Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-01

| l.. smith VIII be elected President OF
the United States on November 6. 1928.
On that date, which is the first Tues
dew after the first Monday in Novem-
Der, and is the date fixed by law for
| the quadrennial elections, the persons
who will be elected are 53l men or
women who are known as Presidential
electors. and who have been placed in
nomination by various and Sundry State
! conventions, State committees, or other
machinery of the political parties.
1t is true that the majority Of these
! electors will. early in January. meet in
! their respective states and cast their
| ballots for Mr.. Hoover or Mr.. Smith,
and that late in January The ballots Of
! these electors will have arrived in
! Washington. d. c., in sealed envelopes
addressed TO the President of the
! Senate The Senate and the House of
! Representatives will then meet in Joint
! session. will appoint tellers to open and
read the ballots of the electors. and
| upon hearing the result will solemnly
! declare Mr.. Hoover or Mr.. Smith the
duly elected President CT the United
| States. This is regarded as so certain
! to happen that the whole Nation will
| know to a moral certainty on the morn
| ing of November 7 who is to be the
next President The knowledge will
come from adding up the lists of chosen
electors Of the Republican and Demo-
! cratic parties and obSG., lnS which SIDE
! has a majority.
| Electors Never Jump.
| Nobody for an instant expects any
! one of the chosen electors to change
| his mind between November and
January IA and vote for the opposite
candidate to that of the party which
named him an elector. While very few
voters know the names Of the electors
Of their own party in their own State.
! or ever will know them except as they
may notice them on the ballot when
! they vote, it is safe to assume that they
are honorable men and will function
: exactly as is expected OF them. Gen.
orally speaking they always have done
so, although there is no law to bind
them except the law Of custom and
| honesty. Probably something very I'M
pleasant would happen to any elector
who jumped his ticket. Probably also
there have been occasions, as in 1876,
when the decision was SO close that i'm
mense brides would have been paid any
elector for jumping. Not one of them
betrayed his moral obligation, nor is
there any record that one Of these
comparatively unknown men even Se1l-
ouSly thought of such a thing.
With only two major parties in the
contest this year, the electoral college
will attract little attention. There APP
pears no danger of any failure in
electing a majority Of electors for one
or the other leading candidate, and the
functions of the electors therefore be-
come purely mechanical. AS recently as.
1924 this was not the case. With Cool
7 iYo no
there was a possibility that no party
would win a majority Of the electors.
In that event the election would have
been left for decision by the House OF
Representatives, and that body was so
closely divided that majority there
was uncertain. The possibility of an
indacisive election gave rise to the
slogan, Coolidge or chaos" the latter
word being descriptive of possible I'M
certainty and delay about the selection
of President. The slogan had a genu-
inc meaning and definite application
to our peculiar electoral system. While
the suggestion of Hoover or havoc"
has been made for 1928 slogan of the
Republicans, il may not appeal 50
strongly to the public, as there is no
danger of an indeciSive election.
Trouble May Develop.
While the electoral system bids fair
to work successfully this year, and the
real dangers of 1900, 1924 and 1876
are missing, as we'll as the possible,
though unrealized, dangers of 1912 and
1924, it is stills possible that trouble
may develop if the election is very close.
Such events as the naming of two sets
Of Republican electors in Georgia as
| result of party machinery conflicts may
Hr-laN al
ever, the election should be as close as
that of 1876, and if one or more States
should be so keenly contested that the
electoral vote would be divided, as has
often happened, there would very likely
be contests of bitter and even danger
Gus character. Hence any consideration
of the history of our presidential cleo
tons and any forecasts of the present
campaign must begin with an under
standing of the election machinery by
which We choose President.
This machinery, as set up in section
l, OF Article II, Ct the Constitution. early
proved itself full of flaws, and was cor
rected to a large extent by the twelfth
amendment to the Constitution, adopted
i'll 1904. as result of the experiences
! OF the tied election of 1900 The
amendment is our present basis of cleo
ion, and while it has never wholly
broken down, it showed such faults in
1876 that new civil war was threat
ened. How the system was first adopted
Viii be told later. How it works is simple
| enough in theory. The twelfth amend
ment sets forth that each State shall
be entitled to as many presidential
electors as the whole number of Sena-
tors and Representatives from that
State. These electors are to be chosen
by the States lin such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct" These
electors shall meet in their respective
states, ballot separately for q President
and for a Vice President, forward the
result to the President of the Senate,
who shall in the presence of both
houses of Congress open and count the
| electoral votes.
The electors must not, says the Con-
stitution, be members of Congress- nor
persons who hold any Office of profit
or trust under the United States.
Provision Violated.
1t may be worth noting right here
that this last provision has been violated
at least once, and probably more often
1t is also interesting to recall that the
provision allowing the Legislature of each
State to provide the method of choos-
ing electors resulted in one very clever
device for splitting the electoral vote
of Michigan, 1892, and was then
| challenged in the Supreme Court of the
United States, which held that the act
Of the Legislature must stand.
The Constitution continues by set
ting forth that candidates for President
and Vice President who get a ma
jOrity of the electoral votes are duly