Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-08-27
NUMBER 4S.
How Presidents are Made-PopuIar and
Electoral Votes.

ALI the powers OF sovereignty In the United
States rest with the sovereign people, and yet
they do not elect their President or Vice Presi-
dent. They think they do, but the nearest ap-
proach the people can make, under the consti-
tuition, to an election of these officers is in the
election, State by State, of the agents by whom
said officers are elected and taking the will of
the majority of the people of the United States
as the test which should determine the choice
OF their President and Vice President we see
that 1t IS only In the chapter of accidents that
these officers are in reality the choice of the
people-that man may by the electoral col
leges be elected President with heavy MAORI
ty OF the popular vote ofthe Union against him.
and that, worse yet, man may be constitu-
tionally chosen President by the electors for
whom not one solitary vote has been cast by
the people,
The national constitution provides, in the
election of President and Vice President first,
that each State, as the Legislature may direct,
shall appoint number of electors equal to the
whole number of Senators and Representatives
to which such State is entitled in Congress:
second that these electors shall meet in their
respective States 1.-THE electoral coeges) and
vote by ballot for President and Vice President:
third, that they shall make distinct lists of the
persons voted for and of the number of votes
for each, and transmit said lists signed and
Senate; fourth, that this presiding officer, in
| the presence of both houses of Congress, shall
open these certificates, and that the electoral
votes of the several States for President shall
be counted then and there, and the person hay-
ing the largest number of votes, if majority
of all the votes cast, shall be President. Other
wise, from the three highest persons voted for
by the electoral colleges the House of Repre-
sentatlves, by ballot, shall elect the President,
each State In these elections being limited to
one vote. A quorum for this purpose shall
consist OF member ormembers from two-thirds
OF the States, and majority of all the States
shall be necessary to choice. Finally, when
such election shall devolve upon the House,
and it shall fail to make an election in the In.
terval to the 4th of March next following, land
under existing arrangements these elections
come before the House about the 18th of Feb
ruary,) then the Vice President shall act as
President, as in the case of death or other con-
stitutional disability of the President.
In the next place the person from the eecto-
raj colleges having the largest number of votes
for Vice President shall be the Vice President,
if his vote be majority of the whole vote for
this officer cast by the electoral colleges. Other
wise from the two highest persons on the list
from said colleges the Senate shall choose the
Vice President A quorum for this purpose
shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number
of Senators, and majority of the whole number
shall be necessary to choice.
Under this system of electing presidential
electors, by the popular vote on general ticket,
we have had some strange results from time to
time since 1920. In the election of 1924, gen.
orally known as our presidential scrub race
between jackson, Adams, Crawford and Clay
the electoral vote of the Union was thus di-
vided upon these mentor jackson 80, fol
Adams 81, for Crawford Al, and for Clay 81.
There being no election by the electors, the
three highest persons voted for-J ackson, Ad.
ans and Crawford-went before the House fol
an election. The House by States, one vote fol
each State, on the first ballot elected Adams
who secured l3 States, against for jackson
and 4 for Crawford.
According to the voice of the people jackson
should have been elected, for he had popula
majority over Adams of $4,000. The choice O
Adams, however, was fair election by tn
!, House compared with what may be done in al
election of President by that body. For in
stance, let us suppose that three candidates, a
in 1924, are before the House for an election o
one of them. Jones has $50 electoral votes
Smith 125, and Brown 40. Smith and Jone
are beyond the reach of a compromise. bu
Brown of Delaware, with half-dozen of th
little States to back him, is acceptable as a las
resort to the friends of Jones and Smith, o
Q other small States, and so, with the votes O
Rhode Island, Delaware, Florida and so on
till we make up the nineteen smallest States il
population. Brown is elected, though the State
e electing him may represent less than one-thir
e of the sovereign people Of the United States.