Explain, as simply as possible, the electoral college.?

Question

Wikipedia's answer was TOO detailed and made it more confusing. Why vote for MY candidate if the college takes my vote and gives it to the other one?

Answer 1

Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of senators & representatives.

Each candidate has appointed electors. (i.e. republican or democrat electors)

The candidate who wins the state gets to name the electors.

There is no guarantee that the electors will vote for the appointed candidate but generally they do. The instance of "faithless electors" is uncommon.

On 158 occasions, electors have cast their votes for President or Vice President in a manner different from that prescribed by the legislature of the state they represented. Of those, 71 votes were changed because the original candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote. Two votes were not cast at all when electors chose to abstain from casting their electoral vote for any candidate. The remaining 85 were changed by the elector's personal interest or perhaps by accident. Usually, the faithless electors act alone. An exception was in 1836 when 23 Virginia electors changed their vote together.

Answer 2

Oh my Gosh! Does it scare anyone else that people B.S. on here when they have no clue??? How do these people VOTE?

In a very small nutshell:

Based on population, each state (and DC) is given a number of electoral "points." In each state, whichever candidate has more votes will win the state's points. Of the 538 total electoral points, a candidate must win 270 to be president.

Here's a map with the electoral points for each state in 2004:
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/electorl.gif

Longer version:

The Electoral College system WORKS and is supported by the US Constitution. http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa102200a.htm

Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants the power to elect the president and vice president to the states through the Electoral College system. Under the Constitution, the highest-ranking U.S. officials elected by direct popular vote of the people are the governors of the states.
Tyranny of the Majority
To be brutally honest, the Founding Fathers did not give the American public of their day much credit for political awareness.
The Founding Fathers also felt the Electoral College system would enforce the concept of federalism -- the division and sharing of powers between the state and national governments.
Under the Constitution, the people are empowered to choose, through direct popular election, the men and women who represent them in their state legislatures and in the United Sates Congress. The states, through the Electoral College, are empowered to choose the president and vice president.

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/World/Electoral-College-13750.html
Over 700 amendments have been proposed to modify or abolish the Electoral College. All have failed.

Your State Senators and Congressmen/women will vote on behalf of your state. After the polls close, the Senators and Congressmen cast their votes for the candidate that their state chose.

A total of 270 votes are needed to be elected President of the total 538 possible votes.

In 2000 there were only 2 states that did not operate under the "winner take all" method. They were Nebraska and Maine. The other 48 states and D.C. are winner take all electoral votes.

VOTE TO KEEP AMERICA SAFE!

Answer 3

The Electoral College is of course who elects the President of the United States. Each state gets a certain amount of electoral votes based on the number of combined Senators and Representatives they have in Congress. In December of a Presidential Election year, these electors meet in their respective capitols and cast their votes. Generally, the electors will cast their vote by which ever candidate won in their particular state (which is why it is important for you to vote) However, the electors are not bound by law to cast their vote for the winning candidate. Of course it is possible for a candidate to win the popular vote of the nation, but not win the Electoral vote which is what happened to Al Gore. He did not win the popular vote in some of the more populated states, which cost him the election. In short, the Electoral College has the real vote of who the President will be.

Answer 4

The college was set up as a device to insulate the Presidency from direct democratic choice, which the Founding Fathers believed could lead to demagogues and dictators.

Each state is given a number of votes to cast for President equal to its total representation in Congress (except for the District of Colombia, which is a special case). How the votes are cast is up to the state, but almost all now have the entire vote cast for the winner of the popular vote in the state. The candidate who gets a majority in the Electoral College is elected President.;

Answer 5

To quote the Federal Register:

The people of the United States vote for the electors who then vote for the President.

The Electoral College is a process that began as part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote.

Each State is allocated a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives. The number of electors for a State is based on the number of members in the House of Representatives who represent the State, plus two for the State's Senators. A State's Congressional delegation is determined by the State's population.

Answer 6

I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest version of the electoral college. I agree with you, I think the guy or gal with the most votes should automatically win. Anyway, our founding fathers felt it best to give each state electoral votes. The number of senators plus congressmen equals the numbers of electors you get. The candidate in that state with the most votes gets all the electors. Usually, the one with the most popular votes wins, but as we all know in 2000, Al Gore had the popular votes, but the electoral votes favored Bush -- thanks to a few political friends in Florida and the Supreme Court who ordered the vote counting there to stop.

Answer 7

Each state has a spcific number of electorates based upon it's population. In most states the winner of the election on that state is elected all of those electoral votes.....some states do split the electoral votes. Canidate carrying the most electoral votes wins.

Answer 8

Well, its not supposed to work like that. What is supposed to happen is that when enough people in the state vote for one party they are supposed to vote for the majority and pick the candidate that the people want.... at least that's the way its supposed to work

Answer 9

A small, elite group of delegates(1 for every thousand party members in your district) choose your candidate for you. Plain and simple.

In reality they always vote for the Candidate that got the most votes , technically they don't have to but they do...

Answer 10

a group of persons (presidential electors) chosen in each state every four years. they formally decide who the President and Vice President will be.
hope that helps!