Electoral College

“Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress: but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.”

--Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution

The Constitution does not provide for the election of the President and Vice President of the United States by popular vote, but rather by the selection of “Electors” according to rules adopted by each state’s legislators. These electors would receive the list of certified candidates. They would then cast their vote for whomever they ascertained as best qualified to fill these two highest offices of trust with the federal government. The Constitution Party seeks a restoration of this electoral process for the choosing of the President and the Vice President of the United States.

Although the Constitution does not require the states to adhere to any specific manner in electing these electors or how they cast their votes, it suggests, by its wording, that prominent individuals from each congressional district, and from the state at large, would be elected or appointed as electors that represent that district. Under this arrangement, a voter would vote for three individuals, one to represent his district and two “at large” representatives to represent his state. These electors, in turn, would then carefully and deliberately select the candidate for president. Under this system each congressional district could, in essence, select a different candidate. The candidate with the most electors nationwide would become the next president.

This was the general procedure used until the 1830’s, at which time all the states, except for South Carolina, changed to a “general ticket.” The “general ticket” system is still in use today. Inherently, it causes corruption by the inequitable transfer of power from congressional districts to the states and large cities at the expense of rural communities. The Constitution Party encourages states to eliminate the “general ticket” system and return to the procedure intended by the Framers.

The so-called National Popular Vote is a dangerous threat to our Constitutional Republic, allowing as few as eighteen to twenty-one states to circumvent the Constitutional requirement of 38 states to amend the Constitution. The National Popular Vote process would effectively eliminate the last vestiges of the Electoral College as originally set forth in the United States Constitution. The National Popular Vote creates a fake majority by forcing electors to vote against the votes cast by their own constituents.

The elimination of the Electoral College would overnight make irrelevant the votes of Americans in approximately 25 states because candidates would only be interested in campaigning in large population states making small states meaningless zeros. There is no threshold of what constitutes a “majority” under National Popular Vote. Therefore, a presidential candidate could be elected with as little as 15% of the popular vote. Under the National Popular Vote scheme, chaos would ensue in any close election. Under the Electoral College no single faction or region of the country can elect a president ensuring broad representation across America.

The national Constitution Party opposes National Popular Vote and will work to defeat it in individual state legislatures.