The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-17
Manner OF the Operation of The IT, S.
Electoral College Was Explained

Very few people in Richmond, and
the Sixth district too, fully under
stand just how, when and where
president and vice president are real
ly. elected, or the manner by which
such political machinery is manipu-
lated, from start to finish.
In the first place, the constitution
of the United States declares that a
man to become a candidate for presi-
dent or vice president, as the vice
president must have all the qualifica-
tions of president, must be native
born-not foreign born citizen of the
United States, not less than thirty
| five years of age and the candidates
for president and vice president must
| not both live in the same state but
must live in separate states.
Now, to start the nominating and
election OF them, there must be
starting point. Every voting precinct
in the county, state, district or ma
| tiCn must have a committeeman, or
chairman for each political party, to
call the voters or precinct committee
I
men together to consider political
business at various times. So the
| first thing to do in starting a presi-
Dental campaign is for the county
chairman to call or order a precinct
election or convention to select dele
gates to a congressional district con-
vention to be held somewhere in said
| district; later to nominate a man for
congress from that congressional dis
trict for that certain political party
Those delegates selected at those pre-
cinct elections are also authorized to
/ select two delegates from that con-
gressional district as delegates to the
national convention, whenever held,
to select candidates for president and
vice president. These congressional
delegates are also authorized to select
one man as presidential elector from
that district to vote directly for presi-
dent and vice president, in the cleo
toral college when it meets.
The state delegates selected at the
precinct election meet at the state
| capital usually, and nominate the vari-
Gus state officers besides selecting
four delegates, sometimes six, eight
or more, to go to the national conven-
ton and help select candidates for
president and vice president. These
four or more national delegates are
selected from different parts of the
state and are called delegates at large
| to represent the two United States
senators from that state. The state
convention delegates also select two
presidential electors to vote direct for
the candidates for president and vice
president in the electoral college when
it meets.
Thus it is seen how the common
voters vote to select district and state
delegates, the district and state votes
to select national delegaes VINO vote
to nominate candidates for president
and vice president. Those electors
that have been selected by the district
and state delegates are the ones the
common voters vote for the first Mon
day after the first Tuesday in Novem-
Der of every year devisible by the
figure four 1t is also seen that each
congressional district in the United
States has one presidential elec+or in
the electoral college and two district
national delegates to the national CON
vention and that each United States
senator is represented in the ELECTORAL
college by one elector and by two dele.
gates, sometimes more, in the national
convention. The latter number is the
reason why, sometimes, there is a
fraction Of a vote given by the voting
in the convention. If there are four
for instance, to represent each United
States senator and two vote for one
candidate and two for another, each
[