Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-01-07
STATE ELECTORS MEET MONDAY T0
 CAST BALLOTS
Meeting of Electors Mere 'Formality Due to Flee
 toral College System.

Al noon next MOluGN the electors 1 chosen in the forty-aleht states at i the November election will meet at | the capitals of their respective states 1 and cast their ballots for president and vice president. In the states carried by the Democrats inc elcc- 1 tors will vote for Wilson and Ma shall and in the states where the Re publicans were victorious tho electors Will officially declare their choice of Hughes and Fairbanks for the offices of president and vice president. rc spectively.
 The meeting of the electors is but one Of the cogs in the election ma . chinery provided for in the constiu- ton, and commonly known as tho electoral college system. Adopted after a prolonged and imbttered dis pute ill the famous constitutional con vention of 17S7 in Philadelphia. the electoral college system has since is inception been subject of attack and a center of momeTtous disagree ments. The close result in the recent presidential election hls served 10 TO vive the moment looking to the aboIi- ton of the electoral college system and the election of the president and vice president by direct popular vote. Twenty-Five years ago this month a bill aiming at the same end was intro duced in the senate by Mr. Peffer oI Kansas. At various other periods in the nations history it has been pro- posed to abolish the electoral college but the system still stands and will soon be dalled upon to perform its quadrennial function of electing the president and vice president"
 The system provides that the elec- tors on the winning ticket shall meet at the state capital on the second Monday in January and then and there cast their vote by ballot for presi- dent and vice president. one of which national candidate at east shall not be a resident of the same state as tho electors themselves. As a result there never will be a national ticket made up of two men from the same state, for the electoral vote of the q m didates' state would be lost to them. Casting Electoral Vote.
 At the appointed time and place each body of electors makes Up a list of all the candidates it's members have for president and vice president
 with the number of votes each re- ceives. Every members of the college | signs and certifies the list. Three l copies of the result are made, ono | being mailed to the president of the United States senate, the sedon1 being despatched to Washington by g trusted messenger, and the third as
 a precIautionary measure is deposited
 in care of the federal judge of the cir | cult in which the electors meet. The copies received by the presi dent of the senate are preserved ir
 specially constructed safe and ad- l ditionally protected. by an elaborate system of burglar alarms. When the
 president of the senate receives tn. sealed envelopes from the messengers containing the certified votes he de
 livers to them a receipt couched il
 very guarded and noncommitta
 terms.
 1 Travel was slow in the days wher
 the electoral college system was adopted. so a period of month wae
 allowed between the meetings of the
 electors in their respestive states anf
 the official canvass of the results by
 cbngresa This was done to give
 ample time for the messengers t(
 bring the certified returns to Wash 1 ington.
 The second Wednesday in Febru
 ary, which this year falls on Febru
 ary IA, is the day deslgnated for the
 perfunctory. but highly importan task of declaring Woodrod Wilson and Thomas R. Marshall elected presi
 dent and vice president. respectively
 of the United States. The vote vii
 be canvassed and the results announc
 ed before a joint session of the sen
 ate and house. The ceremony vii
 be attended by the rigorous procedur prescribed for the occasion by tn:
 constitution and supplementary sta
 tutes. It will be the supreme ant
 final act of law really making lMessrs. Wilson and Marshall the na
 tion's executives for the next fou
 years. The inauguration to follo7
 will be but the formal attestation b
 oath of the new executives promisin
 obediende to the constitutional law
 of the country and faithful execution of their trusts, and their ceremonial
 induction into office.