United States Electoral College
Each state appoints electors according to its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation. Federal office holders cannot be electors. An absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. The electors meet and vote in December and the inauguration of the. president and Vice President takes place in January.
About United States Electoral College in brief
Each state appoints electors according to its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation. Federal office holders 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. Critics argue that the Electoral College system is less democratic than a direct popular vote and that the College violates the democratic principle of \”one person, one vote. While polling data show having a direct. popular vote for presidential elections is consistently favored by a majority of Americans, the popularity of the Electoral. College has hovered between 35 and 44% in the 21st century. The electors meet and vote in December and the inauguration of the. president and Vice President takes place in January. The winner of the plurality of its statewide popular vote shall receive all of that state’s electors. In Maine and Nebraska, two electors are assigned in this manner, while the remaining electors are allocated based on the plurality. of votes in each of their congressional districts. The federal district, Washington, D. C. allocates its 3 electoral votes to the winner of its single district election. In 48 of the 50 states, state laws mandate the winning candidate for the presidency shall receive the majority of the state’s electoral votes. The number of electors each state appointed is equal to the size of its congressional. delegation, each state is entitled to at least three regardless of population, and the apportionment of the statutorily fixed number of the rest is only roughly proportional. The Electoral College was established pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 2 of the Constitution, providing that the district seat of the federal government is the least populous.
The additional three additional electors come from the Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961, providing for the number of federal electors to be at least the same as the populous seat of state government. The president and the vice president are inaugurated on January 20, with each senator responsible for having one vote for electing the president, and each senator for having the least vote for the vicepresident. The results are sent to and counted by the Congress, where they are tabulated in the first week of January before a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, presided over by the current president of the U.S. If no candidate achieves an absolute. majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of. Representatives to Elect the president. The same clause empowers each state legislature to determine the manner by which that state’s electors are chosen but prohibits federal office holders from being named electors. Over 90% of presidential elections under the system have elected the winners of the nationwide popular vote. It is a fundamental component of American federalism by preserving the constitutional role of the states in presidential elections. It may leave it open to criticism; winner-take-all systems, especially in populous states, may not align with the principle of “one person,. one vote’”. The electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals on the first Wednesday of December to cast their votes.
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This page is based on the article United States Electoral College published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 17, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
