| Show F PRESIDENTIAL t I ELECTIONS 1 Electoral Colleges I. I Tb I liONS MAY NAY ARISE AT A J ELECTION tower House of Congress 4 or Senate May M MaRe MaKe Ke Selection PHILANDER C C. C KNOX 4 MIGHT BE CHOSEN HasKin Relates Some Past History of In Interest erest to Voters 1 BY J. J HASKIN r Who will be th the tho next ext president nt of the United States W Woodrow Wilson 1 Or T Theodore c ore Or will President d dent nt Taft be elected ie-elected and nd thus put off booing the Un n next president until u 1916 r Or Or w will the next president be bo James Jamess it s S. S Sherman Thomas R. R Marshall or orIf c If tram J b son f Or br Orwill will he be be bo Philander Chase Knox f Jf neither Taft Wilson nor Roosevelt p. p cun ui command a majority of all of thet the t cje 4 t ral otc then the house hO of repe representatives rep rep- rcpt t rC e natiVeS will choose one of them voting by Hut But sin since o the ho house s i ft Deadlocked division b bt by k c edl on a put palLy t t teJ then tileD the tho succession will go o to 1 tb tbt vi vice 1 president r si to be DC cho chosen n by br the t senate e lI t it ft manifest that thai if no not t presidential Jr 5 dpn ial ca candidate receives R a majority ma ma- in the electoral 6 tint that t the v vice ee presidential presidential- presidential race race- will also aJo be un un- un decided f pic Tic senate enato is restricted b by th the con con- t to the choke choice of ol one of the t vo Io b highest so so Uia tha that the tho c choice i c. c may u 11 be C ll M and nd d oT 01 and Johnson with th tb b be Very cry i emote contingency ney of if a ah h choice between Sherman and J Johnson 1 Continued d OJ on mining page COMPLICATIONS MAY ARISE AT ELECTION Continued from page 1 But if neither of the two receives a majority of tIm tho whole morn mem- of the tho senate then the secre secretary tary of state ate will become president on March 4 no successor to President Taft having been chosen Thus Mr Knox would become noting acting president and lie lio would under the tho law bo be forced to call an ox Ira session of congress which would in Ill turn order another election for or president 1 I Contest When are aro hut two wo principal parties contending for the control of the tho political affairs of the thc nation little IRtle thought ht is given to our complicated ma ia machinery chinery for choosing a president but in inthis this year the tho triangular battle in which Republicans are arc defending themselves both against their ancient enemies the tho Democrats and newly created Progressive Pro party has made all these things of practical moment as well as of curious curi cuni- ous interest And Ard how remarkable it now seems to loam learn front from tho record o ol the past that tim tho entire system o of electing a president dent was cast in iii its present lines Jines be because bc- bc cause the the fathers of the tue constitution were afraid of the tho pernicious influence gf f the tho aristocratic society of the tho Cin Cm- Cincinnati As a matter of serious fact never before in the history of the republic have there thero been so many p possible complications corn com in ill the tho outcome of a a. election Whilo of course there is no danger that next months month's election will wUl bring the nation as perilously hear noar to a civil war as did the tho disputed dis dis- Hayes contest of 1876 it IH III nevertheless true that the tho actual selection of the thc chief magistrate may bo ho attended by more complications now than then Then It was merely a question of double from several states Jf there should be no election in in tho electoral colleges this time tinie it will mean a deadlock Choosing Electors At the election on November i the people in tho tue eov several states wilt choose presidential electors in each rach state a number equal to tho whole number of that states state's representation in both houses bouses of congress There electors form in each state a college of electors who meet in their own state and cast their ballots for foi president and vice president Tho results of these ballots are aro sent to Washington where they are opened bj- bj tho of the tue senate in the thc presence of both houses houses' of con gress If no candidate ha j ha-j received a majority of all th the votes cast in nil all of the electoral colleges then there is no election The whole machinery as at present established is regulated under under- the twelfth amendment to the constitution winch which was declared in rn force on Septem Septem- 28 isai Jt ut provides that if there is no election by the electors doctors that the house of representatives shall n a president and tho thio senate a vice president House Votes by States When so acting as a substitute dee tokil body the house votes by states ouch each state having one vote and aid that vote goes for the tho choice of tho majority of that states state's delegation in in the house For lor a majority ity of thin the Massachusetts Massa Massa- derogation are aro Republicans 10 so Massachusetts would vote vote- for Taft A majority oC of the Virginia delegation arc Democrats so Virginia would oto furl for Vil Wilson son It so happens that this duty will devolve de de' volvo volve upon the tho present house of rep rei in which thero arc twenty twenty- two tare state delegations two ty-two Democratic delegations and four delegations equally divided between Republicans and Democrats Democrat s. s These Theo four states would have no vote ote unless some representative leave his party part and break the tie tic Th The constitution requires moreover that a majority of all the