Who is constitutionally forbidden to be an elector

The Court has chosen to also strictly scrutinize restrictions on voting other than those specifically prohibited by the Constitution because, in its words, the right to vote "is preservative of other basic civil and political rights. The Court, for example, has upheld reasonable e. Reynolds v Sims considered a challenge to the malapportionment of the Alabama legislature. The Court invalidated Alabama's apportionment scheme, which gave voters in rural areas disproportionately more power more representatives per capita than urban voters.

Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Warren declared, "Legislators represent people, not trees or acres," and that the "Equal Protection Clause requires that seats in both houses of a bicameral legislature must be apportioned on a population basis. The 24th Amendment, adopted in , already made it unconstitutional to enforce a poll tax in federal elections.

Writing for the Court, Justice Douglas said the right to vote was "a fundamental political right because it is preservative of all rights. The Court found for a bachelor living with his parents, who challenged a N. The Court found the law was not sufficiently narrowly tailored to serve its interest of limiting voting to interested persons.

Easily the most controversial decision involving the Equal Protection Clause was Bush v Gore , the Supreme Court decision that ended the Florida recount and effectively decided the presidential election of in favor of George W. Although the vote to stop the recount was 5 to 4, seven justices found an equal protection problems with Florida's using different criteria to measure voter's intent in different counties what to do about hanging chads and dimpled chads, for example--remember? Two of the justices Breyer and Souter , however, would have sent the matter back to Florida with instructions to develop a statewide standard for determining the intent of voters--but five justices believed it was too late for that.

Many critics of Bush v Gore suggest that varying standards for measuring the intent of voters can be found in virtually every state in the country, and the decision presents many opportunities for future challenges to results in close elections.

Since the 12th Amendment, one other presidential election has come to the House. In , Andrew Jackson of Tennessee won a plurality of the national popular vote and 99 votes in the Electoral College—32 short of a majority.

Speaker of the House Henry Clay had 37 and expected to use his influence in the House to win election. But the 12th Amendment required the House to consider only the top-three vote-getters when no one commands an overall majority.

The House chose Adams over Jackson. Was there ever witnessed such a bare faced corruption in any country before? The contested presidential election between Republican Rutherford B.

Hayes of Ohio and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York was the last to require congressional intervention. Tilden won the popular vote and the electoral count. But Republicans challenged the results in three Southern states, which submitted certificates of election for both candidates.

While the Constitution requires the House and Senate to formally count the certificates of election in joint session, it is silent on what Congress should do to resolve disputes.

The bipartisan commission, which included Representatives, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, voted along party lines to award all the contested ballots to Hayes—securing the presidency for him by a single electoral vote.

Ackerman, Bruce. The second part of the process happens during the general election. When the voters in each State cast votes for the Presidential candidate of their choice they are voting to select their State's electors.

The potential electors' names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the Presidential candidates, depending on election procedures and ballot formats in each State. The winning Presidential candidate's slate of potential electors are appointed as the State's electors—except in Nebraska and Maine, which have proportional distribution of the electors.

In Nebraska and Maine, the State winner receives two electors and the winner of each congressional district who may be the same as the overall winner or a different candidate receives one elector.

This system permits Nebraska and Maine to award electors to more than one candidate. Electors do not vote twice for President. They are the only ones who actually vote for President, which they do at the meeting of the electors the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December.

There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their States. Some States, however, require electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote. The electors shall make and sign six certificates of all the votes given by them, each of which certificates shall contain two distinct lists, one of the votes for President and the other of the votes for Vice President, and shall annex to each of the certificates one of the lists of the electors which shall have been furnished to them by direction of the executive of the State.

The electors shall seal up the certificates so made by them, and certify upon each that the lists of all the votes of such State given for President, and of all the votes given for Vice President, are contained therein.

The electors shall dispose of the certificates so made by them and the lists attached thereto in the following manner: First. They shall forthwith forward by registered mail one of the same to the President of the Senate at the seat of government. Two of the same shall be delivered to the secretary of state of the State, one of which shall be held subject to the order of the President of the Senate, the other to be preserved by him for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection.

On the day thereafter they shall forward by registered mail two of such certificates and lists to the Archivist of the United States at the seat of government, one of which shall be held subject to the order of the President of the Senate.

The other shall be preserved by the Archivist of the United States for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection.

They shall forthwith cause the other of the certificates and lists to be delivered to the judge of the district in which the electors shall have assembled. Failure of certificates of electors to reach president of the senate or archivist of the United States; demand on state for certificate. When no certificate of vote and list mentioned in sections 9 and 11 and of this title from any State shall have been received by the President of the Senate or by the Archivist of the United States by the fourth Wednesday in December, after the meeting of the electors shall have been held, the President of the Senate or, if he be absent from the seat of government, the Archivist of the United States shall request, by the most expeditious method available, the secretary of state of the State to send up the certificate and list lodged with him by the electors of such State; and it shall be his duty upon receipt of such request immediately to transmit same by registered mail to the President of the Senate at the seat of government.

When no certificates of votes from any State shall have been received at the seat of government on the fourth Wednesday in December, after the meeting of the electors shall have been held, the President of the Senate or, if he be absent from the seat of government, the Archivist of the United States shall send a special messenger to the district judge in whose custody one certificate of votes from that State has been lodged, and such judge shall forthwith transmit that list by the hand of such messenger to the seat of government.

Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o'clock in the afternoon on that day, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer.

Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received.

When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors whose appointment has been so certified.

But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted.

When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the questions submitted.