The Certificate of Ascertainment also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were appointed as your State's electors. The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election.
The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber to conduct the official count of electoral votes. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the general election.
Top Skip to main content. How the Electoral College works today. Report: Presidential Elections Inequality. National Black Caucus of State Legislators. To Gov. Schwarzenegger: Please Reconsider. 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.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
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. Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation"I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The original rules did not establish separate votes for president and vice president. Instead, the winner was named president and the runner-up vice president. In , this system resulted in a tie between both members of the Democratic-Republican ticket, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The tie went to the United States House of Representatives to be resolved, which led to the passage of the 12th Amendment.
The 12th Amendment was ratified in and created the following rules: [12]. The following text is a transcription of the 12th Amendment in its original form.
The 23rd Amendment was ratified in The amendment allocated electoral votes to the District of Columbia equal to the number of delegates it would have if it were a state, but not to exceed the number of votes given to the least populated state. The 23rd Amendment reads as follows:. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:.
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Each state is charged with establishing how electors are chosen.
The only people barred from serving as electors by the Constitution are those who hold an "Office of Trust or Profit under the United States," including members of the legislature and judiciary, federal law enforcement officers and military personnel and other public employees of the federal government. Thirty-two states use state party conventions to nominate major party candidates to the position of elector. Five states use the state party's central committee to nominate candidates.
Other methods include nomination by governor, nominations based on unspecified party, the use of primary elections and by the state's preferred presidential candidate. Minor party candidates have different state specified nominations.
Originally, the electors were chosen by the legislators in each state. However, voters now choose all electors nationwide. When voters go to the polls on election day, they cast votes for the electors who are nominated for each presidential candidate's party. In 48 of the 50 states, a "winner-take-all" system is used to determine where all of the state's electoral votes will go. Whichever party's electors receive the most votes get to allocate all of the state's votes to their chosen candidate for both president and vice president.
The exceptions to the "winner-take-all" system are Maine and Nebraska. These states split the votes based on districts. Since no single region contains a majority of electoral votes, candidates cannot win by focusing only on regional issues while leaving other areas of the country out. It also encourages a candidate to select a running mate from a different region in order to build coalitions of states while campaigning.
Those who support this theory suggest that even more important that winning a majority vote, is the ability to gain wide distribution of support across the country. In the event that the popular vote is very close, the thought is that the candidate with a wider distribution of support would beat a candidate with more popular support. In states with concentrations of ethnic and racial minorities or special interest groups, often being states with high numbers of electoral votes, winning over those groups can swing an election due to the "winner-takes-all" system in the Electoral College.
The votes of minority groups can carry more influence than their amount of votes would suggest. For a third party to win the presidency, they would need to have enough electoral votes to prevent a majority to any candidate and have enough U. House support to be elected over the two major party candidates. Because of this, the Electoral College process essentially forces third party voters to merge into one of the two major parties. Likewise, the two major parties, seeking the votes to win the election can mold their platforms to gain the votes of third party movements.
The goal is to have two parties representing the centers of their respective platforms. Supporters of this theory suggest that extremists would have more incentive to campaign if the elections were based solely on popular vote, because if runoff elections were required to win the presidency, parties would tend toward more radical platforms to gain more support.
As a requirement by the federal system of the United States, certain responsibilities must be left up to the states when it comes to representation in the federal government. The structure of the Electoral College provides the states the ability to determine the outcome of presidential elections, due to its similar setup to the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate , balancing the power of smaller states with that of the most populous. There are three possible ways a presidential candidate could lose the popular vote but still be elected as president.
Since a candidate with a majority of the popular vote can still lose a presidential election, some argue it creates a disincentive to participate in the presidential election. No matter how high the voter turnout is, the state still receives the same amount of electoral votes for a presidential candidate.
Others do not believe this is an issue because of the other offices at stake during any particular election day, from state offices to U. House and Senate seats. Because each state has a minimum of three electoral votes, votes from those in the least populated states count more toward the electoral vote than votes from those in more populous states.
For instance, in , the seven least populated states combined to count for as many electoral votes as Florida , yet the total population of those states was less than that of Florida.
Another example of the failure to provide an accurate reflection of the population is when it comes to third party candidates.
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