Question: Are the electors of the Electoral College real people? Do they have names? What qualifies them to be electors? Where is this information listed, and is it public information?
Who electors are and how they are picked
The electors of the Electoral College are real people. How they are selected is determined by both state law and the rules of the political parties. According to the U.S. Office of the Federal Register, "Generally, the political parties nominate electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee in each State. Electors are often selected to recognize their service and dedication to their political party. They may be State elected officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate.
Then the voters in each State choose the electors on the day of the general election. The electors' names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the candidates running for President, depending on the procedure in each State."
Electors
Apportionment
Further information: United States congressional apportionment
State population per electoral vote for the 50 states and Washington D.C.A state's number of electors equals the number of representatives and senators the state has in the United States Congress.[35][36] In the case of representatives, this is based on the respective populations. Each state's number of representatives is determined every 10 years by the United States Census. In the case of senators, each state is entitled to two.
Under the Twenty-third Amendment, Washington, D.C. is allocated as many electors as it would have if it were a state, but no more electors than the least populous state. The least populous state (Wyoming, as of 2011[update]) has three electors; thus, D.C. cannot have more than three electors. Even if D.C. were a state, its population would entitle it to only three electors; based on its population per electoral vote, D.C. has the second highest per-capita Electoral College representation, after Wyoming.[37]
Currently, there is a total of 538 electors, there being 435 representatives and 100 senators, plus the three electors allocated to Washington, D.C.. The six states with the most electors are California (55), Texas (34), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20) and Pennsylvania (20). The seven smallest states by population—Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—have three electors each. This is because each of these states are entitled to one representative and two senators.
Selection
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution requires each state legislature to determine how electors for the state are to be chosen, but it disqualifies any person holding a federal office, either elected or appointed, from being an elector.[38] Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, any person who has sworn an oath to support the United States Constitution in order to hold either a state or federal office, and later rebelled against the United States, is disqualified from being an elector. However, the Congress may remove this disqualification by a two-thirds vote in each House.
Candidates for elector are nominated by their state political parties in the months prior to Election Day. In some states, the electors are nominated in primaries, the same way that other candidates are nominated. In some states, such as Oklahoma, Virginia and North Carolina, electors are nominated in party conventions. In Pennsylvania, the campaign committee of each candidate names their candidates for elector (an attempt to discourage faithless electors).[39]
The Tuesday following the first Monday in November has been fixed as the day for holding federal elections, called the Election Day.[40] Forty eight states and Washington, D.C., employ the "winner-takes-all method", each awarding its electors as a single bloc. Maine and Nebraska use the "congressional district method", selecting one elector within each congressional district by popular vote and selecting the remaining two electors by a statewide popular vote. This method has been used in Maine since 1972 and in Nebraska since 1996.[5]
The current system of choosing electors is called the "short ballot." In most states, voters choose a slate of electors, and only a few states list on the ballot the names of proposed electors. In some states, if a voter wants to write in a candidate for President, the voter is also required to write in the names of proposed electors.[39]
Meetings
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)
Certificate for the electoral vote for Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler for the State of LouisianaElectors chosen on Election Day meet in their respective state capitals (or in the case of Washington, D.C., within the District) on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, at which time they cast their electoral votes on separate ballots for President and Vice President.[41][42][43]
The Electoral College never actually meets as one body. Although procedures in each state vary slightly, the electors generally follow a similar series of steps, and the Congress has constitutional authority to regulate the procedures the states follow. The meeting is opened by the election certification official—often that state's secretary of state or equivalent—who reads the Certificate of Ascertainment. This document sets forth who was chosen to cast the electoral votes. Each elector present answers to his name, and any vacancies are noted in writing. The next step is the selection of a president or chairman of the meeting, sometimes also with a vice chairman. The electors sometimes choose a secretary, often not himself an elector, to take the minutes of the meeting. In many states, political officials give short speeches at this point in the proceedings.
