Electoral college

A name given to the presidential electors, when met to vote for president and vice-president of the United States, by analogy to the college of cardinals, which elects the pope, or the body which formerly selected the German emperor. It is, according to the more general usage, applied to the electors chosen by a single state, but is also used to designate those chosen throughout the United States. This term has no strict legal or technical meaning, and being unknown to the constitution and laws of the United States, its use is purely colloquial. Accordingly the term is not clearly defined, is employed by approved writers in both the senses stated, though more frequently when reference is made to the entire body of electors the plural is employed, as, "the expectations of the public... (have) been so completely frustrated as in the practical operation of the system, so far as relates to the independence of the electors in the electoral colleges;" 2 Sto. Const. § 1463; "... would be chosen as electors, and would, after mature deliberation in their respective colleges," etc.; 1 Hare, Am. Const. L. 219; "the electoral colleges have sunk so low"; id. 221. So in speaking of the electors the phrase "state colleges" is used by Stevens, Sources of the Constitution of the U. S. 153, note. Following this view is the following definition: A name informally given to the electors of a single state when met to vote for president and vice-president of the United States, and sometimes to the whole body of electors. Cent. Dict. On the other hand, the other use is well sustained by authority, and we find this definition: The body of electors chosen by the people to elect their president. Encyc. Dict. This is supported by Webster and Worcester as well as some authorities on constitutional law. "The presidential electors chosen as therein directed, constitute what is commonly called the 'electoral college';" Black, Const. L. 86; and again, "by an electoral college appointed or elected in the several states"; id. "In case the electoral college fails to choose a vice-president, the power devolves on the senate to make the selection from the two candidates having the highest number of votes." 1 Calhoun's Works, 175. See Presidential Electors.

The body of princes formerly entitled to elect the emperor of Germany. Also a name sometimes given, in the United States, to the body of electors chosen by the people to elect the president and vicepresident. Webster.

Defined under Electoral in Black's Law Dictionary.