Electoral College: Can You Explain?

V

VictorLouis

New member
As there is currently a lot of chat on candidates, I was hoping a TFL'er could explain the current system. Most people I encounter seem to think that the popular vote really elects the Pres! But I do wonder, does our vote somehow have some influence on the electoral members?
 
Depends on the state and how the laws are written. In some states the Electors are bound to vote for the chosen candidate for the first ballot, after that they can vote for anybody. In other states the electors have no such restrictions. Don't know all the permutations in the laws through out the 50 states. As a side note, I believe Bob Dole, almost became the first president to loose the popular vote and yet be chosen president in the electoral college. It would have taken only a million votes spread across half a dozen states. Isn’t it interesting that the founding fathers created the electoral college to protect us from an uninformed public electing a complete dud and it almost worked. It would have been better if it had worked though.
 
Well, we have the party primaries to determine the final choice of candidates for the November ballot. Parties actually on that ballot get there from "weight of numbers" of registrants, etc. In recent times, then, we have the Dumbs, the Pubes, the Reformers and a write-in blank.

To recap the Electoral College system, each state, based on its population, has a certain number of votes in the EC. It's a "Winner take all" system, so whoever gets a majority in a state gets all the state's votes.

The Electors in the EC are not legally bound to cast their votes for a given candidate, but in general it's a pro forma affair. The Electors pay no attention to any specific issues of the campaigns. They do their expense-paid trip, show up and do their thing, and go home. It's reported on Page B 9 in the average paper, since the "Official" :) results were known on election night.

Hope this helps, FWIW, Art
 
OK, each state has a given number of Elecors, much like conressional Reps. Where do they come from, are they politicians, are they elected? Do we sway them at all?
 
(quote 1999 New York Times Almanac, pp 115-116)

... Currently 270 [electoral] votes are needed to reach a majority in the
Electoral College. There have been two elections in which no candidate
received a majority of the electoral vote.

In 1824 no candidate achieved a majority of the vote and in 1876 disputed results in several states prevented either Rutherford B. Hayes or Samuel J. Tilden from achieving a majority. (John Quincy Adams and Hayes won those contests, respectively.)

A candidate also can be elected president despite losing the popular vote.
This occurred, again in 1824 and 1876, when the House selected Adams
and Hayes, though they lost the popular vote to Andrew Jackson and Tilden,
respectively, and in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison was elected over Grover
Cleveland despite receiving a minority of the popular vote.
(unquote)

Citizen: “The people have spoken!”
Politican: “So?”

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Either you believe in the Second Amendment or you don't.
Stick it to 'em! RKBA!



[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited January 26, 2000).]
 
Each state has a number of electors equal to its sum total of representatives and senators serving in Washington. It's a winner-take-all system in which the person receiving the highest number of votes in a state wins ALL of that states electoral votes. It takes a majority of the electoral votes (currently a number equal to 270) to be elected. In the event that no candidate receives a majority of the electoral college votes, the House of Representatives votes to elect the president. We've had one election decided that way in our history: Thomas Jefferson's win over Aaron Burr in 1804.

Hope that helps.
 
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