Citizenship: A Manual for Voters

by Emma Guy Cromwell

This envelope must be signed by the one voting. The blank envelope containing the ballot is opened and the ballot deposited in the ballot box.

The one voting must take an oath before a notary public that he or she is eligible.

Electors for President and Vice President.

When the voters go to the polls on election day to vote for President and Vice President every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November they really cast their ballots for the electors who were nominated at the state convention. The names of the state electors of each party are printed on the ballots under the party name. The ones receiving the most votes are elected, and are morally bound to vote for the candidate of the party that elected them.

The campaign continues until the election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The electors elected in November meet at their state capital in January and vote for President and Vice President. The result of this vote is dispatched at once to the President of the Senate at Washington, D. C. The electors of the different states meet at Washington on the morning of the second Monday in January after their election, and give their vote at or after twelve o'clock according to law.

On the second Wednesday in February succeeding the meeting of the electors, the Senate and House of Representatives meet in the Hall of Representatives at 1 o'clock p. m. with the President of the Senate presiding.

Two tellers are appointed in each House to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the —— electoral voters, which certificates and papers shall be opened, presented and acted upon in alphabetical order of the states; said tellers having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the voters as they shall appear from the said certificates, and the votes having been ascertained and counted, according to law; the result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall announce the result of the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States, and together with the list of voters be entered on the journals of the two Houses.

If no one receives a majority of all the electoral votes the Constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall choose a President and the Senate a Vice President. (Article XII, National Constitution.)

The President and Vice President are inaugurated on March 4th succeeding the election.

They take the oath of office on a platform on the east front of the Capitol. The President delivers an address outlining his policies, then returns to the White House.