ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the current system for electing presidents. The term 'Electoral College' is often used as a kind of shorthand for the bundle of distinct laws and procedures that define how the American president is elected, at the general-election stage. The Electoral College vote is inconclusive if no candidate wins a majority, at present, 270 votes or more. The minimum number of states needed to reach 270 electoral votes, under the current apportionment, is eleven, or thirteen. If states are truly not bound, the deal has a risky implication never mentioned by its backers. Even if national plurality can be implemented through the Electoral College via contingent legislation, some of the most criticized features of the status quo would not be eliminated. Nonetheless, it is plain that, thus far, the move to end-run the Federalist face of the Electoral College by contingent legislation has been a purely Democratic stampede.
