Lynnette Jackson, age 15, of Champaign, I11., for her question:
WHAT IS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE?
A group of presidential electors chosen by all of the states and called the Electoral College actually elects the President of the United States. Provisions for this arrangement are outlined in the United States Constitution.
Every state has as many votes in the Electoral College as the total of its senators and representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes.
The manner of electing the President was a major problem at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The convention rejected the proposal that the chief executive be elected by Congress, on the grounds that he would then be under the control of the legislature. The proposal that the people directly elect the President also was rejected.
To solve the problem, the Constitutional Convention agreed on the method of indirect popular election which became the Electoral College. The Fathers of the Constitution hoped this procedure would promote calm deliberation and selection of the best qualified man.
From 1789 to 1801, each elector voted for two persons on the same ballot. In 1789, all 69 electors voted for George Washington and 34 voted for John Adams. The rest of the votes were for other candidates. Adams became Vice President because in those days the runner up took that position.
By 1800, two political parties had emerged. In that year, two Democratic Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both got a majority of the electoral vote and tied for first place. The election went to the House of Representatives, where each state had one vote. Jefferson was elected President and Burr became Vice President.
That election led to Amendment 12 of the Constitution, ratified in 1804, providing that electors should designate their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots.
According to the United States Constitution, each state legislature decides how that state's electors shall be chosen.
State committees or conventions of each political party usually select the candidates for presidential electors. In the November general election, the candidate who wins a plurality or the highest number of a state's popular votes usually receives all the state's electoral votes. Thus, a candidate may be elected without a majority of the popular vote.
In the December following the presidential election, on a day set by law, the duly elected presidential electors in each state and the District of Columbia assemble. State electors usually meet in their state's capital.
Actually, of course, the results of the election are known almost always following the November election. A count of the ballots shows how each of the Electoral College members will vote, and the world knows which of the candidates has won the election. However, the formal certification by the Electoral College takes place as outlined by law.
In January, at a joint session in the House of Representatives, the president of the Senate opens the certificates filed by the states. Then four tellers, one Democrat and one Republican from each house, count the votes in the presence of both houses of Congress. The candidate who receives a majority of the electoral votes for President is declared elected.