Questions tagged [electoral-college]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

When were US Presidential candidates' names first shown on the ballot?

When the USA votes for a president, voters technically vote for the electoral college. But as far as I know, all ballots show the name of the presidential candidates. In the 1789 presidential election,...
user132647's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
279 views

Was the Bohemian Elector part of the Electoral College for purposes of a Reichstag, especially if he was the Emperor of the HRE?

Nominally, the order of the Electoral college was fixed in 1356 with a golden bull and once more recorded in this combination in 1489. The Bull dictated 7 Electors. One of those Electors was the King ...
Trish's user avatar
  • 680
7 votes
0 answers
120 views

What did US presidential ballots look like when unpledged electors were offered?

Unpledged presidential electors have run in at least four US presidential elections. In 1960, 14 were elected. In this age, where the electoral college is almost a mere formality and we rarely think ...
Mr. Bultitude's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
256 views

How did the generation who elected Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison feel about the electoral college?

In 1824, John Quincy Adams became the first president to win the presidential election, but lose the popular vote. It would not be until 52 years later in 1876 with Rutherford B. Hayes when this would ...
Jimmy G.'s user avatar
  • 2,374
-6 votes
2 answers
167 views

What was the first country to have an electoral college?

What country historical had an electoral college first? Ideally I would like to determine the origin of the first electoral college system came from but that might be better for another question.
Bob's user avatar
  • 1
14 votes
3 answers
686 views

How close did the US come to removing the Electoral College in 1970?

A NY Times opinion article mentioned a failed 1970 bill that would have introduced a potential constitutional amendment removing the electoral college. It had passed the House of Representatives, but ...
StayOnTarget's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
3k views

Did Wilson's 'He kept us out of war' really win the 1916 Presidential Election?

In the 1916 United States presidential election, President Woodrow Wilson barely defeated Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. Wilson ran on the slogan 'He kept us out of war'. From what I ...
rwallace's user avatar
  • 2,605
9 votes
1 answer
864 views

In the election of 1800, why did Burr end up with as many electoral votes as Jefferson, rather than one fewer?

In the election of 1800, the Federalist candidate for president, John Adams, received one more electoral vote than the candidate for vice president, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. This was by design, as ...
Adi Inbar's user avatar
  • 191
3 votes
1 answer
675 views

Why Did the Founding Fathers Create the Electoral College? [duplicate]

I am familiar with the problems with the electoral college in America (I wrote a six page formal academic essay on it), but I am still confused as to why the founding fathers created and implemented ...
user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
856 views

Why did South Carolina continue to select their Presidential Electors by legislative choice until after the Civil War?

Looking back through a history of the electoral college, many of the states did not at first actually have a popular vote to decide the electors for president. Instead many states chose electors by ...
Aiaimai's user avatar
  • 93
12 votes
1 answer
729 views

Is there any documentation on the creation of Article 1 Section II of the US Constitution?

I'm doing some personal research on the electoral college as it has been becoming more and more relevant in modern US elections. I've seen tons of people talking about how it was designed to protect ...
Henry Prickett-Morgan's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
118 views

Can members of the Electoral College vote in opposition of their state's popular vote if they deem the president-elect unfit to serve? [closed]

There is a post on Facebook initiated by change.org requesting 4,500,000 signatures on a petition (3,456,689 have signed as of this post), asking that the Elector College members NOT vote per their ...
Jayne's user avatar
  • 5
4 votes
1 answer
219 views

History of ways of choosing members of the electoral college

The Constitution of the United States Article II, Section 1, second paragraph, says: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to ...
Michael Hardy's user avatar