ELECTORAL COLLEGE. In the political of the Cnited states, the body of electors in each State who have been chosen to select the President and 'Vice-President. The expression does not appear in the Constitution or statutes, but is a popular designation of the electors, adopted analogy to the college of cardinals, to which the choice of the popes is committed. It is sometime, employed of the whole body of electors for President and Vice-President, chosen by all the States. Th, Constitution prescribes (Art. IL.: and Amendments. Art. XII.) the num ber of eleetors and the manner in which they shall exercise their high functions, but to the States the mode of appointing them, and to Congress the power to determine a uniform time for choosing them and the day oil 'which they .hall give their votes. A•eordingly, the mem bers of the electoral college in each and every State are chosen simultaneously by popular vote on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November. Their number is equal to the Whole number of Representatives which the State sends to both branches of Congress. They are required to meet at some place designated by the Legisla ture of their State on the second Monday in January, and then and there to vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, of whom one. at least, shall not he a resident of the sanw State with themselves. Each electoral college then makes a list of the names of all its candidate; for President and Vice-President, with the num ber of votes for each; the list is signed and eerti tied by every member of the college, is authenti cated by the Governor of the State, and trans mitted to the President of the Senate of the States. On the second Wednesday in Feb ruary the electoral votes are opened and counted in presence of both Houses of Congress. assem bled in the chamber of Representatives, and the result is announced by the president of the Senate. The person, who receive the highest number of votes, respeetively, for the offices of President and Vice-President. are declared elected. provided they have reeeived a majority of all the votes. In case of a tie. the House of Representatives, voting by States. each State having one vote, is to choose between the equal candidates for Presi dent, a majority of all the States being necessary to a choice. The Senate has the mover to ehoose in case of a tie in the vote for Vice-President. In the same way, in ease there is no tie, but the lead ing candidate, fail to receive a majority of all the votes. the election for President is thrown into the Hou,e, and that for Vier-President into the Senate. hider the Constitution as originally framed the electoral colleges did not designate. their choice for President or Vice-President. but When I lie total were counted by the Presi dent of the Senate the eandidate receiviag the highest munher of to he elected President, and his nearest eompetitor Vice-]'resident. Rut the Twelfth .kinendinclit to the Constitution, adopted in IsMt. changed the
mode of voting for the two officers, the being required to vote separately for President and Vice-President.
The present posit inn and functions of the electoral college furnish a striking illustration of the way in which a written and stable consti tntion may be undermined and :intended by the silent process of customary observance. It is o•ious that the Constitution contemplates that the electoral college in each State shall lie a deliberative body of men, freely exercising an untrammeled choice for the high office, which they are to fill. They are not called upon, nor are they expected, to vote as a unit. still less to meet for the sole purpose of a result which has already been reached elsewhere and by others. That this remarkable change in the con ception of the constitutional functions of the (deetoral college has been brought about is due to the course of our political development. and particularly to the national convention system of nominating candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. These conventions are not recognized by the Constitution, nor have their nominations any legally binding force. But the electors, subseemently nominated and elected for the sole purpose of giving the vote of the State to a vermin patty candidate, are as securely bound to that course of action by custom and honor as they would be by statute. The people. consequently, elect the President and Vi•e-l'resi dent by States, and the college is a cumbrous machine for formally conveying to Washington the wishes of the majority. Since 1S01 the vote of an elector has been known with certainty several weeks before it is east, and several months before it is officially announced. The electoral system has constantly endangered the State. on account of the absence, until recently, of any general law to govern the president of the Senate in his canvass of the votes, and the tendency of Congress to decide every case of doubt or disputed returns arbitrarily as it arose. was accomplished, however, until 1857, when a law was passed (approved February 3) to cover the contingency of rival electoral colleges and disputed returns. Under the terms of this act. each Stile is conceded to have the right of determining all or con tests regarding the appointment of its own Presi dential electors; and in case of any such contest, Congress is to accept the State's settlement of the same as conclusive, and it cannot reject any electoral vote, duly certified, unless both Rouse, concurrently decide that that vote has been irregularly given, If more than one return front a State is received, only those votes are to be counted which the State itself has indorsed as regular; but if the State has been unable to settle the question, owing to its having two or more rival sets of authorities, or from any other cause, then the two Houses mire to decide the dispute. See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATEs; CoNvENTiox: PRESIDENT: and the au thoritie< there referred to.