Each state received electors equal to its total number of representatives and senators. The formula combined population-based House representation with the equal-state component of the Senate. State legislatures determined how electors would be appointed. The Constitution did not originally require states to hold a popular vote, and it still does not require winner-take-all allocation. Those practices developed through state law. Because House apportionment included the Three-Fifths count, the electoral formula also magnified the presidential influence of slaveholding states.

Under the original system, each elector cast two votes for president without marking one for president and one for vice president. The person with the greatest number of electoral votes became president only if that total was also a majority of all appointed electors. If two or more candidates tied for the greatest total and each had a majority, the House chose among them; if nobody had a majority, the House chose from the five highest totals. In either House contingency, each state delegation cast one vote. After the presidency was resolved, the person with the greatest remaining electoral-vote total became vice president, with the Senate deciding a tie for that office. Organized national parties exposed weaknesses in this arrangement, including the electoral tie of 1800. The Twelfth Amendment later required distinct votes for president and vice president while preserving the state-based electoral structure.

No single motive fully explains the Electoral College. It reflected concerns about executive independence, the role of states, information available to voters, and the difficulty of winning geographically broad support. It also interacted with compromises over representation and slavery. On an exam, describe the mechanism before evaluating it: state legislatures control the method of appointing electors, electoral totals combine House and Senate representation, and a contingent House election votes by state. A divergence between the national popular vote and electoral result does not by itself show that the constitutional procedure malfunctioned.

Video lesson: Constitutional Compromises: Crash Course Government and Politics #5