Us History Electoral College

Every nation in the world holds elections, which are significant events.

In contrast to many other nations, where the president is directly elected by the populace, this is not the situation in the US. The Electoral College selects the president of the United States. Up to 538 delegates are required to cast a ballot in an electoral college to select the US president and vice president. The candidate political group selects the members of the electoral colleges. Each state has its own rules that specify who can be appointed to certain positions and under what circumstances. This paper discusses in details the Electoral College and the role it undertakes in the electing of the president of US.

In US, the Electoral College plays different essential functions in the electing of the president.

One of the duties of the electoral is to hold the meeting of the electors. The college is mandated to hold the meeting and cast their votes for the president and the vice president. The college regularly meets on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December in their respective states. The federal laws do not allow the state to pick another alternative date for the meeting. The role of this meeting is for the Electoral College to pick the president and the vice president. The second function of the Electoral College is to prepare the certificate of a vote. In most case, the federal law does not provide regulation on the appearance of the certificate of the election. The format is determined by the custom or the law of the submitting state. The electoral is in charge of executing six certificates of a vote. The certificate that is formulated with the Electoral College must be authenticated and prepared in the given guidelines. The certificate made must contain the list of the all the person who gets the electoral ballot for president and the number of electors who vote for each. It should also name the individuals who receive votes for the vice president and the total number of the voters who gave them votes for each person. In additional individuals who did not receive electoral votes are not included on the certificate. The six documents are to be signed by all the electors. The third role of the Electoral College is to appoint electors. The Constitution of the United States and the federal law do not give out the guidelines for the appointment other than stating that the electors must be appointed on the Tuesday after the first Monday in every November. Most of the state the political parties nominate slates electors at central committee or state convention meeting.

Another role of the Electoral College is to prepare the certificate of ascertainment.

The Electoral College makes the seven original certificate of ascertainment naming the person appointed as electors. In most of the case, the federal law does not provide governance for the general appearance of the certificate of ascertainment. This certificate of ascertainment must show the names of the picked electors by the voter and number of the votes received, as well as the list of names of all another candidate for the elector and number of votes gotten. Other key roles of the Electoral College is the distribution of the certificate of ascertainment, and also distribute the paired certificate of vote and certificate of ascertainment. The document prepared must be sent to the designated state and federal officials.

There are many times in the United States whereby the president has been elected without winning the majority of the popular vote.

The 2016 election is the most recent situation whereby the candidate president Trump received the highest number of the electoral votes and thus won the presidency but did not win the popular vote. Clinton received 2.9 million votes more than President Donald Trump. In the year 1824, John Quincy Adams won the presidency despite not being able to win the popular vote or the electoral vote. In this particular election, Jackson had 38000 more popular votes than Adams. In the year 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes was able to win the president sit with a small difference of electoral vote. Rutherford had lost the popular vote by more than 250000 votes to Samuel J. Tilden. Also, in the year 1888, Benjamin Harrison had 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland 168 whereby winning the presidency. Despite the fact that this Harrison had lost the popular vote by more than 90000 votes. George W, Bush was the win of the general election in 2002 becoming the 43rd president. Al Gore had 54o, 000 more votes than Bush. George W. Bush had won the electoral vote of 271 to 266 respectively.

In conclusion, the Electoral College in the US has been playing an important role in the election.

The Electoral College plays different roles with the major role being the casting votes for the president and the vice president. The Electoral College determines who the president through the electoral vote becomes even if the presidential candidates wins the popular vote. There are different cases whereby the president has been elected to the white house without winning the popular vote. This has been witnessed recently in the year 2016 where Trump became the president after winning the Electoral College vote.

Bibliography

Bennett, Robert W. Taming the electoral college. Stanford: Stanford Law and Politics, 2006.

Burgan, Michael. The electoral college. Minneapolis: MN : Compass Point Books, 2007.

Shea, Therese. America’s Electoral College : choosing the President, comparing and analyzing charts, graphs, and tables. New York : Rosen Pub. Group’s PowerKids Press, 2007.