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of flattery or that, winning a vote by an appeal to vanity or to prejudice. And the "gumshoe" campaign is becoming more and more popular.

Finally election day rolls around, and fourteen million voters march steadfastly to the polls to indicate their choice of a president. One million more are brought up by the party workers as they "get out the vote." Thus the judgment of the nation is registered, i. e., if the votes are correctly counted. "To-day the people cast their votes; to-night I count them,” is a jest that has by no means lost its meaning in the United States. The organizations still "count 'em out" in many a district.

Be it remembered, however, the vote has not been a vote for the president, but a vote for electors. Each state is entitled to as many presidential electors as it has representatives and senators in Congress. In legal theory they constitute the wise, the virtuous and the judicious of each state, and in legal theory they may cast independent votes. In practice, however, they are mere automatons registering the will of the people, balloting as they are pledged, and transmitting a record of their votes to the President of the Senate as directed by the Constitution.

Though the electoral college has been reduced to innocuousness in its actual working, nevertheless at any time it may cause a defeat of the will of the majority. All the electoral votes of a state go to the successful party no matter how slight its lead. It may easily

occur that a party may carry the country by a majority but lose the electoral college through the loss of certain critical states by slight margins. For example, it may well be that the Republican party at some election will carry Pennsylvania by 500,000 votes, yet lose New York by 1,000 and in so doing lose the election because of the large number of New York electors. Whether such a dangerous vestigial organ as this should be allowed to remain is well worth consideration.

This, however, is but one of many questions which arise in connection with the election of the president. Some of the most outstanding this brief review suggests are: How can I influence my party to nominate the candidate in whom I believe? What machinery for the selection of delegates to the national convention is the fairest? Is the convention itself conducive to the selection of the best candidate? How can it be improved? What can I do to elect the candidate I prefer? How can I see to it that the popular judgment is not frustrated by a miscount? Should the electoral college be abolished?

Suggested Reading

Ostrogorski, M. Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, vol. II. (1908)

THE LEGAL FRAME OF GOVERNMENT

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