Electoral College

or e·lec·tor·al col·lege

[ ih-lek-ter-uhl kol-ij, ee-lek-tawr-uhl ]

noun

1. none the Electoral College or the electoral college, (in the United States) a group of individuals formed anew for each general election with the express function of electing the president and vice president: made up of a proportional number of members from each state, chosen by each state’s voters from the respective slates selected by that state’s political parties and usually expected to cast their vote in favor of the candidate who won the majority in their state or district.
2. a group of individuals whose function is to elect one or more leaders of government, as in Estonia, Nepal, and some other countries.

electoral college

noun

1. often capitals a body of electors chosen by the voters who formally elect the president and vice president
2. any body of electors with similar functions

Electoral College

1. The presidential electors who meet after the citizens vote for president and cast ballots for the president and vice president. Each state is granted the same number of electors as it has senators ( see United States Senate ) and representatives combined. These electors, rather than the public, actually elect the president and the vice president. The Founding Fathers assumed that electors would exercise discretion and not necessarily be bound by the popular vote, but the rise of political parties undermined this assumption. Electors are now pledged in advance to vote for the candidate of their party, and nearly always do so. Thus, the vote of the Electoral College is largely a formality.

Notes

There have been several attempts to abolish the Electoral College. In the 2000 presidential election, the candidate with the plurality of popular votes lost the electoral vote, a situation that also occurred in the 1876 and 1888 elections.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Electoral College¹

An Americanism first recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

Since 2000, Republicans have won the popular vote in a presidential election once, but the electoral college has delivered them two additional victories.

From Washington Post

Out of four candidates, Jackson got the most votes in the electoral college, but he didn’t get a majority.

From Washington Post

Rehnquist — joined by only two other justices — said that the Constitution gives the state legislature sole authority over elections and over the way that electors are chosen for the electoral college.

From Washington Post

When the electoral college voted, Vice President John Adams was the narrow victor, and his rival Jefferson became his veep.

From Washington Post

Both senators voted against certifying the electoral college results.

From Washington Post

They need Florida, arguably, at least in Electoral College terms.

From The Daily Beast

Sidebar: the Electoral College is the balk rule of government.

From The Daily Beast

Nobody is born knowing how a bill becomes a law or what the Electoral College is.

From The Daily Beast

Lynne explained that first came the Electoral College, with each state getting two votes for president.

From The Daily Beast

The result would be to effectively nullify the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment.

From The Daily Beast

A smaller population than yours is represented not only in Congress, but in the Electoral College.

From Project Gutenberg

He was a member of the Electoral College in 1860 and in 1864.

From Project Gutenberg

And your popular majority as well as your clear majority in the Electoral College is a great personal triumph for you.

From Project Gutenberg

Again, in 1876, Hayes was declared elected President by a majority of one vote in the electoral college.

From Project Gutenberg

I won by a popular majority of about two million and a half, and in the electoral college carried 330 votes against 136.

From Project Gutenberg

More About Electoral College

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is an indirect voting system in the United States in which electors from each state, appointed based on the popular vote, go on to vote for the president.

How is Electoral College pronounced?

[ ih-lek-ter-uhl kol-ij ]

How does the Electoral College work?

Though Electoral College sounds like an institution where one could earn a degree, it is actually the name of a process in which a body (college) of representatives (electors) vote for the president of the United States. This process was established in Article 2, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution in 1787, which references “electors” appointing the “executive Power” on the basis of congressional and senatorial representation. The specific phrase Electoral College, however, wasn’t written into law until 1845.

The Founding Fathers of the U.S. designed the voting process of the Electoral College to prevent the public from electing an unqualified candidate and to ensure more populous states didn’t always determine the president over smaller states, many of which had a large slave population who historically were not allowed to vote.

So, instead of an outright popular vote, in which the winner is selected by whoever earns the most individual votes across the country, a presidential vote in the U.S. is actually a vote for electors within one’s state of residence, who then pledge to vote for the candidate with the most votes in the Electoral College. For example, if the Democratic presidential candidate wins the state of North Carolina, then the electors in North Carolina will be able to vote for them in the Electoral College.

Each state has a different proportional number of electors, based on population, with a total of 538 in the country. For a candidate to win the election, they must be voted in by at least 270 electors. Forty-eight states use a winner-take-all method wherein whatever candidate wins the popular vote of a state takes all of the electors, but Maine and Nebraska use a Congressional District Method, which gives one electoral vote to each state’s congressional districts.

Electors are chosen within each state by political parties, often voted on by the party’s committee and usually based on their prior service to the party. Though nominated electors can be politically active, they are forbidden from being a representative, senator, or holding any office of trust or profit. While electors pledge to vote for a candidate, they are not bound to do so, and are called faithless electors if they vote for a different candidate or don’t vote.

❗ Update: On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states can require members of the Electoral College to vote for the candidates they pledged to support.

The electors do not meet and vote on Election Day itself; rather, they meet on the first Monday following the second Wednesday after the day of their appointment.

There is still fervent debate about whether the United States should switch a purely popular vote system. These arguments heated up in 2016 when candidate Donald Trump lost the popular vote to rival Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes yet won the presidency due to the Electoral College system. Trump is the fifth President to lose the popular vote, following John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush in the 2000 election.

There has long been a movement to end the Electoral College, but this presents unique challenges since the system is enshrined in the Constitution, and such a change would require a constitutional amendment. However, the National Popular Vote bill seeks to bypass this; the bill would make it so that if a candidate wins the national popular vote, any state that has ratified the bill will give their electoral votes to the popular winner. So far, this bill has passed in 11 states.

Examples of Electoral College

“The electoral vote on Monday—by the people who represent the Electoral College votes awarded on Election Day—has been the occasion for much speculation, hope and debate.”
—Lily Rothman, “The Electoral College Votes Today. But Politicians Have Been Trying to Reform It for Decades,” Time, December 19, 2016

“But [Al Gore] lost the election after losing Florida in the electoral college.”
—Paul Smalera, “Voting for a third party candidate in this election is the worst thing you can do for American democracy,” Quartz, September 29, 2016

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.