electoral college - Beginnings of electoral colleges

A body made up of people who are responsible for electing a person to some office. These people can hold a particular office themselves (as in the case of the College of Cardinals who elect the pope) or be elected from a wider electorate. The most famous electoral college is the one that elects the president of the USA. It is made up of electors from each state pledged to cast their vote for the particular candidate for whom the wider electorate in their state has voted (though they are not legally bound to do so when the time for electing arrives).

This article is about Electoral Colleges in general. For the U.S system of electing the President, see United States Electoral College.

An electoral college is a set of electors who are empowered as a deliberative body to elect a candidate to a particular office.

Beginnings of electoral colleges

Electoral colleges are an ancient institution.

Christianity also used electoral colleges in ancient times, until late antiquity. However, due to various reasons, such as reducing the influence of the state in church matters or removing the laity's voice in the matter, the electing power moved to the clergy alone and then, in the case of the Western Church, to only a college of the canons of the cathedral church. In the Pope's case, the system of people and clergy was eventually replaced by a college of the important clergy of Rome, which eventually evolved into the College of Cardinals. For example, the President of Finland was elected by an electoral college between 1919 and 1987. In Germany and India, the members of the lower house of Parliament together with an equal number of members from the state parliaments elect the President of the Republic, whilst in Italy the presidential electoral college is composed of the members of both houses of Parliament and three members elected by each of the regional assemblies.

Another type of Electoral College is used by the British Labour Party to choose its leader. During Brazil's military rule period, the president was elected by an electoral college constituting senators, deputies, state deputies, and lawmakers in the cities.

States with electoral college systems outside the United States include Burundi, Estonia, India, France (for the Senate), Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Ecclesiastical electoral colleges abound in modern times, especially among Protestant and Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. In the Eastern rite churches, all the bishops of an autocephalous church elect successor bishops, thus serving as an electoral college for all the episcopal sees. Popular vote

There is an anomaly to the electoral college system that can result in a candidate winning the presidency by winning the majority of the electoral vote even if he fails to win the popular vote. Hayes won 185 electoral votes to Samuel Tilden's 184, but Tilden won a majority of the popular vote with 4,300,590 cast in his favor versus 4,036,298 cast for Hayes.

In 1888, Benjamin Harrison won 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland's 168, with 5,439,853 popular votes for Harrison and 5,540,309 for Cleveland. Bush won 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266, with 50,456,062 popular votes for Bush and 50,996,582 votes for Gore.

After this most recent occurrence in 2000, there were many calls for the elimination of the electoral college system in favor of a direct popular vote for the presidency.