US Elections: What is the Electoral College and the simplest way to explain the complex American system

When you think of college, the first thing that comes to mind is a college or university. But when you think of the Electoral College, things get significantly more complicated, as it’s a term from the, for our purposes, complicated process of electing a president in America.

To begin with, the Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers of the United States established it in the Constitution, partly as a compromise between electing the president by a vote of Congress and electing the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

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How does the Electoral College process work?

The Electoral College process consists of choosing electors, a meeting of electors where they vote for president and vice president, and the counting of electoral votes by Congress.

How many electors are there and how are they distributed among the states?

The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president of the United States.

Each state has the same number of electors as it has members in its congressional delegation: one for each member of the House of Representatives plus two senators. The District of Columbia, which contains the U.S. capital, Washington D.C., receives 3 electors and, although it is not a state, is treated as a state for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Consequently, in the following sections, the word "state" refers to the District of Columbia, and the "executive branch" refers to the state governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia.

This chart shows how many electoral votes each U.S. state allocates to the winner of the vote.

How are electors chosen? What are their qualifications? How do they decide who to vote for?

Each presidential candidate in each state has their own group of electors (known as a slate). The slates are usually chosen by the political parties of the candidates in each state, but state laws vary regarding the selection of electors and their responsibilities.

The U.S. Constitution contains very few provisions regarding the qualifications of electors. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states that no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed as an elector. Historically, the 14th Amendment has prohibited state officials who have been in rebellion or insurrection against the United States, or who have aided and abetted its enemies from serving as electors. This prohibition dates back to the period following the American Civil War.

Each state has a certificate of appointment that certifies the names of its appointed electors. Certification of electors by the state is usually sufficient to establish the qualifications of the elector.

The selection of each state's electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each state select lists of potential electors prior to the general election. Second, during the general election, voters in each state choose their electors by casting their ballots.

No constitutional provision or federal law requires electors to vote according to the results of the votes cast by their states. However, some states require electors to vote according to the will of the people. These obligations fall into two categories - electors bound by state law and those bound by promises to political parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution does not require electors to be completely free to act as they please, and therefore political parties can require electors to pledge to vote for the party's candidates. Some state laws provide that so-called "faithless electors" can face fines or be disqualified and replaced with an alternate elector if they cast an invalid ballot. The Supreme Court ruled (in 2020) that states can impose requirements on how electors vote. No elector has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote according to a promise. However, several electors have been disqualified and replaced, while others were fined in 2016 for failing to vote according to a promise.

It is rare for electors to disregard the will of the people by voting for someone other than their party's candidate. Electors are usually elected based on their party's leadership or years of dedicated service to the party. Throughout U.S. history, more than 99 percent of electors have voted as promised.

What happens in a general election?

The general election is held every four years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. When Americans vote for a presidential candidate, they are actually voting for the electors associated with that candidate.

Most states have a "winner-takes-all" system, which awards all electors to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in that state. However, Maine and Nebraska use a form of proportional representation, so that candidates can split their electoral votes.

What happens after the general election?

After the general election, the executive branch of each U.S. state prepares a Certificate of Results, which lists the names of all individuals on the ballots for each candidate. The Certificate of Results also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were elected as electors for each state. The Certificate of Results is sent to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as part of the official record of presidential elections.

The Electoral College is held on the first Tuesday after the second Monday in December after the general election. The Electors meet in their states, there they vote for President and Vice President on separate ballots. The votes of each state's electors are recorded on a Certificate of Vote, which is prepared by the electors at the meeting. The Certificate of Vote for each state is sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and to NARA, as part of the official record of presidential elections.

The electoral votes of each state are counted by a joint session of Congress on January 6 of the year following the meeting of the electors. The members of the House of Representatives and the Senate meet in the chamber of the House of Representatives to conduct the official count of the electoral votes. The Vice President of the United States, as President of the Senate, presides over the count in a strictly ceremonial manner and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which person, if any, has been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

The newly elected President is sworn in and officially becomes President of the United States on January 20 of the year following the general election.

Whether it will be Kamala Harris or Donald Trump again, we will soon find out.

(Telegraf.rs)