Election of the President

Art. II, section 1:

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

Amendment XII

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.

 Here is an excerpt from my article:

The electoral system for selecting the President was the work of a "grand committee"of the convention, composed of one member from each state. Basically, as one scholar observes, the electoral system was the product of mutual give and take "that incorporated the principles of the 'Great Compromise' struck earlier in the Convention." As set forth in Article II of the Constitution, there is no national election for President. Instead, the President is selected by a system of electors appointed in each state "as the Legislature thereof may direct." The number of electors (i.e., of electoral votes) in each state is "equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled."To protect the federal character of the process from national influence, the Constitution further provides that "no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector." Once the electors are chosen, they cast their ballots and the person having the greatest number of electoral votes is elected President, so long as he receives a majority of all electoral votes. If no person receives a majority of electoral votes, the President will be elected by a majority vote in the House of Representatives with each state delegation in the House having one vote.

Interestingly, the delegates to the convention believed that it would be rare for the President to be chosen by electoral votes, because "nineteen times in twenty" no candidate would receive a majority of electoral votes.This, of course, would result in the President being chosen in the House of Representatives on the basis of state equality of suffrage. Thus, the vote of the electors would amount to a nominating process and the final selection of the President would be in the House "where the smaller states would have equality with the larger ones." Although the rise of the two-party system practically guarantees today an electoral vote majority for one of the two major party candidates, the Constitution was designed to go a long way toward equality for the lesser states in the selection of the President