Can someone please explain the US electoral system in a simple way?

Question

Democracies can be complicated

Answer 1

Basically it works like this...

Each state has a certain number of electoral points. The points are determined mostly by population but I think there might be some other factors as well. Electoral point values vary greatly and some states have a lot more points than others.

On election day, every registered voter has an opportunity to vote. The candidate that gets the most votes in a particular state wins ALL the electoral points for that state. The individual votes are not added between states. So it's a winner take all arrangement.

The candidate that wins the most electoral points wins the election!! So when candidates are campaigning, they often target states with high electoral points as the way to win here is basically to win in the most states as opposed to getting the most individual votes.

This process makes it possible for a candidate who wins the popular vote (which is the total votes overall) to lose the election to the candidate who wins the most electoral votes (by winning in states with higher electoral point totals). ***This actually happened with George Bush vs Al Gore.

I hope this helps you!!

Answer 2

Boy, people are cynical!

In the US, every citizen is allowed a vote for whatever office. On election day, you go to a little booth and cast your vote for the person who you would like to be your official. The votes are counted and the one with the most votes wins.

When voting for the office of President of the US, there is also an electoral college. When you cast a vote for president, your vote is counted towards an electoral college vote, and the person with the most electoral college votes wins the presidency. In recent years people have complained about the electoral college vote vs. the "popular vote" but, the electoral college is a very important part of the system.

The electoral college is made up of votes from different types of areas around the country. These each represent communities of people that are similar. In this day and age, most people who live in a city are usually more liberal than those who live in a small farming community. Taking the state of Illinois for example....Chicago and the surrounding metropolitan area has nearly 10 million people whose needs are much different than the small town of 200 people in southern rural Illinois. What the electoral college does is make sure that candidates are respecting the needs of both groups...thereby giving a more rounded elected official.

Now, in this day and age, money does play a big part because of advertising, and media, but the elected officials are still responsible to those who elected them. If they go into office and make laws much different to the way they ran for office, they will undoubtedly not be re-elected. People who think the constituents have no place, are very wrong and short sighted.

Answer 3

this isn't a Democracy, it is a representative Republic. it is consequently we do not use the common vote. because with the electoral college, the President is determined by technique of a extra diverse inhabitants. If it were easy majority vote, politicians might want to marketing campaign in difficulty-free words in ny, California, Texas and Florida; and folk residing in the smaller states might want to be thoroughly handed over. The type of seats in the residing house a state has is determined by technique of inhabitants. The state legislatures ensure the delegates in the electoral college. Now at the same time as it is convention for the candidate that wins the common vote in the state to win each and every of the electoral votes, it isn't regulation; the delegates are loose to vote notwithstanding they desire. Representatives are elected with a instantly common vote, and all of us assembly particular criteria is authorized to run.

Answer 4

Just to let you know.... the US is not a democracy, it is a republic or representitve democracy.

The electoral system is too complex to explain in a simple way, so I'm sorry, but I will not try.

Answer 5

The early founders who were white men with money did not really tryust the poor men so they set up a system where the popular vote would actuallt elect "electors", propertied men of their upper class who would actually cast the real votes. This was a safety check to keep the common people from really running the show.

Answer 6

Congress, ie the House of Representatives and the US Senate, is elected at a state wide level

the only officials elected on a nation wide basis are the President and Vice President

it is a presidential system elected on a winner takes all basis

Answer 7

Simple, the person with the least number of votes wins. Which is probably not the dictionary definition of a "democracy".

Answer 8

People go to vote, Republicans get lots of voting machines, Democrats have to share one. That doesn't really matter as they are pre programmed to allow the republicans to win.

Who casts the votes is not important. The power comes from whever COUNTS the votes!

Diebold and ES&S voting systems have been clearly proven to be EASILLY tampered with and to be completely unreliable.

If you cast a vote on one of these machines, you have NO GUARENTEE whatsoever that you vote will be counted. YOUR vote may even be counted for the other candidate.

Answer 9

I think if we could answer this question simply there would be no need for an election in the first place. Because then people would just make sense. And politics never seems to make sense in the long run. It always becomes a selfish circus.

Answer 10

The U. S. electoral system is non existant.The people you vote for are not the people who run the country so your system is a facade.