as advantaging Republicans.

“That was partly because the Democrats supposedly had this ‘blue wall’ of these states that they were just going to win in every election that ran through the Midwest,” Pildes said. “As we saw in 2016, once that blue wall could be broken, the view has moved.”

Eliminating the Electoral College entirely would be an arduous endeavor since it is hard-wired into the Constitution and would require a constitutional amendment, which involves approval from either two-thirds of both chambers of Congress or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures, followed by ratification by three-fourths of the states.

The other route would be altering the existing framework, without changing the Constitution.

Primaries Caucuses And Political Conventions

The election process begins with primary elections and caucuses. These are two methods that states use to select a potential presidential nominee Nominee: the final candidate chosen by a party to represent them in an election.. In general, primaries use secret ballots for voting. Caucuses are local gatherings of voters who vote at the end of the meeting for a particular candidate. Then it moves to nominating conventions, during which political parties each select a nominee to unite behind. During a political party convention, each presidential nominee also announces a vice presidential running mate. The candidates then campaign across the country to explain their views and plans to voters. They may also participate in debates with candidates from other parties.

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