Government in the United States, National, State and Local

by James Wilford Garner

Objections to Election by the House.—The objections to this method of choice are obvious. It is undemocratic, because the house on which the choice would devolve in any case would be, not the new house chosen at the recent election, but the old house, which might indeed, as has often happened, be in the hands of the political party defeated at the late election. In the second place, under such a scheme, New York with a population over 100 times as great as that of Nevada would have no larger share in choosing the executive. In 1873, for example, had the choice devolved upon the house, it would have been possible for 45 members (being a majority of the representatives of nineteen states) to determine the choice in spite of the wishes of the other 247 members. Finally, the state delegations in the house might be equally divided politically, and hence fail to elect.[66]

Instances of Choice by the House.—Twice has the electoral college failed to make a choice, thus giving the election to the house of representatives.

In 1801, there was a tie between Jefferson and Burr, each having the vote of a majority of the electors. There were then sixteen states, of which eight voted for Jefferson, six for Burr, and two were evenly divided. On the thirty-sixth ballot the two divided states voted for Jefferson and he was elected, as the electors had originally intended.

The second instance occurred in 1825, when the electoral vote stood as follows: for Jackson 99; for Adams 84; for Crawford 41; and for Clay 37, no one having a majority. Under the Twelfth Amendment Clay was dropped from the list and the choice was confined to the three highest candidates. There were then twenty-four states, and of these the representatives of thirteen voted for Adams, seven for Jackson, and four for Crawford.

Election of the Vice President by the Senate.—The Constitution also provides that if no candidate for Vice President receives a majority of the electoral vote the choice shall devolve upon the senate, in which case the election shall be made from the two highest on the list. Two thirds of the senate constitute a quorum for this purpose, and a majority of the whole number is necessary to a choice. Only once has the choice devolved upon the senate, namely, in 1836, when Richard M. Johnson, candidate for Vice President on the ticket with Mr. Van Buren, failed to receive a majority of the electoral vote. He was promptly elected by the senate.

Methods of Nomination.—Neither the Constitution nor the laws of the United States make any provision in regard to the nomination of the candidates for President and Vice President. That is left entirely to the regulation of the political parties themselves. In the early history of the republic, before political parties had risen, no nominating machinery was devised, for none was needed.

Early Methods.—With the rise of political parties, however, the method of nomination by congressional caucus was introduced; that is, the members of Congress belonging to each political party assumed the power of selecting its candidate in secret conclave. In this way Jefferson was nominated by the Republican members of Congress in 1800 and 1804, Madison in 1808 and 1812, and Monroe in 1816 and 1820. In the same way the Federalist members put forward their candidates. In some cases, however, presidential candidates were nominated by state legislatures. In the course of time, strong opposition grew up against the method of nomination by members of Congress, and after 1824 the caucus system was never again resorted to. The new nominating machinery which took its place was the national convention, which came into use between 1831 and 1840.

The National Convention.—A national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice President is composed of delegates from each state and territory in the Union, the number to which each is entitled being usually twice its number of senators and representatives in Congress.[67] Altogether the national convention consists of about 1,000 delegates. For each delegate there is an alternate who attends the convention and in case of the absence of the delegate, takes his place.

Formerly the four delegates-at-large of each party were chosen by the state convention, and the other delegates by congressional district conventions. When direct primary laws were introduced, some states provided that the latter delegates should be selected by the voters of each party at the primary, leaving the delegates-at-large to be chosen as formerly by the state convention. In 1912 a number of states passed what are known as "presidential preference primary" laws under which delegates to the national conventions of that year were chosen. Some of these laws permit the voters to choose their delegates to the national convention but without allowing them to indicate their preference for any presidential candidate; others allow a direct expression of the popular preference for presidential candidates but make no provision for binding the delegates to nominate the candidate preferred by the majority of the voters; some, however, provide both for an expression of the popular preference and for binding the delegates to the national convention. More than one third of the states now have laws of one or another of these three types.

The Time and Place for holding the national convention are fixed by the national committee. The date usually falls in the latter part of June or early in July of the year the President is to be elected, and the place is usually some large city centrally located.