When the time for balloting arrives, the electors choose one or two people to act as tellers. Some states provide for the placing in nomination of a candidate to receive the electoral votes (the candidate for President of the political party of the electors). Each elector submits a written ballot with the name of a candidate for President. In New Jersey, the electors cast ballots by checking the name of the candidate on a pre-printed card; in North Carolina, the electors write the name of the candidate on a blank card. The tellers count the ballots and announce the result. The next step is the casting of the vote for Vice President, which follows a similar pattern.
Each state's electors must complete six Certificates of Vote. Each Certificate of Vote must be signed by all of the electors and a Certificate of Ascertainment must be attached to each of the Certificates of Vote. Each Certificate of Vote must include the names of those who received an electoral vote for either the office of President or of Vice President. The electors certify the Certificates of Vote and copies of the Certificates are then sent in the following fashion:[44]
One is sent by registered mail to the President of the Senate (who usually is the Vice President);
Two are sent by registered mail to the Archivist of the United States;Two are sent to the state's Secretary of State; andOne is sent to the chief judge of the United States district court where those electors met.
A staff member of the President of the Senate collects the Certificates of Vote as they arrive and prepares them for the joint session of the Congress. The Certificates are arranged—unopened—in alphabetical order and placed in two special mahogany boxes. Alabama through Missouri (including Washington, D.C.) are placed in one box and Montana through Wyoming are placed in the other box.[45]
Faithlessness
Main article: Faithless elector
A faithless elector is one who casts an electoral vote for someone other than the person pledged or does not vote for any person. 24 states have laws to punish faithless electors. In 1952, the constitutionality of state pledge laws was brought before the Supreme Court in Ray v. Blair, 343 U.S. 214 (1952). The Court ruled in favor of state laws requiring electors to pledge to vote for the winning candidate, as well as removing electors who refuse to pledge. As stated in the ruling, electors are acting as a functionary of the state, not the federal government. Therefore, states have the right to govern electors. The constitutionality of state laws punishing electors for actually casting a faithless vote, rather than refusing to pledge, has never been decided by the Supreme Court. While many only punish a faithless elector after-the-fact, states like Michigan also specify that the faithless elector's vote be voided.[46]
As electoral slates are typically chosen by the political party or the party's presidential nominee, electors usually have high loyalty to the party and its candidate: a faithless elector runs a greater risk of party censure than criminal charges.
Faithless electors have not changed the outcome of any presidential election to date. For example, in 2000 elector Barbara Lett-Simmons of Washington, D.C. chose not to vote, rather than voting for Al Gore as she had pledged to do. This was done as an act of protest against Washington, D.C.'s lack of congressional voting representation.[47] That elector's abstention did not change who won that year's presidential election, as George W. Bush received a majority (271) of the electoral votes.
/https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/entertainment/20240915/photo/bkn-20240915224515508-0915_00862_001_07p.jpg?20240915225905)
/https://img.discuss.com.hk/attachments/day_240915/20240915_7d2d59c67b79c94e3155NhvtiObyObku.jpg)
/https://cdn.hk01.com/di/media/images/dw/20240915/912132691070029824576804.jpeg/U8d4zds1zMw6r7_vvRl5fLJAyJ4tgT7MSeMUxknjFMY?v=w1920r16_9)
/https://cdn.hk01.com/di/media/images/dw/20240915/912111312144699392497013.png/HrMIb-vHSv0W32PPvNUjHeB5EX8KurPWH3N4tx9zeLc?v=w1920)
/https://today-obs.line-scdn.net/0hiEzhSxCENmpHESaYsjFJPX9HOht0dyxjZScuBGMYalo_PSU1cidlCTJBYEY6dXQ0ZyUtCDdEOlw4dnhueQ/w644)
/https://img.discuss.com.hk/attachments/day_240916/240916_362274ea29ad9b1c2882OzGQqFsnusee.jpg)
/https://image.hkhl.hk/f/1024p0/0x0/100/none/26de6a5414c0f96ce7574c5b3ffcd2a2/2024-09/_DSC1604.JPG)
