CAST ELECTORAL VOTES
BY CONG. DISTRICT
House Bill 4149
Sponsor: Rep. Thomas M. George
Committee: Redistricting and Elections
Complete to 3-4-01
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 4149 AS INTRODUCED 2-7-01
Under the Michigan Election Law, in a presidential election year each political party must choose at its fall state convention a slate of candidates for electors of president and vice president of the United States equal in number to the number of senators and representatives in Congress that the state is entitled to elect. The candidates who are ultimately considered elected in November are those belonging to the political party whose candidates for president and vice president receive the greatest number of votes in the state at the November election. House Bill 4149 would require that at the party conventions one presidential elector be chosen from each congressional district and that two electors be chosen at large. The candidate who would be elected from a congressional district in November would be the one who belonged to the political party whose candidates for president and vice president received the greatest number of votes in that congressional district. The at-large candidates elected would be, as now, those who belonged to the political party whose presidential and vice presidential candidates received the greatest number of votes statewide.
[The presidential electors meet at 2 p.m. on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December in the State Senate chamber, unless the U.S. Congress fixes a different day. Electors have the opportunity to resign, and under the Michigan Election Law the failure by an elector to resign signifies consent to serve and cast votes for the candidates for president and vice president of the political party that nominated him or her. Further, the refusal or failure to vote for those candidates by an elector constitutes a resignation; the vote would not be recorded and the remaining electors would fill the vacancy. An elector must have been a U.S. citizen for at least ten years and a resident and registered voter in the geographical territory he or she is representing, whether the state at large or a congressional district, for at least one year prior to the election.]
MCL 168.42
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This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.