states be given to the tho candidate chosen to be president This means that there Hould bo no choice except bv by tho 1110 tive action of the tho delegations of pf taren- taren ty five states Either the tho Democrats would have to win over three divided or states or the tho Republicans cans cain nain three states states' or ir there would bo be a deadlock And this does docs not take into account the tho further complication that would arise front from the the- support of the Progressive party candidate by some representatives B Be it said paid that never before has the house been so completely tied up tip anti and deadlocked substitute electoral body 1 Only Two Voted On While the house in choosing a president dent is confined to the tho three highest men in the tho poll of the tho electoral col col- col logos leges anti and votes by states the senate in choosing a vice president is to the two loading candidates in the tho doctoral doc toral poll and votes per capita But the constitution requires requires' a quorum of two thirds to to bo be present and requires for a choice a majority of the tho entire membership of the tho senate and not merely of those voting As the division of the tho senate between Republicans Democrats and insurgents wee such that all last session s that body could not find even a majority of those thos e voting vot jug ing for any candidate for president pro tempore temporo it is easy to see sec that a deadlock in the senate onate is also within the range of possibility If the tho sonata senate could not choos be between tween the two highest mem for br vice president then thon on March 4 when President Tafts Taft's term expires bo he would bo be succeeded under the law of 1887 by the secretary of state since cabinet officers officers' officers officers' of of- terms lo not expire bv br limitation limita- limita tion but aro continued until their successors sue suc are aro named But a cabinet officer of of- Lie or thus succeeding would bo ho only acting president and ho would be required required re re- under the law to call dali an extraordinary ex cx- session of congress to make arrangements for another election for president s Doubted th tho People It is the of this series of ar ar- ar tides to tell tho story of the Ameri American can electoral system from tho begin beginning beginning ning showing how it was how it has been changer and tolling those striking incidents in the thc history of presidential elections which reveal its weaknesses as well as its merits Everybody knows that the fathers thought the tho people were not fit to choose their chief magistrate and they never intended that the tho people should have bave the right any moro more than the people peo peo- plo now nos intend to give it up Thoy never thought that electors would become become be be- come mere puppets to register in instructed in votes or mario marionettes ottes in a p and Judy jud show as John 7 1 Tn- Tn galls once called them any snore more than they intended to turn the country over overto overto to England the next day Harrison himself once elected and once defeated in inthe the doe elec electoral toral colleges declared tha that ho did not know of a single instance in which an elector bad assumed to register his own will or views other oilIer than those ho was delegated to register lie He expressed the opinion flint an elector who would bo be guilty of such had bad faith in ID times of great excitement might be he in in danger of lynch law Mr Justice in a carefully pro pro- pared paper on the Hayes Hayos coil coil- test best declared that in ina a search covering cover cover- lag ing a period of nineteen presidential elections six seventy years in all be had bad failed to find a a single instance of an electors elector's exercising a discretionary rather than a ministerial power in casting bis vote During that time time- nearly electors had voted Election of 1824 The statement of Justice Story may mayor or may ot bo be true but ninny many anthon ties believe there have been a few ex es- es For instance the tho Now who voted for John Quincy Adams in 1820 is cited as one elector who voted his bis own will being impelled to his bis action bv by an unwilling unwilling- hess to have James Monroe stand with Washington us as the tho only man who had bail been unanimously chosen president 4 1 In the election of 1321 1821 the tho Jackson 1 I Crawford Clay free for forthe all were wore a the New York electors to Throe Three of thorn who were expected to vote for Clay switched over to tu other candidates ono one to J Jackson 0 to Crawford one to Adams Had the their their-i in instructions voW voted for Clay according to Clay and Crawford won wold have havo tied for third place pace and a most most- interesting constitutional quest question JJ would have havo arisen when the election reached the house as to whether both Clay and Crawford should hould be bo Del Delin in in the throe three highest names to b chosen from or whet for the choice would have bavo been limited to Jackson Since Mr Clay and Adams danus f- f speaker of the tb house bouse the tho q for have como come up lIP to him birn tion might it Clay was decision But as was fourth man his mis name narno did not a 2 go inlo the house and Adams was elected There Thero ivero several other similar in instances elections but bul wi in stances in in the earlier recent years in fact for a in C no suggestion that nn elector might uCO his cot cothas in his bis own has been beep heard until very Year car Monday PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS H. H Origin 11 Origin of Our Electoral System |
