Within the arcane structures of American democracy, the election of the president is not direct by all the people, but passes indirectly through the electors who are in turn expected to vote for the candidate that won their state.
"For the Legislature to bypass the established judicial process and appoint a slate of electors through a partisan political process is unjustified, unwarranted and unwise," Mr. Lieberman said.
The president of the State Senate, John McKay, said this afternoon that the lead lawyer retained by his group, Roger Magnuson, had recommended that the Legislature appoint electors through a resolution, instead of a bill.
As the majority explicitly holds, once a state legislature determines to select electors through a popular vote, the right to have one's vote counted is of constitutional stature.
Most of the contemporary objections are structural: because the college is apportioned on a state-by-state basis, with most states then choosing their electors through a winner-take-all popular election, the system could lead to what is known as a "minority president" -- as it did four years ago, when George W. Bush lost the popular vote but still won the presidency.
Members ("electors") of this electoral college are chosen through the popular vote in each state, and to be elected president a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes.
Should these seven electors go through with their pledge to vote against their state's winning candidate when the electoral college convenes on 19 December, it would mark an outpouring of political disgust at the future president that is virtually unparalleled in electoral college history.
When Alexander Hamilton explained why it was decided the president would be elected through specially chosen state "electors" who held no office, he pointed to "the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils" by interfering in the presidential race.
Here Giles is countering the Colonna arguments that papal dignity cannot cease to reside in a pope until he dies, because the pontificate depends on God's will, and stresses the fact that divine intention in this case becomes effective through the mediation of human agents, that is, through the consent of the electors and of the elected.
Ordinarily, presidential electors are chosen through the popular vote and are expected to cast their ballots for the winning candidate.
