Evening star., 1932-10-23
ELECTORAL BALLOT
INTEREST RAISED
Shifts in 80 States and Agi-
tation for Direct Voting
New Phases.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Shifts in the electoral power Of 80
Ststes and the prospect of agitation for
direct election of President have raised
the Electoral College to new eninence
in political augmentation.
Senator Norris of Nebraska has just
arraigned the system as "antiQuated
and useless" and predicted that Con-
gress before long will see an attempt to
abolish the method by which every
President has been formally chosen
since George Washington, back in 1888.
A constitutional amendment would be
necessary, since the present method was
written into that document by the con-
yenion which framed it. Under its pro-
vision, on November presidential
electors will be selected by direct vote
i'll each State-each State electing a
number equal to its seats in Congress
for a national aggregate of 53l.
In each State the electors will vote
the second Monday in January, certify
their ballots and send them to Wash
ington, with each State vote going as
unit for the candidate favored by a
majority of the State electors.
Counting of Ballots.
Here. on the second Wednesday in
February, the ballots will be counted
by the president of the Senate in the
presence Of both the House and Sen
ate Only then will the official result
of the election be made known.
A majority of the electoral college
votes, or 26G, is necessary to elect a
president.
Through reapportionment of the
House of Representatives. the electoral
power of 80 States has been changed
by the transfer of 27 votes, as compared
With 1923.
AS the Constitution fixed the num-
Der of Senators at two for each State,
changes in electoral college voting
strength are based upon House reap
portionment, predicted upon population.
Reapportionment is required each 10
years, under the Constitution.
On the basis of the 1880 census. 81
seats in the House were transferred
from 81 to IL States. There is no
unanimity as to whether or how the
changes will benefit one party or
another
States gaining electoral college votes,
and the number. follow:
California, 9: Michigan, 4: Texas, 3:
New York. New Jersey and Ohio. 2
each: Connecticut, Florida North Caro-
States losing electoral votes:
Missouri. 3: Georgia, Iowa. Kentucky
and Pennsylvania. each; Alabama, In
diana. Kansas. Maine, Massachusetts.
Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, North
Dakota, Rhode Island South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee. Vermont, Vr-
ginia and Wisconsin, l each.
Lack of Majority.
In event any candidate lacks ma
jority when the electoral votes are for
mally counted in the Senate, the Pres
ident would be elected by the House of
Representatives and the Vice President
by the Senate.
Only twice has this happened. In
those instances, in 1900, the House
elected Thomas jefferson, and in 1924,
John Quincy Adams.
While an elector is not legally re-
quired to support his party's candidates
when he formally gets his ballot. not
once in the history of parties as now
known has any elector failed to do so.
In his Philadelphia speech, Senator
Norris noted that gradually "the dis
cretion which it was intended presiden-
tial electors should have has been taken
away" He listed public sentiment and
organization of parties as causes, and
contended the system enables political
machines to practically deprive the peo-
pie of the country of right to the
selection Of a Chief Magistrate"
Whereas originally electors OF each
State sent one set of certified ballots to
the President Of the Senate by special
and another by mail, a third
to the Secretary of State and fourth
to the Federal Judge in the district in
which the ballots were cast, under
change in the law In 1928, all are now
transmitted by registered mail.