Tip: The width in the code can be adjusted to best fit your space. Place the map on your website with this code. In 1824, when there were six states in which electors were legislatively appointed, rather than popularly elected, the true national popular vote is uncertain. [18], Candidates for elector are nominated by state chapters of nationally oriented political parties in the months prior to Election Day. The District of Columbia and the six least populous statesAlaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyominghave three electors each. In Virginia, political parties decide for themselves whether to . A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the presidency or the vice presidency. 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. After a popular election, the states identify and record their appointed electors in a Certificate of Ascertainment, and those appointed electors then meet in their respective jurisdictions and produce a Certificate of Vote for their candidate; both certificates are then sent to Congress to be opened and counted. [226][227][228][i], Ratified in 1804, the 12th Amendment requires presidential electors to meet and cast their ballots for President and Vice President within their respective states, to create signed and certified lists of their state's electoral vote counts, and to transmit the certificates to the President of the Senate, and then, in a joint session of Congress, the President of the Senate is required to open all of the certificates and the certificates are required to be counted. The House continues balloting until it elects a president. [212], Instead of decreasing the power of minority groups by depressing voter turnout, proponents argue that by making the votes of a given state an all-or-nothing affair, minority groups provide the critical edge that allows a candidate to win a close-battle state. [69], After the initial estimates agreed to in the original Constitution, Congressional and Electoral College reapportionment was made according to a decennial census to reflect population changes, modified by counting three-fifths of slaves. [189][190] Because the national popular vote is irrelevant under the electoral college system, it is generally presumed that candidates base their campaign strategies around the existence of the Electoral College; any close race has candidates campaigning to maximize electoral votes by focusing their get-out-the-vote efforts in crucially needed swing states and not attempting to maximize national popular vote totals by using finite campaign resources to run up margins or close up gaps in states considered "safe" for themselves or their opponents, respectively. The party chair certifies the list to the Secretary of State. Hamilton was also concerned about somebody unqualified but with a talent for "low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity" attaining high office. In this event, the House of Representatives is limited to choosing from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes for president. [196] It permitted Southern states to disfranchise large numbers of slaves while allowing these states to maintain political clout and prevent Northern dominance within the federation by using the Three-Fifths Compromise. [230] Later codified in Title 3 of the United States Code in 1948,[231] the ECA established the Electoral College safe harbor deadline, gubernatorial certificates of ascertainment and certificates of vote, the procedure of the Electoral College vote count, and the role of the Vice President at the Electoral College vote count. In 2024, the total number of electoral votes is 538. When the time for balloting arrives, the electors choose one or two people to act as tellers. Click states on this interactive map to create your own 2024 election forecast. The 2024 electoral map is now ready as we begin the campaign season. The certificates are arrangedunopenedin alphabetical order and placed in two special mahogany boxes. Finishing in second place was Democratic-Republican Party candidate Thomas Jefferson, the Federalists' opponent, who became the vice president. [101], Currently, there are 538 electors, based on 435 representatives, 100 senators from the fifty states and three electors from Washington, D.C. [168] Following the 2008 split, some Nebraska Republicans made efforts to discard the congressional district method and return to the winner-takes-all system. The district plan would have awarded him 11 of its 21 electoral votes, a 52.4% which was much closer to the popular vote percentage. [97] Many states require an elector to vote for the candidate to which the elector is pledged, but some "faithless electors" have voted for other candidates or refrained from voting. [302], On October 8, 1969, the New York Times reported that 30 state legislatures were "either certain or likely to approve a constitutional amendment embodying the direct election plan if it passes its final Congressional test in the Senate." [235] Sections 9 through 11 of Title 3 require the electors in each state to make six duplicates of the certificate of vote and send two copies to the Archivist by registered mail,[234] while Section 12 of Title 3 sets the certificate of vote submission deadline as the fourth Wednesday of December (December 2228). The states and the District of Columbia hold a statewide or districtwide popular vote on Election Day in November to choose electors based upon how they have pledged to vote for president and vice president, with some state laws proscribing faithless electors. Thus, a president who did not win the national popular vote[6] may get elected, as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. 4, in the section heading and in the text as "college of electors".[37]. Fail Safes: [238] In 2009, the Continuity of Government Commission issued a report that noted that the 80th United States Congress included "failure to qualify" as a condition for presidential succession under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, and argued that if both the President-elect and Vice President-elect have died that Congress is likewise authorized to act under Section 3 of the 20th Amendment. The electoral votes are deteremined based on the 2020 US Census. None of these proposals have received the approval of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states required to amend the Constitution. [86] Of like view was Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a member of Adams' Federalist Party, presidential candidate in 1800. In Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, 531 U.S. 70 (2000), a Florida Supreme Court decision was vacated (not reversed) based on McPherson. Allocation of electors in proportion to the state's popular vote could reduce this effect. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of state delegation votes (i.e., from 1959 (which is the last time a new state was admitted to the union), a minimum of 26 votes) in order for that candidate to become the president-elect. In the last election, the result could have been changed by a small shift of votes in Ohio and Hawaii, despite a popular vote difference of 1.7 million. Floria has the third most electoral votes with 30. ", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: May 29", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: June 2", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 4", "James Wilson, popular sovereignty, and the Electoral College", "The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison", "Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 6", "U. S. Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions", "Updating the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Legislation", Draft of a Resolution for the Legislature of New York for the Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, 29 January 1802, "WashU Expert: Electoral College ruling contradicts Founders' 'original intent' The Source Washington University in St. Louis", "Article 2, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3: [Selection of Electors, 17961832], McPherson v. Blacker", "Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U.S. ___ (2020)", "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 1875", "Article 2, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3: Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 3: 144952, 145460, 146267", "Founders Online: Draft of a Resolution for the Legislature of New York for the ", "James Madison to George Hay, 23 August 1823", "Resolves of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Passed at Their Session, which Commenced on Wednesday, the Thirty First of May, and Ended on the Seventeenth of June, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty. The Virginia Plan called for Congress to elect the president. Advocates of the current system argue that human electors would be in a better position to choose a suitable replacement than the general voting public: according to this view, electors could act decisively during the critical time interval between when ballot choices become fixed in state ballots[216] until mid-December when the electors formally cast their ballots.[217]. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors. One view is the Electoral College violates the principle of political equality, since presidential elections are not decided by the one-person one-vote principle. Operations: Meghann Olshefski Amanda Herbert Mandy Morris Kelly Rindfleisch Hamilton drafted an amendment to the Constitution mandating the district plan for selecting electors. By not permitting members of Congress or any other officer of the United States to serve as electors, Hamilton argued that the Constitutional Convention had also safeguarded the election of the President from anyone "who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. He also used the term "deliberate." [65] Maryland was the only state using a district plan, and from 1836 district plans fell out of use until the 20th century, though Michigan used a district plan for 1892 only. It also shows the change in the number of electoral votes following the 2020 Census.[2]. Since each state receives electoral votes equal to its congressional delegation (House + 2 Senators), there is a 1:1 relationship between the change in House districts and electoral votes. .center-table-mobile { They included 2020's fiercest battlegrounds, Arizona (decided in 2020 by just 10,457 votes) and Georgia. If no candidate for president receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes (since 1964, 270 of the 538 electoral votes), then the Twelfth Amendment requires the House of Representatives to go into session immediately to choose a president. [303], On August 14, 1970, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent its report advocating passage of the proposal to the full Senate. Committee member Gouverneur Morris explained the reasons for the change; among others, there were fears of "intrigue" if the president were chosen by a small group of men who met together regularly, as well as concerns for the independence of the president if he were elected by Congress.[26]. The six states with the most electors are California (54), Texas (40), Florida (30), New York (28), Illinois (19), and Pennsylvania (19). The United States will hold its 60th presidential election on November 5, 2024. ", "These 3 Common Arguments For Preserving the Electoral College Are All Wrong", "It's Time to Abolish the Electoral College", "Should We Abolish the Electoral College? It is notorious, that the electors are now chosen wholly with reference to particular candidates, and are silently pledged to vote for them. Their transient existence, and their detached [unbiased] situation, already taken notice of, afford a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it."[49]. December 25, 2024electoral votes arrive. ', Dr. Philip J. VanFossen of Purdue University explains that the original purpose of the electors was not to reflect the will of the citizens, but rather to "serve as a check on a public who might be easily misled. [239][240] Following the attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election during the presidential transition of Joe Biden and the January 6 United States Capitol attack during the 2021 Electoral College vote count,[list 1] the ECA and the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 were amended by the 117th United States Congress under the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 that was included as Division P of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Americans favored a Constitutional Amendment to elect the president by a nationwide popular vote on average 61% and those for electoral college selection 35%. States select 535 of the electors, this number matches the aggregate total of their congressional delegations. In 2021, 19 states enacted 34 laws making it more difficult to cast a ballot. I prefer to allow the Congress to proceed with its work without the interruption of a new proposal. Another method used early in U.S. history was to divide the state into electoral districts. [104] Under Section3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, any person who has sworn an oath to support the United States Constitution in order to hold either a state or federal office, and later rebelled against the United States directly or by giving assistance to those doing so, is disqualified from being an elector. [121] Thirty-three states plus the District of Columbia have laws against faithless electors,[122] which were first enforced after the 2016 election, where ten electors voted or attempted to vote contrary to their pledges. The attendance of the electors is taken and any vacancies are noted in writing. 16 116th Congress (20192020): A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct election of the president and vice President of the United States", "Text S.J.Res. In McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1 (1892), the Court cited Article II, Section 1, Clause2 which states that a state's electors are selected "in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct" and wrote these words "operat[e] as a limitation upon the state in respect of any attempt to circumscribe the legislative power". If no pair received 40% of the popular vote, a runoff election would be held in which the choice of president and vice president would be made from the two pairs of persons who had received the highest number of votes in the first election. Under the Electoral College, however, a state had no such incentive to increase the franchise; as with slaves, what mattered was how many women lived in a state, not how many were empowered a state with low voter turnout gets precisely the same number of electoral votes as if it had a high turnout. Several methods for selecting electors are described below. [127][128] Faithless electors also may face censure from their political party, as they are usually chosen based on their perceived party loyalty.[129]. president. By December 11, 2024 Electors Appointed The State Executive of each State signs the Certificate of Ascertainment to appoint the electors chosen in the general election.