CRS Report for Congress - Bog

When Americans vote for President and Vice President, they are actually choosing presidential
electors, known collectively as the electoral college. It is these officials who choose the President
and Vice President of the United States. The complex elements comprising the electoral college
system are responsible for one of the most important processes of the American political and
constitutional system: election of the President and Vice President. A failure to elect, or worse, the
choice of a chief executive whose legitimacy might be open to question, could precipitate a
profound constitutional crisis that would require prompt, judicious, and well-informed action by
Congress.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, as amended in 1804 by the 12th Amendment, sets forth
the requirements for election of the President and Vice President. It authorizes each state to
appoint, by whatever means the legislature chooses, a number of electors equal to the combined
total of its Senate and House of Representatives delegations, for a contemporary total of 538,
including three electors for the District of Columbia. Since the Civil War, the states have
universally provided for popular election of the presidential electors. Anyone may serve as an
elector, except Members of Congress and persons holding offices of "Trust or Profit" under the
Constitution. In each presidential election year, the political parties and other groups that have
secured a place on the ballot in each state nominate a "slate" or "ticket" of candidates for elector.