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THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE: HOW IT WORKS

© John S. Cooper

When you go into the voting booth next November (assuming you are at least 18 years of age and a registered voter), you may think you will be voting for the next President, but that is not the case. Only 538 people have the privilege of voting for President. The rest of us are voting for those people, members of the Electoral College.

When the Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution, the selection of the President presented a major problem. The Founding Fathers did not trust the common man to be able to intelligently decide between men of different states. They did, however, trust the average man to know the leading men of their own state. So they created an indirect election system to choose the President and Vice-President.

Voters would choose electors, who would then meet and choose the next president and vice-president. These electors would meet in their respective state capitals and calmly, objectively choose the best man for the job. Each elector would have two votes for President, with the requirement that at east one of the men he voted for must be from a different state. The runner-up would be Vice-President, providing the second best man in the nation for the second office. This system worked well for the first two elections, before the development of political parties.

In 1796, the first election with political parties created unforeseen problems. Both parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, nominated two candidates for president in an attempt to capture both offices. Because of political maneuvering, the President and Vice-President were of different parties and political opponents. In 1800, the same system resulted in the two candidates from the Democratic-Republicans tying in electoral votes, throwing the race into the House of Representatives (the deciding body if no candidate wins a majority of the electoral vote).

Because of this development, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified. Each elector would now have one vote for President, and in a separate race, one vote for Vice-President. The runner-up for president wins no office. Since the Vice-President would be the President's running mate from his own party, rather than his opponent from the other party, this eliminated the problem of a President and Vice-President of different parties.

This new system changed the nature of the vice-presidency. Whereas before the 12th Amendment the Vice-President was the second most important man in the nation, after the 12th Amendment the Vice-Presidency no longer attracted men of the same caliber. The Vice-Presidency became a place filled by men who could attract more votes to the ticket, usually older statesmen at the end of their career. For example, both of James Madison's Vice-Presidents died in office.

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