Crs Report for Congress: The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections

When Americans vote for President and Vice President, they are actually choosing presidential

electors, known collectively as the electoral college. It is these officials who choose the President

and Vice President of the United States. The complex elements comprising the electoral college

system are responsible for one of the most important processes of the American political and

constitutional system: election of the President and Vice President. A failure to elect, or worse, the

choice of a chief executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could precipitate a

profound constitutional crisis that would require prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by

Congress.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, as amended in 1804 by the 12th Amendment, sets forth

the requirements for election of the President and Vice President. It authorizes each state to

appoint, by whatever means the legislature chooses, a number of electors equal to the combined

total of its Senate and House of Representatives delegations, for a contemporary total of 538,

including three electors for the District of Columbia. Since the Civil War, the states have

universally provided for popular election of the presidential electors. Anyone may serve as an

elector, except Members of Congress and persons holding offices of Trust or Profit under the

Constitution. In each presidential election year, the political parties and other groups that have

secured a place on the ballot in each state nominate a slate or ticket of candidates for elector.