COUNTING PRINCIPLE PLUS

The Vice President of the United States, as President of the Senate, presides over the count in a strictly ministerial manner and announces the results of the vote. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber to conduct the official count of electoral votes. Your State’s Certificate of Vote is sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and to NARA, as part of the official records of the Presidential election.Įach State’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Your State’s electors’ votes are recorded on a Certificate of Vote, which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election. Your State’s Certificate of Ascertainment is sent to NARA as part of the official records of the Presidential election. The Certificate of Ascertainment also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were appointed as your State's electors. What happens after the general election?Īfter the general election, your State's Executive prepares a Certificate of Ascertainment listing the names of all the individuals on the slates for each candidate. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation.” Read more about the allocation of electors among the States. Most States have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the Presidential candidate who wins the State's popular vote. Learn more about voting for the electors. When you vote for a Presidential candidate you are actually voting for your candidate's preferred electors. The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. What happens in the general election? Why should I vote?

Read more about the qualifications of the electors and restrictions on who the electors may vote for. The slates are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party in your State, but State laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. How are my electors chosen? What are their qualifications? How do they decide who to vote for?Įach candidate running for President in your State has their own group of electors (known as a slate). For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “State” also refers to the District of Columbia and “Executive” to the State Governors and the Mayor of the District of Columbia.

The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution. Read more about the allocation of electoral votes.

COUNTING PRINCIPLE PLUS

Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. How many electors are there? How are they distributed among the States? The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College is a process, not a place.

Counting principle