ELECTORAL COLLEGE. A name given to the presidential electors, when met to vote for president and vice-president of the United States, by analogy to the college of cardinals, which elects the pope, or the body which formerly selected the German emper or. It is, according to the more general us age, applied to the electors chosen by a sin gle state, but is also used to designate those chosen throughout the United States.
This term has no strict legal or technical mean ing, and being unknown to the constitution and laws of the United States, its use is purely colloquial. Accordingly the term is not clearly defined, and it is employed by approved writers in both the senses stated, though more frequently when reference is made to the entire body of electors the plural is employed, as, "the expectations of the public . . (have) been so completely frustrated as in the prac tical operation of the system, so far as relates to the independence of the electors in the electoral colleges ;" 2 Sto.. Const. § 1463 ; ". . . would be chosen as electors, and would, after mature delib eration in their respective colleges," etc. ; 1 Hare, Am. Const. L. 219 ; "the electoral colleges have sunk so low" ; BEd. 22L So in speaking of the elec
tors the phrase "state colleges" is used by Stevens, Sources of the Constitution of the U. S. 153, note. Following this view is the following definition: A name informally given to the electors of a single state when met to vote for president and vice-presi dent of the United States, and sometimes to the whole body of electors. Cent. Diet.
On the other hand, the other use is well sustained by authority, and we find this definition: The body of electors chosen by the people to elect their presi dent. Encyc. Diet. This is supported by Webster and Worcester as well is some authorities on con stitutional law. "The presidential electors chosen as therein directed, constitute what is commonly called the 'electoral college' ;" Black, Const. L. 86; and again, "by an electoral college appointed or elected in the several states" ; id. "In case the electoral college fails to choose a vice-president, the power de volves on the senate to make the selection from the two candidates having the highest number of votes." 1 Calhoun's Works, 175. See PRESIDENTIAL ELEC TORS.