ELECTORAL COLLEGE

the presidential electors named by the States to elect the President and Vice-President after the popular vote has been cast. The constitution created the Electoral College to exercise an independent choice of candidates for President and Vice President, irrespective of the people’s selection, but in practice the electors merely register, by confirmatory vote, popular sentiment. The college is really composed of forty-eight State electoral colleges whose members are chosen by popular vote of the States and whose numbers must not exceed the Congre ional representation of each State. The college therefore numbers 531, equal to the combined membership of the Senate and House of Representatives. The functions of the coliege, for long dictated by the direct vote of the people, have become more or le formal, especially since the dispute arising from the Hayes Til den contest of 1876 (see ELECTORAL selected at the November polls thereafter meet in their respective States, ballot for President and Vice-President.and transmit their choice to the President of the Senate, who counts the returns from the States’ presidential electors in the presence of the Senate and House. Provision is made for election by Congre in case the electors’ choice does not receive a majority of all the votes. In case of a tie, the House votes by States, each state having one vote, for one or other of the tied candidates for President. In the same event the Senate selects the Vice-President. Where there is no tie, but the leading candidate does not receive the required majority of all the votes cast by the Electors, the final choice of President is delegated to the House, and the Vice-President to the Senate. John Quincey Adams was elected President by the House in 1824, and in 1837 the Senate chose Richard M. Johnson for Vice-President.