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Electing the President. Chapter 8 Section 2. Section 2. The Original System. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution establishes the Electoral college. Each state legislature would set up a method for choosing people who would be the electors.
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Electing the President Chapter 8 Section 2
Section 2 The Original System • Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution establishes the Electoral college. • Each state legislature would set up a method for choosing people who would be the electors. • The electorswould meet in their state at election time to cast their electoral votefor the president.
Section 2 The Original System (cont.) • In the original system, electoral votes from all the states would be counted in a joint session of Congress. • The candidate receiving a majority would become president and the candidate with the second-highest number—also a majority—would become vice president.
Section 2 The Impact of Political Parties • The Twelfth Amendment requires that the electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president. • It also provides that if no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, the House chooses from the three candidates with the largest number of elector votes.
Section 2 The Electoral College System Today • Today parties choose their nominees for president in conventions held in late summer. • Voters cast their ballots for president every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. • Voters are not voting directly for president or vice president but instead voting for all of their party’s electors—the slate of electors—in their state.
Section 2 Electoral College Issues • In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, if a candidate wins the largest number of popular votes, that person receives all the state’s electoral votes. • The winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate who loses the overall popular vote to win the electoral vote. Popular and Electoral Votes in Select Elections
Section 2 Electoral College Issues (cont.) • A third-party candidate could win enough electoral votes to prevent either major-party candidate from receiving a majority of votes. • People sometimes criticize the Electoral College system when problems arise. Many changes to the system have been proposed.
Section 2 The Inauguration • Until the inauguration in late January, the new president is referred to as the president-elect. • The new president takes office at noon on January 20 in the year following the presidential election.