Can someone explain, in detail, how the electoral college works?
Question:
Answer:
Mark D has it right.
The only other point is that some states determine that the electoral college votes need to go to the person who gets the popular vote en total while others have it doled out in percentages.
In other words, assuming the candidates are running at 60% to 40% and there are 10 electoral votes available:
in some states, the candidate with the 60% will get all 10 votes.
in other states, the candidate with 60% of the vote will get 6 votes and the other will get 4 votes...
still in a few others, it is not based upon popular vote, and the electors get to give the votes where they would like to (with certain restrictions).
So, for most states, the popular vote DOES count, but mainly by state, not necessarily the complete number of all votes in the entire country. That is what happened to Bush & Gore and also happened to Harry Truman (the early edition papers actually announced his opponent the winner...).
Those people who say their votes don't count are using it as a scapegoat for their own laziness. There are plenty of non presidential elections on the same ballot that do NOT have electoral colleges - Senators, representatives governors any state initiative all the way down to their city government.
In essence, the electoral college came about because Adams and Hamilton didn't want poor people voting for the president. The South wanted a viable number of votes to retain their rights to slavery. Each electoral represents a percentage of the population. The electorals have to vote unanimously for the candidate that received the most votes.
So, while a smaller state with a smaller population will have lesser electorals, California, with its larger population will have 54 electorals.
Each state is given a number of votes for the electoral college to submit. The number is based on population. I do not know the number each state has, but I am sure you could find that on-line. Anyway, whichever candidate takes the state is awarded all of the votes from the electoral college for that state. For instance, say Michigan has 8 electoral votes. Kerry takes Michigan and gets 8 votes from the electoral college. I realize this is confusing, but it was instituted for a legitimate reason. Why would any candidate bother campaigning in a state with a low population when they could pick up the majority of their votes in California, Florida or New York. All of which have large populations. The electoral college in essence puts those states with small populations 'in play.' The other side is that the electoral college was created by our founding fathers who worried average citizens were not capable of making decisions. Therefore, this was their loophole. Anyway, I would suggest voting. It is your civic duty and you have no right to complain if you don't vote.
The President is not elected directly by the voters of the country. The President is elected by a body called the Electoral College. A candidate needs to have a majority of the votes in the College in order to be the winner.
The College is made up of electors who are selected within the states. It is up to each state legislature to choose how the electors are chosen for that state. But the most common method goes like this.
In each state, the presidential candidates and their running mates and their parties are listed on the ballot for the voters to choose. Whichever candidate/party gets the most popular votes in the state, then all of the electors for that state will be members of that party. For example: Bush, a Republican, gets more votes in Virginia than Kerry, a Democrat. So, per the law of Virginia, the electors for Virginia will all be Republicans. Inevitably, this will mean that all of the electoral votes from Virginia will be for Bush. Some states require by law that the electors must cast their votes for their party's actual nominee. Other states don't require it and in those states it is possible -- and it happens, rarely --for a "faithless elector" to actually cast his/her vote for someone else besides their party nominee.
Each state has as many electors as it has seats in Congress. Virginia has 11 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate so it has 13 electoral votes. In the Senate, each state has exactly 2 seats no matter what its population, and this means that the states with small populations have far more political power in the Senate than in the House. And likewise the Electoral College gives a degree of disproportionate power to the small states.
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WAS SET UP BACK BEFORE CANDIDATES COULD TRAVEL ALL OVER THE USA TO CAMPAIGN FOR OFFICE. BASICALLY ITS PEOPLE WITH A VOTE A PIECE THAT ARE PICKED TO MAKE THAT STATES CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT. AND YES THEY CAN GO AGAINST THE MAJORITY. IE BUSH GORE 2000. GORE GOT THE MOST VOTES BUSH GOT THE ELECTORAL AND WON IT SHOULD BE DONE AWAY WITH SINCE WE NOW HAVE THE MEANS TO VOTE AND CAMPEIGN
Mark D and Grim Reaper are headed in the right direction.
The Electorial College was set up as a comprimise during the writing of the consititution because the delegates could not agree on how to elect the President and VP and after several summer months of being in a closed room they "agreed" on this system because they knew if they did not wrap up their meeting would fall apart.
Under the original system
Electors were people you knew from the local area and it was their name on the ballot NOT a presidential or vice-presidential candidate. The way it worked was that you voted for the elector who was most likely to make the same choice that you would if you had all of the available information, because you might not know anyone in another state but your elector might. Once the electors were elected they all met at their state capital and cast two ballots, one of which could not be from the same state in which the elector lived. All of these votes were transmitted to the Speaker of the House who opened up the votes and counted them, if no one candidate recieved a majority then the house of representatives would choose the President and the Senate would choose the VP.
Today:
Today we don't see the electors names on the ballots (in most states), we see the actual names of the presidential and vp candidates, electors are now pledged to a specific candidate before the voting even takes place. Everything else is the same though.
Email me for more information sea_country@hotmail.com.
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