Electoral College (Confederate States)

This article is about the former Confederate States Electoral College. For the US Electoral College, see Electoral College (United States).
Electoral College map showing the results of the 1861 C.S. presidential election.
Election Ballot, Virginia, 6 November 1861.

The Electoral College of the Confederate States was the institution that elected the President (Jefferson Davis), and Vice President (Alexander H. Stephens), of the Confederate States for a six-year term.

The President and Vice President were not elected directly by the voters. Instead, they were elected by electors who were chosen by popular vote on a state-by-state basis. This system was established by the Confederate States Constitution, in emulation of the United States Constitution. Like the U.S. Constitution, the Confederate Constitution provided that each state would have a number of electors "equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress" (Article II, Section 1).

Only one election was ever held, in 1861. In that election, the Electoral College consisted of 109 electors.[1] The electors (chosen in the November elections) met in their respective states to cast their votes on December 4, 1861 (Confederate law mandated that electors meet on the first Wednesday in December).[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Library of Congress
  2. ↑ The Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, from the Institution of the Government, February 8, 1861, to its Termination, February 18, 1862, Inclusive
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