The Electoral College: How Effective Is It? Our founding fathers wanted to devise a plan to elect the executive branch of the government without it being affected by partisan politics. In the beginning, they instituted and stated in Article 2, Section 1, of the Constitution, the method of selecting electors is delegated to the separate state legislatures, and the voting procedure to be followed by the electors is carefully defined (Encarta, History). Originally in the Constitution, the electors were to vote for the two most qualified persons without specification of presidential or vice-presidential candidates. The candidate with the most votes would be the president and the candidate with the least votes would be the vice-president. After the election of 1800 there was a tie with the votes and the decision went to the House of Representatives. After a long struggle, they chose the president and vice-president, but not without adding the 12th Amendment. In 1804, Congress enacted and the States ratified the 12th Amendment, which allows for separate electoral votes for the president and vice-president. The 23rd Amendment was also adopted in 1961 allowing the District of Columbia 3 electoral votes, leaving the original electoral college procedure stated in the Constitution substantially the one in use today (Encarta, History). The Electoral College consists of 538 electors, one for each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators, and 3 for the District of Columbia. Each state’s allotment of electors is equal to the number of House members and Senators(2) each state has (NARA, par. 1). To win the election, 270 of the 538 votes, the majority, are needed. As stated in the Constitution, the electors cannot be a member of the Senate, House of Representative or a person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States (NARA, par. 6). The electors are appointed by statewide popular ele...
