electoral, electorial college cartogram

"The number of electoral votes allotted to each State corresponds to the number of Representatives and Senators that each State sends to Congress. The distribution of electoral votes among the States can vary every 10 years depending on the results of the United States Census.

The term "electoral college" does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to "electors," but not to the "electoral college." In the Federalist Papers (No. 68), Alexander Hamilton refers to the process of selecting the Executive, and refers to "the people of each State (who) shall choose a number of persons as electors," but he does not use the term "electoral college."

The founders appropriated the concept of electors from the Holy Roman Empire (962 - 1806). An elector was one of a number of princes of the various German states within the Holy Roman Empire who had a right to participate in the election of the German king (who generally was crowned as emperor). The term "college" (from the Latin collegium), refers to a body of persons that act as a unit, as in the college of cardinals who advise the Pope and vote in papal elections. In the early 1800s, the term "electoral college" came into general usage as the unofficial designation for the group of citizens selected to cast votes for President and Vice President. It was first written into Federal law in 1845, and today the term appears in 3 U.S.C. section 4, in the section heading and in the text as 'college of electors.'" *

Cartogram: 1) A small diagram, on the face of a map, showing quantitative information. 2) An abstracted and simplified map the base of which is not true to scale.* *


electoral, electorial college cartogram

* source - NARA Federal Register U. S. Electoral College

**Definition from: "Glossary of the Mapping Sciences" American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY 1994, pg. 77

related

• electoral electorial electors college Article II Section I - the presidential electors are chosen by the political parties. The major parties usually choose them at state conventions. Party leaders may also decide who will perform this job. Once they are chosen, political parties submit the names of the electors to each state's election office. Each party nominates a slate of presidential electors for that state.