Delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 argued over many things, but one of their biggest debates was how the United States should elect its president.
Some of the founding fathers believed that a direct national election by the people would be the most democratic method. Others argued that a simple popular vote was unfair because it would give too much power to larger, more populous states. They also feared that public opinion would be too easily manipulated, and feared that direct elections would lead to a tyrannical leader determined to seize absolute power.
The result of this struggle was the Electoral College, the system by which the American people vote not for the president and vice president, but for a small group of people, known as voters. These voters then voted directly for the president and vice-president, at a meeting held several weeks after the general election.
There are 538 voters in total, including one for each U.S. Senator and Representative and three voters representing the District of Columbia, and presidential candidates need a majority of 270 votes to win the White House. Most of the time – but not always – the winner of the Electoral College is also the winner of the popular vote.
READ MORE: What is the Electoral College and why was it created?
How voters are chosen
Voter Melba McDow, along with other voters, is sworn in as the Electoral College meets at the Texas Capitol in Austin, 2008
Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Corbis / Getty Images
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states that voters cannot be members of Congress or hold federal office, but left it to each state to settle everything. According to the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, voters also cannot be anyone who “has engaged in an insurgency or rebellion against the United States, or who has aided or comforted its enemies.”
The Constitution gave each state a number of voters equal to the combined total of Representatives and Senators who represent that state in the United States Congress. State legislatures are responsible for choosing voters, but how they do it varies from state to state. Until the mid-1800s, it was common for many state legislatures to simply appoint voters, while other states let their citizens decide the voters.
Today, the most common method of choosing voters is the State Party Convention. Each political party’s state convention appoints a voters list and a vote is taken at the convention. In a smaller number of states, voters are chosen by a vote of the state party’s central committee.
In any case, political parties usually choose the people they want to reward for their service and support for the party. Voters can be elected officials or party leaders in the state, or people who have some sort of personal or professional connection to the party candidate.
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What Happens on Election Day?
After this initial phase of the process, the presidential candidate from each party emerges with its own list of potential voters. On Election Day, when Americans vote for a political party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates, they are actually voting for the list of voters who have pledged to vote for that party. The names of the voters may or may not appear on the ballot under the names of the candidates, depending on the electoral rules and the format of the ballots in each state.
Then, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the members of the Electoral College meet in their respective states and officially vote for the president and vice-president. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have a winner’s system, in which the party whose candidate wins the popular vote in a state nominates all of that state’s voters to the electoral college.
Maine and Nebraska have a “district system”. They nominate voters based on who won the popular vote in each congressional district, plus two voters who have pledged to vote for the state’s general popular vote winner.
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What are “unfaithful voters”?
The constitution does not require voters to vote based on the results of the popular vote in their states, and no federal law requires it. But a number of states have passed laws that threaten to punish so-called “infidel voters,” who do not vote by the state’s popular vote.
Unfaithful voters have never decided an election, and over 99% of voters in U.S. history have voted as they pledged to. But as recently as 2016, seven voters broke with their state in the presidential ballot, and six did so in the vice-presidential ballot. Some of these infidel voters were replaced or fined for their rogue votes, but their votes did not affect the outcome of the election.
In 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not require those elected to serve on the electoral college to be free to vote as they please. Instead, the court found, states have the constitutional power to force voters to vote according to their state’s popular vote.
At the time of the court’s ruling, 32 states had adopted laws that bind voters, while 18 states had laws on the books giving voters the freedom to vote independently – ensuring that in more than one way , the Electoral College could continue to provide drama for the foreseeable future.
