If you're a United States citizen, 18 years of age or older, you probably think
you have the right to vote for presidential candidates in the national election.
That's partially correct. When citizens cast their ballots for president in the
popular vote, they elect a slate of electors. Electors then cast the votes that
decide who becomes president of the United States.
Usually, electoral votes align with the popular vote in an election. But a
number of times in our nation's history, the person who took the White
House did not receive the most popular votes.
The founders thought that the use of electors would give our country a
representative president, while avoiding a corruptible national election. The
Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 report that,
...[T]he members of the General Convention...did indulge the hope [that] by
apportioning, limiting, and confining the Electors within their respective
States, and by the guarded manner of giving and transmitting the ballots of
the Electors to the Seat of Government, that intrigue, combination, and
corruption, would be effectually shut out, and a free and pure election of the
president of the United States made perpetual.
The Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, explains what
might seem like a convoluted system to voters today:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as its legislature may direct, a
number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and members of
the House of Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the
legislature.
But no person shall be appointed an elector who is a member of the
legislature of the United States, or who holds any office of profit or trust
under the United States.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two
persons, of whom one, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state
with themselves.
National political chart & map of the United
States.
In 1796, Federalist John Adams was elected the nation's second president,
and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republican Party, was elected vice president.
On December 28, 1796, Jefferson wrote a letter to Adams, observing, "The
public & the papers have been much occupied lately in placing us in a point
of opposition to each other. I trust with confidence that less of it has been
felt by ourselves personally." How did their political differences actually affect
their leadership?
Initially, electors cast votes for candidates without designating whether they
were voting for president or vice president. The flaws in this system became
evident in 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each received 73
electoral votes. It took the House 36 votes before the tie was broken and
Jefferson took office as president.
In 1804, 12th Amendment to the Constitution made sure that electors
designate their votes for president and vice president, but the 12th
Amendment leaves in place a tie breaking system established by the
Constitution by which the House of Representatives breaks a tie on
presidential electoral votes and the Senate breaks a tie on vice presidential
electoral votes.
In some elections, the Electoral College has voted presidents into office by
extremely slim margins, as was the case in 1960, when John Kennedy
defeated Richard Nixon by fewer than 120,000 popular votes. Electors have
even failed to vote for the candidates to whom they were pledged, as was the
case when an elector pledged for Michael Dukakis voted instead for vice-
presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen.
United States presidential election 2012, results
by state, November 6, 2012
While these electoral methods may seem strange to us now, it may seem
even stranger that the founders didn't provide a process by which to
nominate presidential candidates. They seemed to expect that candidates
would be as obvious and unanimous choices in the future as George
Washington had been in their time.
