Talk:United States Electoral College

General ticket /District method

The section United_States_Electoral_College#Evolution_to_the_general_ticket appears to conflate two separate issues.

1. The change from electors making individual decisions to electors being pledged to vote for a specific candidate.

2. The change from electors being elected by district to electors being elected on a statewide general ticket.

In other words, there could, in theory at least, be four permutations: -

1. Electors are elected by district, to make individual decisions.

2. Electors are elected by district, pledged to a specific candidate. This is what happens with the electors corresponding to the Congresscritturs in Maine and Nebraska.

3. Electors are elected on a statewide general ticket, to make individual decisions.

4. Electors are elected on a statewide general ticket, pledged to a specific candidate. This is what happens in the 48 states other than Maine and Nebraska, and in Washington DC.

The article is suggesting that Hamilton and Madison were talking about the change from [electors making individual decisions] to [electors being pledged to vote for a specific candidate]. However, I suggest that they were actually talking about the change from [electors being elected by district] to [electors being elected on a statewide general ticket]. Alekksandr (talk) 21:44, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

I don't think so. Lifting something out of the context of the text of Federalist 68, I see that Hamilton wrote there that selected electors were "[not to be men] who might be tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes". I think that Hamilton would have considered electors with a pledged votes to be electors "tampered with beforehand to prostitute their votes". Hamilton also wrote there that electors were to be "men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice"; that description does not fit persons whose only task is to cast a pre-pledged vote. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 22:52, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in replying. Hamilton lived until 1804, so he had the opportunity to observe the rise of the system of pledged electors and its operation in the contentious circumstances of 1800. Did he express any opinion thereon? Alekksandr (talk) 19:13, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022

This 2022 legislation changed a number of aspects of the Electoral process.

The section United States Electoral College#Meetings currently includes:

[...]

The electors certify the Certificates of Vote, and copies of the certificates are then sent in the following fashion:

• One is sent by registered mail to the President of the Senate (who usually is the incumbent vice president of the United States);
• Two are sent by registered mail to the Archivist of the United States;
• Two are sent to the state's secretary of state; and
• One is sent to the chief judge of the United States district court where those electors met.

[...]

In particular rather than "registered mail" , the law now says [https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4573/text#ide93e7469-13a1-46f5-93f3-856940f78c0f]

“The electors shall immediately transmit at the same time and by the most expeditious method available the certificates of votes so made by them, together with the annexed certificates of ascertainment of appointment of electors, as follows:

So will we see a road rally, mail rockets, drones, and/or delivery robots? Or will an PDF via email suffice? :-)

Lent (talk) 18:27, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Lent (talk) 18:27, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Also changed is the date the electors meet in their respective state legislatures following the presidential election. I've known it to be the "first Monday after the second Wednesday in December" for a number of years, and then I see that the one coming up in 2024 is December 17 (a Tuesday), which is one day later than I thought it would be. Section 106(a) of the law—what I cite here apparently is an early draft of it (a bill at the time)—addresses this. It looks like a fairly straight-forward addition to the "Meeting of electors" section (currently 3.8 in the table of contents), but the old date is mentioned in at least one other place (4.2.4 "Meetings" in the table of contents, for one). Possibly just a simple change there? MPFitz1968 (talk) 21:09, 2 February 2024 (UTC)

References

the US is not the only country using indirect voting

U.S. stands out in how it picks a head of state | Pew Research Center

How Germany’s electoral college was set up to prevent another Hitler - The Washington Post

Thirty democracies are constitutional monarchies (with elected representatives in Parliament selecting the Prime Minister), and another thirty republics use indirect-voting, including Germany and India. 192.252.228.133 (talk) 03:11, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

A prime minister is NOT the head of state. And the indirect elections in other countries are not the same as the electoral college. The EC is chosen for the single purpose of the presidential election. The indirect elections in other countries have preexisting government bodies choose the head of state as an additional duty. This was all explained in your first link --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 22:12, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

"bdieschoose" What do you mean by that? Dimadick (talk) 22:24, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, my phone keyboard was acting up and I didn't proofread the post. I've fixed it now.--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 02:22, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Not in Germany; the electoral college used for their presidential elections IS a single-purpose assembly, albeit composed one half by their parliament. Autokefal Dialytiker (talk) 05:30, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

"albeit composed one half by their parliament". There's the difference. I meant for such situations to be covered by the phrase "single purpose of the presidential election", but see how it could be open to interpretation. The constitution of the US expressly forbids federal office holders (including senators and representatives) from being electors. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:06, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Reorganize article based on quality and/or notability of the sections

Proposing reorganizing the article to put sections towards the top by:

1) higher-quality secondary sources and analysis. A number of sections currently at the top have really long quotes, citing primary sources that appear to be original research and interpretations that will require quite a bit of work to sort through all the tags before they are encyclopedic.

2) notability: this is a highly-critiqued form of electing president that has been the subject of more constitutional amendment attempts than any other part of the constitution (and a system of electing president that every other democracy has gotten rid of). Elevating these paragraphs would emphasize the most notable parts of the Electoral College (its uniqueness worldwide and debate over its merits and reform attempts). Superb Owl (talk) 17:55, 16 February 2024 (UTC)