Article II Section 1 of the Constitution of the United
States of America states the following:
“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.
The Electors shall meet in their
respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least
shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall
make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each;
which List 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 shall be the President,
if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if
there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of
Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chose by Ballot one
of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five
highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chose 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. In every Case, after the Choice
of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the
Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more
who have equal Votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice
President.”
So each state’s legislature
decides how to go about appointing “Electors”. The number of “Electors” is equal to that
states total number of Representatives (Congressmen) plus their two Senators.
For an example, KY has 6 representatives and 2 senators so we would have 8 “Electors”.
Only 8 people from KY would vote on the President and vice President. At no point in the Constitution or Amendments does
it allow for the selection of the President by a popular vote of all US
Citizens. In each state you get to vote for your state legislature and then
they decide how to pick Electors who will then have the responsibility to vote
for the president. Your state could decide to allow its citizens to vote for
Electors or it could do it by lottery if it wanted but they would be the only
ones voting for the president. The “popular vote” of the people has no meaning
and no Constitutional founding. If your state wanted to hold a vote so that your
Electors could get an idea of how its citizens felt then they could but the
Electors have no obligation to listen to it.