The Electoral College

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The Electoral College

• Who elects the President?

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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

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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.

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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.

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Electoral College Map
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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

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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

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   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.
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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 
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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.