Electoral College The
United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the
Article Two of the
Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the
president and
vice president. Each
state appoints electors according to its
legislature, equal in number to its
congressional delegation (senators and representatives).
Federal office holders cannot be electors. Of the current 538 electors, an
absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. As stated in the
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, if no candidate for either office achieves an absolute majority there, a
contingent election is held by the
United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the
United States Senate to elect the vice president; under this amendment, only the
election of 1824 failed to produce a majority for president, and the
election of 1836 for vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia produces two documents to be forwarded to Congress, a
certificate of ascertainment and a
certificate of vote. A
certificate of ascertainment is an official document that identifies the state's appointed
College electors and the tally of the final popular vote count for each candidate in that state in a
presidential election; the certificate of ascertainment is submitted after an election by the
governor of each state to the
archivist of the United States and others, in accordance with
3U.S.C.§§6–14 and the
Electoral Count Act. The certificates must bear the
state seal and the governor's signature. Staff from the
Office of the Federal Register ensure that each certificate contains all legally required information. When each state's appointed electors meet to vote (on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December), which are then paired with the certificate of ascertainment, which together are sent to be opened and counted by Congress. The
12th Amendment mandates Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election. The
Electoral Count Act, a federal law enacted in 1887, further established specific procedures for the counting of the electoral votes by the joint Congress. The session is ordinarily required to take place on January6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. Since the
20th Amendment, the newly elected joint Congress declares the winner of the election; all elections before
1936 were determined by the outgoing Congress. A state's certificate of vote can be rejected only if both Houses of Congress, debating separately, vote to accept an objection by a majority in each House. If the objection is approved by both Houses, the state's votes are not included in the count. Individual votes can also be objected to, and are also not counted. If there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer simply includes a state's votes, as declared in the certificate of vote, in the official tally. After the certificates from all states are read and the respective votes are counted, the presiding officer simply announces the final state of the vote. This announcement concludes the joint session and formalizes the recognition of the president-elect and of the vice president-elect. The Electoral College officials certified this ballot as a vote for Edwards for president. The remaining nine electors cast ballots for Kerry. All ten electors in the state cast ballots for Edwards for vice president (Edwards's name was spelled correctly on all ballots for vice president). This was the first time in U.S. history that an elector had cast a vote for the same person to be both president and vice president. Electoral balloting in Minnesota was performed by secret ballot, and none of the electors admitted to casting the Edwards vote for president, so it may never be known who the
faithless elector was. It is not even known whether the vote for Edwards was deliberate or unintentional; the Republican Secretary of State and several of the Democratic electors have expressed the opinion that this was an accident. == Joint Session of Congress ==