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The Electoral College

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Title: The Electoral College


1
The Electoral College
  • Who elects the President?

2
What 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

3
Who 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.

4
Your 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.

5
Electoral College Map
6
The 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

7
How 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.
9
Why 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

10
When 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.

11
Who 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.

12
Inauguration 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.

13
Winner 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.

14
Not 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.

15
Again 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.

16
Yet 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.

17
More 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.

18
How 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 
19
The 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.
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