Electoral Count Act
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 is a federal law establishing procedures for the counting of electoral votes by Congress following a presidential election. The law was enacted in the aftermath of the disputed 1876 presidential election, in which several states submitted competing slates of electors. It has been criticized since it was enacted, with an early commenter describing it as “very confused, almost unintelligible” The central provisions of the law have not been seriously tested in a disputed election.
About Electoral Count Act in brief
The Electoral Count Act of 1887 is a federal law establishing procedures for the counting of electoral votes by Congress following a presidential election. The law was enacted in the aftermath of the disputed 1876 presidential election, in which several states submitted competing slates of electors and a divided Congress was unable to resolve the deadlock. It has been criticized since it was enacted, with an early commenter describing it as “very confused, almost unintelligible” The central provisions of the law have not been seriously tested in a disputed election, the closest approach being in the contentious 2000 presidential election which was ultimately resolved before the electors cast their votes. The president and vice president of the United States are formally elected by the Electoral College. The Constitution gives each state the power to appoint its electors, with all states currently using some form of popular election. It also specifies that the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the House and Senate, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted. In discussions of the Law, the term “state” includes the District of Columbia, and the term ‘governor’ includes the mayor of the D.C. suburb of Washington, which appoints its own electors pursuant to the Twenty-third Amendment. The term “governor” also includes the Mayor of Washington DC, who appoints his or her own electors through the Twenty third Amendment. It is unclear whether the law requires the slate certified by the governor to count, or requires that no slate should be counted, as the law does not say. The provision applies if the state has provided, prior to the day of the appointment of electors, a fixed date for the appointment.
Under the law, while Congress claimed full power to validate votes, its role was limited to cases in which a state had failed to settle its own disputes and questions beyond state competence to settle the issue. In 1865, Congress asserted total power over the electoral vote. In 1875, the House was controlled by Democrats in 1875 for the first time since war, with a greater sensitivity toward states’ rights. After the 1876 Hayes-T-Tilden crisis, the Act was eventually enacted in 1887 as a compromise measure in an atmosphere of partisan pressures. It gives the states an initial opportunity to finalize their own controversies regarding the electors, before its final determination is made. The electors are appointed at the national election held on Election Day. After Election Day, the electors chosen in each state must then give their votes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, with meetings of electors typically held in eachState capital. The Twelfth Amendment ratified in 1804 requires the electors to make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of. all persons votes for as Vice-President, and. of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the U.S., directed to the President. : 328 Enacted by strong Republican majorities in the wake of the Civil War, the rule provided simply that if any question arose about a state’s electoral votes, the affirmative consent of both the House or Senate was required before the state’s votes would be count.
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This page is based on the article Electoral Count Act published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 18, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
