The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-04-25
ELECTION OF PRESIDENT.

The danger to the permanency of the
government arising from the constitu-
tional provisions in reference to the elec-
ton of President and Vice President,
was not unseen by those who framed the
Constitution. There were difficulties in
any plan which could be suggested not
easily overcome. So long as the Execu-
tive and Legislative departments revered
the Constitution and made party inter-
ests subservient to its requirements, no
serious danger could arise; but when, as
in 1876, the Constitution was regarded
as subordinate to party interests, and a
party President, welding the entire mill
tary power of the country, was controlled
by party domination, the only alterna-
tive which could be presented was, revo-
luton or being robbed of constitutional
rights. The people submitted to the
latter. These difficulties resulting from
the present electoral system, have in
duced Congress to look into the subject,
with view to correct its defects, and
devise a plan which shall in the future
prevent the re-enactment of such pal
pable fraud as that forced upon the
country by party leaders in the last Pres
idential election. A bill prescribing the
method of counting the electoral votes
and deciding questions thereon has been
agreed upon by the Committee of the
House of Representatives, to whom it
had been referred to devise plan to
remedy the defects in the present method
of electing the President. The bill was
agreed to in Committee by one majority.
1t provides that each State shall provide
for the judicial determination of any
controversy concerning the appointment
of electors, and that every such determi-
nation made by the highest State Courts
shall be conclusive evidence as to the
lawful title of the electors so declared
to have been appointed; that where con-
ficting decisions from different tribunals
in the same State come before the con-
vention of the two houses of Congress,
the votes of those electors shall be count
ed whose title as electors the two houses
acting separately shall concurrently de-
eide upon. The returns of the electors
of the several States to be transmitted to
the President of heSenate by the second
Wednesday next after the meeting of the
electors, instead of the first Wednesday
in January as now provided by law.
The most important features of the
proposed amendment is that which pre-
scribes the plan of counting the vote for
President. Under the present plan the
electors receiving the majority or plural
ity vote of any State, cast the solid elec-
toral vote of the State for the candidate
of their choice, and the vote of the mi
nority, ho,0euer large, Is wholly ignored,
as much so as if it had never been cast.
The result has been that several Presi-
dents were elected by majority of the
electoral votes, while an overwhelming
majority of the popular vote was against
them. The proposed amendment, by
distributing the electoral vote in the ex-
act ratio of the popular vote, corrects
this evil. The amendment is that the
electoral votes and fractions thereof of
each person voted for IS President in any
State shall be ascertained by multiplying
his entire popular vote therein by the
whole number Of tho electoral votes OF
the State, and dividing The product by
the aggregate popular vote of the State
for all persons voted for as President, and
the quotient thereof shall be the num-
ber of the electoral votes and fraction
thereof to which such persons shall be
entitled, using for such fractions three
decimals, and no more. The practical
effect of this amendment is to give to the
minority vote in each State its full weight
in casting the electoral vote, and to di-
vide the electoral vote, instead of its be-
ing cast as unit, as is done under the
present system. 1t is very doubtful if
this amendment should pass both Houses
of Congress. 1t was agreed to by only
one majority in the Committee, and re-
quires majority Of two-thirds in each
House of Congresssto submit it to the
Legislatures of the States.