How do you win the general election, but loose in the electoral college?

Question

Okay, I learned about the Electoral college in school, but I'm not sharp on it anymore, so please enlighten me. How does it work? break it down for me again, and explain how someone could win the general election and not win the electorial college

Thanks for ur answers. You guys have cleared up what I already knew, now one more confussion, if a states decides to split their votes or ignor the population votes, maybe due to political rasons, how do they legally do that, for example if IL has 10 Electoral college votes, and Clinton wins in Il(Like taht would happen), now can they decide to still give the vote to Obama(for obvious political reason) or even spilt the votes? how would that work out, who can hold them accountable for that?

Answer 1

The electoral college depends on the way voters in a state vote and how many electoral votes a state has. A state's electoral votes depend on the number of congressmen and women they have in both the house and senate. Each state must be given two senators and automatically has two electoral votes, but congressmen/women are based upon the states population. Congressional seats (and in turn electoral votes) are redistributed during each census between the states. If a candidate effectively garners 270 electoral votes they become President of the United States. I believe there are 538 total electoral votes. 100 senators + 535 House of Representatives + 3 D.C. = 538. 270 over 268 gives a candidate the majority. The founding fathers decided to set up elections this way because they didn't want a candidate to just campaign in the most populous places. Electoral votes in a state go totally to the Democrat or Republican even if the state was split 61%/59%, a few states split electoral representatives by the precent of people who voted for a candidate. A few times in history candidates have managed to win the election without a majority of popular votes. The most recent election was between George Bush and Al Gore, but even then Florida's electoral votes were disputed.

Answer 2

The way I understand it, we don't vote for a president, we vote for electoral college representatives. So if your state votes more for democrats than for republicans then all of the electoral college votes go to the democrats in your state. The representatives from the electoral college then meet and elect the next president of the United States of America. The general election votes can have more votes for one party and lose the electoral college by not winning enough states. For example California has more people than New Mexico. If California votes democrat and New Mexico votes republican California would win both the general election and the electoral college election. But if a bunch of states like New Mexico vote Republican and they out number California in electoral college votes, even with their smaller population than California's, then the Republicans win. This is basically how Little George pulled off the upset of 2000. There is nothing as bad as a democracy but nothing as good as. (Winston Churchill).

Answer 3

Ok...

Each state is worth a given number of electoral votes, which is based on population. For example, California was worth 55 electoral votes in 2004.

The way it works in most states is that whoever wins the popular vote in that state gets all the electoral votes. Obviously, whoever wins the most electoral votes wins the presidency.

However, it is possible to get more of the popular vote in the election but still lose because you don't have enough electoral votes.

For example, a Democrat could have a HUGE win in California and get millions more votes there than a Republican. However, the Republican could beat the Democrat in a bunch of other states and get more than the 55 electoral votes the Democrat won in California, even though the Democrat got more votes BY PURE NUMBERS.

Example: Democrat wins California by 6 million votes and gets 55 electoral votes. Republican wins 8 other states worth 60 electoral votes, but only by collecting 5.9 million votes.

Now, if this scenario repeats itself enough times, the Democrat would win more popular votes but lose in the general election.

Answer 4

The popular vote can trump the electoral vote when there is more than two thirds vote of your state for a candidate, which forces the electoral vote to give it to a candidate no matter what party the electorate is.

What hurts is when the Governor is not the same party of a candidate that should win and the popular vote is barely split 50/50, even though the majority of the votes are to go to the candidate who gets the most votes, they tend to certify their own party, while erroneously reporting that all precincts have been counted.

Answer 5

Each State is given a number of Electoral Votes based on population. The winner of each state gets those Electoral Votes. Whichever candidate has the most Electoral Votes in the winner of the election. If one candidate gets a much higher percentage of the votes for the states he wins while the states he loses are very close. It is possible that in the end he could have more general population votes while losing the electoral votes.

Answer 6

Simple. By math. There are 50 states, with a total of 535 votes, D.C. has 3, that is 538. If you win enough states to total 270 votes or more then you win. The popular vote really doesn't matter in the presidential election.

Answer 7

The electoral college is the general election.

You can win the popular vote and win the electoral vote because it is a winner take all system. If a candidate wins the majority of a state's electoral votes, he is award all that state's votes. Because of this, a candidate need only win five states to win the election: Florida, New York, Illinois, California, and Texas.

Answer 8

i do no longer probably think of there is something incorrect with the election equipment on the federal point. in spite of the shown fact that, the U.S. election equipment is truthfully 50 plus election platforms, which selection from basic platforms to very complicated ones. each state manages its own elections, and that's in many circumstances delegated to counties or municipalities. what's sweet with this physique of recommendations is that it has inspired innovation. I voted early using an digital balloting gadget. In my county voters had a option to apply an optical test pollif they did no longer have confidence the gadget. The balloting equipment because it stands is largely honest. some voters are smarter than others and a few voters are cheating. frequently the equipment manages to weed out the abuses--no longer all of them. while you're making registration too basic you open it to fraud. I voted in Texas, and that i think of our equipment statewide is in keeping with danger a rather solid one. some counties use paper ballots, some optical test, and a few use balloting machines and a few even use touch visual demonstrate unit platforms. the purposes selection. I stay in a rural county. What we've could desire to no longer artwork in a extra city environment. some states have very tousled balloting platforms, and those are often the place the themes will crop up. often we do get the votes taken care of out and counted and land up with quite honest effects. There are provisions for recounts if there are motives to suspect an election tally isn't valid. what's truthfully incorrect with our election equipment is that it is administered and utilized by human beings and human flaws would be meditated in the way it operates. by the form, the presidential election is barely one small edge of the equipment. this methodology elects officers and contraptions regulations at each point of government in the country. it rather is a tremendously tall order.

Answer 9

If you get 50% +1 vote in that state you are supposed to get all the electorial college votes for that state { at least by theroy } However if the memebers representing that state agree they can cast their votes the other way disenfranchiseing the people I can't recall that happening but it would be legal . the electorial college system has always struck me as disenfranchiseing enough people as it is this is how Bush won the last election in essence he cheated legally .

Answer 10

Math.

If you win a large enough vote in enough states to equal the electoral votes necessary to win, you win -- even if the total popular votes across all 50 states give your opponent the lead.

This has only happened a handful of times in our history.