Election: Presidents and the Constitution
Let’s Talk Elections!
While many Americans believe they have a right to vote for President of the United States, they actually never cast votes for candidates themselves. Now, Americans vote for electors who, in modern times, are pledged to vote for certain candidates also known as the Electoral College.
Why was the Electoral College created? The Founders imagined a republican system for citizens to vote for individuals in their state who they believed were wise and prudent (electors).
How does the Electoral College work? The U.S. Constitution maps the Electoral College as electors, chosen by the people, would then themselves vote among candidates for President on behalf of their state. Despite recurrent calls for its abolition, the Electoral College has served and continues to serve as a means for presidential selection that represents the will of the people as well as the sovereignty of states.
What happens if the electoral college is tied? Several times in our history, the Electoral College system was challenged as a result of unanticipated tie votes (1800), the allegation of a "corrupt bargain" among members of the House of Representatives (1826), and even conflicting sets of electoral votes submitted by states (1876). The Presidential election of 2000 was one of the most hotly contested in American history and ended with a Supreme Court decision halting the state-wide manual recount ordered by a state Supreme Court.
0:06 Americans believe they have a right to vote for the President of the United States but in fact citizens do not ever directly cast votes for these offices they cast votes for electors who in turn elect the president at the Constitutional Convention there was heated debate on how to select the
0:27 executive some wanted Congress to appoint the president others wanted the state legislatures to do it still others wanted the president to be directly elected through a popular vote James Wilson of Pennsylvania was the first to propose the system we now call the Electoral College each state would
0:48 appoint a number of presidential electors equal to their representation in Congress the winner would become president provided he had a majority of electoral votes the runner-up would become vice president if no candidate won a majority in the electoral college the House of Representatives would choose the president from among the top five
1:09 contenders this design of the Electoral College worked smoothly through three presidential elections but in 1800 there came a bump in the road Republicans had slated Thomas Jefferson for president and Aaron Burr for vice president at the time the Constitution required electors to cast two votes for
1:30 president the winner would become president and the runner-up would become vice president but in 1800 there was a deadlock Jefferson and burr received exactly the same number of votes the election was decided in the House of Representatives such a deadlock could never happen again in 1804 the states ratified the 12th
1:53 amendment to the Constitution electors would now cast separate votes for president and vice president the 12th amendment also lowered the number of candidates the house would consider from five to three this became a factor in 1824 when another election was thrown into the House of for the first time no candidate won a
2:17 majority of the electoral vote Andrew Jackson had a big lead in electoral votes Jackson also led in what was considered the popular vote at that time the House of Representatives voted among the top three candidates and selected John Quincy Adams the support of Henry Clay the Speaker of the House was crucial to Adams as win Jackson and his
2:40 supporters were infuriated they believed that Adams won because he had promised to appoint clay Secretary of State Jackson called it a corrupt bargain and made the alleged deal between Adams and clay a campaign issue in 1828 when Jackson won by a landslide another challenge came in 1876 Democrat
3:04 Samuel Tilden won the popular vote he was leading in the electoral college until results from South Carolina Louisiana and Florida appeared to give the victory to the Republican Rutherford B Hayes those three former Confederate states were the only ones still occupied by federal troops those troops remained
3:25 to enforce reconstruction voting laws Tilden accused the Republican officials of those states of stealing the election for Hayes when conflicting electoral vote counts were submitted in the face of this unprecedented claim of fraud the Electoral College result was in doubt Congress created an independent
3:45 commission to resolve the disputed vote this solution was not even hinted at in the Constitution it was composed of five members each from the House the Senate and the Supreme Court the Commission determined that Hayes had won while Democrats in the house threatened to block the decision Congress finished counting the votes on March 3rd 1877 on
4:09 March 5th Rutherford V Hayes was sworn in on schedule in 2000 Florida was once again at the center of a disputed presidential election democrat Al Gore won the popular by almost a half million votes with 49 states accounted for he led the republican george w bush in the
4:31 electoral college 266 to 246 Florida’s 25 electoral votes were enough to give the electoral vote majority to Bush Bush’s margin of victory in Florida was less than 2,000 votes gore challenged the outcome asking for manual recounts in four heavily Democratic counties the
4:54 Florida Supreme Court arguing that the need for accuracy must be weighed against the need for finality ordered a statewide manual recount the US Supreme Court overruled the Florida Court holding that with no uniform standard to judge voter intention a statewide manual recount would violate the Fourteenth
5:15 Amendments Equal Protection Clause the court’s decision was greeted by a furor of protest from Democrats but Gore agreed to abide by its decision and George W Bush was declared the victor more than a month after election day as James Madison explained in Federalist 39
5:35 the president is indirectly derived from the choice of the people according to the example in most of the states the Electoral College is an example of the American commitment to popular sovereignty as well as the federal character of the Constitution
