The Daily Texarkanian., 1896-07-28
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
Explanation Of How the President
and Vice President are
Elected.

EDITOR TEXARKANIAN:-The aC
tion of the Populist convention
which was recently held in ST
, Louis, in nominating Mr.. Watson
of Georgia, for Vice-President, an,
the Endorsement of Bryan for Presi
dent, may throw some embarrass
ment around the next Presidential
election, which might be we'll fo
certain voters of the United State
to consider in casting their ballots
The people cannot be TOO well in
formed upon this question.
1t may be considered as a matter
of universal knowledge that we dt
not vote directly for President anC
| Vice-President. We vote for a Ger
tain number of electors in eact
State, which shall be number
equal to the number of Senator;
and Congressman from each State
and those electors which receive Z
plurality of the popular vote shall
be the electors of each state.
Art. XII of the constitution o
the United States, provides that
the electors of each state shall meet
and vote by ballot, for President
and Vice-President. They shall
name in their ballot the person
voted for as President and the per-
son voted for as Vice-President in
distinct and separate ballots, which
which shall be certified and trans
mitted to the seat of government
and directed to the President of the
senate. The President of the sen
ate shall in the presence of the Sen
ate and House of Representatives
open and count the returns; the
person having the greatest number
of votes for President shall be the
President, if such number be a ma
jority of the whole number of elec.
tors; it no person receives such ma
jority, then from the persons re-
ceiving the highest number of votes,
not exceeding three on the list of
those vote for as President, the
House of Representatives shall by
ballot Immediately choose the
President, But in choosing the
President the vote shall be taken
by states, the representation of
each state having one vote, and a
majority of all the states shall be
necessary to elect the President.
The person having the greatest
number of votes as Vice-President
shall be the Vice President, if such
number be majority of the whole
number OF electors appointed or
elected, and if no person have such
majority, then from the two high
est numbers on the list, voted for
as Vice-President, the Senate of
the United States shall choose the
Vice-President.
Thus it will be seen that in case
of failure to elect by the people,
the House of Representatives elects
the President, and the Senate
elects the Vice"Hresident; but in
electing the Vice-President, they
select one of the two persons re.
ceiving the highest number of elec.
toral votes.
If the Populist party insists on
running Watson as Vice-President,
it cannot in any event avail
them anything, for the reason it
cannot be presumed that Watson
will occupy any other position than
to be third in the list, of Vice
President. IT Watson receives a
considerable number of electora
votes so as to divide the vote to the
extent of depriving any one of a
majority of the votes for Vice-Pres'
ident, the election will then be
thrown to the senate and will be be-
tween the Democratic nominee,
Sewall, and the Republican nomi.
nee, Hobart.
1t cannot be nationally claimed
that Watson will run ahead of Sew
all, and so voting for Watson or
Watson electors, viewed in the most
favorable light, is SIMPLY a futile ef-
fort,
The matter can be viewed from
another light, and that is, if the
Populist Party runs separate elec-
tors in any state, it will be simply
placing Bryan in a position OF run
ming against himself, and dividing
his own vote between two sets Of
electors, all of whom might be con-
sidered favorable to him as Presi-
dent against Mckinley; and if the
Republican electors in such case re-
ceive a plurality OF the votes in that
state, they would be the electors
who would cast the vote in the
Presidential election,
My purpose in laying this matter