Title: The Electoral College
1The Electoral College
- Who elects the President?
2What is the EC?
- The United States Electoral College is a term
used to describe the 538 Presidential Electors
who meet every four years to cast the electoral
college votes for President and Vice President of
the United States
3Who Counts?
- Every four years, on the Tuesday following the
first Monday of November, millions of U.S.
citizens go to local voting booths to elect,
among other officials, the next president and
vice president of their country. Their votes will
be recorded and counted, and winners will be
declared. But the results of the popular vote are
not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral
College has not cast its vote.
4Your Vote Does Count!
- When you cast your ballot, you are not only
telling who you want to become President, but you
are also selecting a list of electors to cast the
ballot for President and Vice President.
5Electoral College Map
6The EC Map
- It is possible to win the election by winning
eleven states and disregarding the rest of the
country. If one ticket were to take California
(55 votes), Texas (34), New York (31), Florida
(27) Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21), Ohio (20),
Michigan (17), Georgia (15), New Jersey (15), and
North Carolina (15), that ticket would have 271
votes, which would be enough to win
7How did ya get those numbers?
- Each state has a number of electors equal to the
number of its U.S. senators (2 in each state)
plus the number of its U.S. representatives,
which varies according to the state's population.
Currently, the Electoral College includes 538
electors, 535 for the total number of
congressional members, and three who represent
Washington, D.C., as allowed by the 23rd
Amendment
8 Cartogram representation of the Electoral
College for the elections of 2004 and 2008. One
square represents one electoral vote. The United
States Electoral College is a term used to
describe the 538 electors.
9Why do we have the EC?
- The Electoral College is a controversial
mechanism of presidential elections that was
created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution
as a compromise for the presidential election
process. At the time, some politicians believed a
purely popular election was too reckless, while
others objected to giving Congress the power to
select the president. The compromise was to set
up an Electoral College system that allowed
voters to vote for electors, who would then cast
their votes for candidates, a system described in
Article II, section 1 of the Constitution
10When and Where?
- Presidential Electors meet in their respective
state capitol buildingsor in the case of
Washington, D.C., in the District of Columbiaon
the first Monday after the second Wednesday in
December not and never as a national body. At the
51 separate meetings, held on the same day, the
electors cast the electoral votes.
11Who decides?
- After the electors cast their ballots, these
votes are then sealed and sent to the president
of the Senate, who on Jan. 6 opens and reads the
votes in the presence of both houses of Congress.
12Inauguration Day
- The winner is sworn into office at noon Jan. 20.
Most of the time, electors cast their votes for
the candidate who has received the most votes in
that particular state. However, there have been
times when electors have voted contrary to the
people's decision, which is entirely legal.
13Winner of Popular Vote
- In the elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000,
the candidate receiving an aggregate plurality of
the popular vote did not become president. With
no candidate having received a majority of
electoral votes in 1824, the election was decided
by the House of Representatives, and is thus
distinct from the latter three elections in which
a single candidate won in fact by an Electoral
College majority.
14Not the Winner!
- 1824 John Quincy Adams, the son of former
President John Adams, received more than 38,000
fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither
candidate won a majority of the Electoral
College. Adams was awarded the presidency when
the election was thrown to the House of
Representatives.
15Again Not the Winner
- 1876 Nearly unanimous support from small states
gave Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the
Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost
the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000
votes. Hayes carried five out of the six smallest
states (excluding Delaware). These five states
plus Colorado gave Hayes 22 electoral votes with
only 109,000 popular votes. At the time, Colorado
had been just been admitted to the Union and
decided to appoint electors instead of holding
elections. So, Hayes won Colorado's three
electoral votes with zero popular votes. It was
the only time in U.S. history that small state
support has decided an election.
16Yet Again Not the Winner
- 1888 Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by
95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the
electoral vote by 65. In this instance, some say
the Electoral College worked the way it is
designed to work by preventing a candidate from
winning an election based on support from one
region of the country. The South overwhelmingly
supported Cleveland, and he won by more than
425,000 votes in six southern states. However, in
the rest of the country he lost by more than
300,000 votes.
17More Current and still not a winner!
- In 2000, Al Gore received 50,992,335 votes
nationwide and George W. Bush received 50,455,156
votes. After Bush was awarded the state of
Florida, he had a total of 271 electoral votes,
which beat Gore's 266 electoral votes.
18How can Gore win the popular and lose the
electoral vote? A state's electors is equal to
the total number of Senators and Representatives.
So each state has 2 more votes than its
proportionate population. When the popular vote
is so close, the number of STATES won becomes
decisive. If early returns are confirmed on
recount, Gov. Bush wins 31 states (61),
Vice-President Gore wins 19 and DC. Those 11
extra states in the Bush column convert to 22
additional electoral votes, which will be the
winning margin for Gov. Bush. Is it fair? No less
fair than the U.S. Senate, which gives every
state 2 Senators regardless of its population.
In the 2000 election, the popular vote goes one
way, but the state vote goes the other way, in
landslide proportions! And it is only due to the
state landslide that Gov. Bush has a chance. If
Vice-President Gore squeezes out a win in
Florida, he will win the Presidency having
carried the lowest percentage of states (41) of
any President. Kennedy carried 46 of the states
in 1960 and Carter carried 47 in 1976. As is
always the case, the Electoral College punishes
the candidate that appeals to a limited region of
the country. If you look at the electoral map,
you can see that Bush succeeded in winning states
in every region (with the help of Mr. Nader).
Without Florida, Gore has no states in the South
or the Mountain West. Again--no accident. The
Electoral College is doing just what it is
designed to do. Turn to page ___________ in your
book
19The House has the Vote
- Today, a candidate must receive 270 of the 538
votes to win the election. In cases where no
candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the
decision is thrown to the House of
Representatives. The House then selects the
president by majority vote with each state
delegation receiving one vote to cast for the
three candidates who received the most electoral
votes.