Could someone explain the Electoral College to me?

Question

I don't understand how it works...also why do you win the presidency if you have the electoral college vote and not the popular vote?

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

The Constitution mandates that the President and Vice President be chosen by Electors (members of the Electoral College). Only the Electoral college vote is used determine who becomes President. There is actually no national popular vote as far as the Constitution is concerned. See Article II and the 12th Amendment.

The Electors are chosen by the citizens of the states, according to laws established by the states. So, each state determines the formula for how the popular state vote is converted to an electoral vote, and then directs the state's Electors to vote that way.

Most states allocate Electoral votes all-or-nothing, based on which candidate gets the highest number of votes in the state. So, if a candidate gets 51% of the popular votes in a state, that candidate gets 100% of the Electoral votes for that state.

The problem with the Electoral college is two-fold. First, it results in situations where a person loses the national popular vote, but because of the way the formula is applied ends up getting a majority of Electoral votes.

The other problem is that the all-or-nothing system effectively locks us into a two-party system, since a candidate must get the majority of votes in a state before ANY of the Electoral votes count. So, in a three-way race, someone could easily get 2/3 of the national popular vote, yet still fall below the threshold in every single state and thus end up with NO electoral votes at all.

Answer 2

The electoral college was created by the founding fathers because they were afraid that the masses would "hijack the Presidency" from the elite persons they envisioned holding the office. They wanted to protect the nation from a mob selecting the wrong type of person. So they invented an indirect way of selecting the president.

They created the Electoral College. These were elite notable citizens selected by the state legislators who would convene to actually select the President after the general election took place. They vote the votes equal to the respective states representation in Congress (which for the house is based on population and int he Senate is two for each state) so if you have one congressman in your state, then it has 3 votes in the Electoral college.

The electors are supposed to vote according to the way the state's majority votes. Thus if 51% of that state with 3 votes in the College votes for Candidate A, then the Electors for that state are supposed to all vote for Candidate A. This makes it a winner take all situation.

Now the tricky part is that an Elector can be "unfaithful" and vote his conscience. This is the part that allows the Electors to prevent the masses/mob from selecting an unworthy candidate. If enough Electors feel that somebody else should be President, they can vote that way and deprive the majority from their choice.

Some states now have statutes requiring the electors to follow the popular vote and some even have criminal penalties if they don't do so. These laws are largely untested since most of the time the Electors follow the popular vote. The few times they haven't have not lead to prosecution that I know of and perhaps there are good defenses to being faithless.

The effect of the college is to usually amplify the vote for one candidate or another because of the winner-take-all rule. For example the 2000 election was very close in the popular vote, but not so close in the Electoral college. Obviously if you have a state that is almost evenly divided but all of its electors must vote for the one with most popular votes, a 51%-49% vote turns into a 100% for one candidate.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Basically It means ........ Your vote don't count.

here it is:

Election Process in Simple Terms
Each State votes independently for a president.
The popular vote wins in the State.
Each State has a number of points (Electoral Votes) based on the size of its population.
Whoever wins the popular vote of that State gets the points (electoral votes).
Whoever gets 270 or higher points (electoral votes), wins. (270 is the majority of points )
The points (electoral votes) are the same number as the number of Representatives and Senators in Congress.
A national popular vote is meaningless. The reason? Imagine if 51% of the country population lived in California. A president could be elected by promising everything to that one State. The other 49 States would then have no say in choosing a president. Right now, a candidate could win the popular vote with just 11 out of 50 States. The authors of the Constitution saw this as a problem and put this measure (Electoral College) in to prevent the majority from taking advantage of the minority.

A more accurate explanation

In reality, States vote for whom they want their Electoral Representatives to vote for at the Electoral College (December 18th).

Each State nominates Electoral Representatives who will then vote the decision of the people as determined by the election.

The number of representatives is based on the population of that State. It the same way the number of Representatives are determined for the House of Representatives.

The Constitution does not require these representatives to vote the results of the election, but they are duty bound and could be prosecuted by the law if they do not. In the past, some representatives have not voted based on the election results, but has never happened in a situation that effected the results of an election.

Answer 4

Each state is worth a certain amount off electoral votes. The candidate has to win the popular vote for the state then they get the electoral votes. The candidate with the most electoral votes is the one that wins.

Answer 5

The electoral college consists of all of the Representatives and Senators in Congress. They cast individual votes for presidential races. Their vote does not depend on the vote of the people. It is possible to win the popular vote (1960 election Nixon) and not the electoral college vote. Ultimately, it is the electoral college that actually "elects" the president. Our vote (the popular vote) is a recommendation of who we want.

Answer 6

Each state has so many reps(electoral votes) based on population and those votes are used to elect the president. So it is possible to receive more of the popular vote and still lose the election.

Answer 7

electoral college is based on each states votes, each states combines their two senators with their house of represenatitves, so california has 5 3 reps plus 2 senators have 55 electoral college votes, the popular vote is what deicdes how the state votes, so if the state of californias popular vote picked john kerry, the points will go to kerry, but they dont have to follow th popular votes, but they usually do, and once they reach a ceratin number of votes they win

Answer 8

each state has a number of people based on its population in the electoral college. whatever the popular vote of THAT STATE is, all of the electoral college has to vote for that. then they add up all of the numbers of the electoral votes.

Answer 9

The electoral college protects minority states hobbies from being bullied via the vast states. The founding fathers feared a majority interest could dominate the political scene and answer to no person. This grew to become into their way of offering tests and balances against a dictatorship, a tyrannical majority as they stated because it. The foundation of the electoral college grew to become into rooted interior the theory that a presidential candidate must be representative of a plurality of the 50 states, no longer purely an uncomplicated majority in some states, that could properly be have a bent to be very majority-oriented and subsequently tyrannical. The Electoral college protects different hobbies. otherwise, the final public could consistently win, and dominate coverage. it particularly is no longer a real usa. See, the electoral college protects the smaller states (including Ohio!) from becoming to be completely beside the point and very nearly unvoiced. It reweighs some guy or woman votes, and you are able to no longer quickly sense that votes have been compromised, unfairly. yet think of approximately some effects of a properly-liked vote to boot. In result, a properly-liked vote must be manipulated via some super areas of inhabitants, and votes "cancelling one yet another out" could ensue on a macro scale, the minority hobbies could consistently lose. In our modern-day gadget, the presidential candidate has to marketing campaign to a majority-if no longer all 50- states, which is composed of measly populations like Alaska and Ohio. in the event that they only ought to pander to particular uncomplicated hobbies on my own, their regulations ought to all be very one sided: anti ecosystem, anti farmer, anti corporation, anti hard artwork, or in spite of different minority the final public can squash! the undeniable fact that Ohio is a "swing state" skill that it particularly is up for grabs, and that the two applicants would be eye-catching to electorate they regularly does no longer be subjected to decrease than majority rules. In that sense, some Ohioans have been granted get right of entry to to the approach of democracy that they could be thoroughly excluded from decrease than a properly-liked vote user-friendly majority dictatorship.

Answer 10

the people (us) vote. then based on those votes, a smaller group of people vote on the president from each state (usually, the people vote either democrat or republican. the reps are either democratic and republican, and vote for whatever the people said, although it is not required). the number of votes is calculated by adding the number of reps in the house of representatives + 2 (for the senators). for example, calif has 55 electoral votes. then those votes count for the president.