When Americans vote for President and Vice President, they are
actually choosing presidential electors, known collectively as the
electoral college. It is these officials who choose the President
and Vice President of the United States. The complex elements
comprising the electoral college system are responsible for one of
the most important processes of the American political and
constitutional system: election of the President and Vice
President. A failure to elect, or worse, the choice of a chief
executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could
precipitate a profound constitutional crisis that would require
prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by Congress. Article
II, Section 1 of the Constitution, as amended in 1804 by the 12th
Amendment, sets forth the requirements for election of the
President and Vice President. It authorizes each state to appoint,
by whatever means the legislature chooses, a number of electors
equal to the combined total of its Senate and House of
Representatives delegations, for a contemporary total of 538,
including three electors for the District of Columbia. Since the
Civil War, the states have universally provided for popular
election of the presidential electors. Anyone may serve as an
elector, except Members of Congress and persons holding offices of
"Trust or Profit" under the Constitution. In each presidential
election year, the political parties and other groups that have
secured a place on the ballot in each state nominate a "slate" or
"ticket" of candidates for elector. When voters cast a single vote
for their favored candidates on general election day, Tuesday after
the first Monday in November (November 6 in 2012), they are
actually voting for the slate of electors pledged to those
candidates. The entire slate of electors winning the most popular
votes in the state is elected, a practice known as winner-take-all,
or the general ticket system. Maine and Nebraska use an alternative
method, the district plan, which awards two electors to the popular
vote winners statewide, and one to the popular vote winners in each
congressional district. Electors assemble in their respective
states on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December
(December 17 in 2012). They are expected to vote for the candidates
they represent. Separate ballots are cast for President and Vice
President, after which the electoral college ceases to exist until
the next presidential election. State electoral vote results are
reported to Congress and are counted and declared at a joint
session of Congress, usually held on January 6 of the year
succeeding the election, a date that may be altered by legislation.
Since January 6 falls on a Sunday in 2013, Congress will likely set
another date for the joint session in 2013, possibly January 8. A
majority of electoral votes (currently 270 of 538) is required to
win, but the results submitted by any state are open to challenge
at the joint session, as provided by law. Past proposals for change
by constitutional amendment have included various reform options
and direct popular election, which would eliminate the electoral
college system, but no substantive action on this issue has been
taken in Congress for more than 20 years. At present, however, a
non-governmental organization, the National Popular Vote (NPV)
campaign, proposes to reform the electoral college by action taken
at the state level; eight states and the District of Columbia have
approved the NPV compact to date.
General
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