Who elects the president of the United States?In a democracy, that shouldn't be a trick question. Thanks to the Electoral College, it seems like one. The American people cast their ballots on a Tuesday in early November, but on a national level that vote is legally meaningless. The real election
In a democracy, that shouldn’t be a trick question. Thanks to the Electoral College, it seems like one. The American people cast their ballots on a Tuesday in early November, but on a national level that vote is legally meaningless. The real election happens about six weeks later, when 538 presidential electors — most of them average citizens chosen by local party leaders — meet in their respective state capitals and cast their ballots.
Even though faithless electors have never come close to changing the outcome of an election, more than two dozen states have passed laws requiring their electors to vote for the state’s popular-vote winner. Some punish those who don’t, while others replace faithless electors with ones who will do the job they pledged to do.
The Constitution doesn’t include any explicit guidance on the matter. So who’s right? In a way, they both are. That’s been the operating assumption ever since, and it is almost never questioned. Even the term “faithless” is revealing: What faith is an elector who votes his or her conscience breaking? Didn’t the founders intend electors to be faithful above all to the country?
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