1. Electoral College By: Arjun Karthikeyan, Branden Katona, John Crenshaw, and Ajay Sundar

2. Winner Take-All Feature The candidate who gets the most voters wins all of a state’s electoral votes ◦The candidate can win a majority, a plurality, or just more than any other candidate 48 states use the winner-take-all system Nebraska and Maine do not use the winner-take-all system ◦They use votes based on the both the state’s popular vote and the votes of each Congressional District

3. Effect on Presidential Campaigns Choice of Vice Presidential Candidate ◦Create a regional balance on the ticket ◦Must appeal to the whole country in order to win enough electoral votes and a regional balance can create this ◦In a popular vote, candidates would only need to appeal to large population centers ◦Example: JFK’s selection of LBJ  JFK from Mass., while LBJ from Texas  Able to pull New England and Southern states

4. Effect on third party candidates Hinders third party candidates at the state level Third party candidates only get electoral votes if they have the majority in a state, no matter how many popular votes they get This causes a chain effect: the inability to get electoral votes decreases the amount of funds the third party candidates can then raise, effectively eliminating them from the race

5. Why hasn’t it been abolished? One reason it has not been abolished is that it favors the two party system ◦It helps the stability of the nation ◦Third party candidates have difficulty winning enough votes to have a chance of winning the election Racial minorities and interest groups are in favor of the electoral college because it protects their votes ◦Even a small number of voters can make a difference on whether or not a political candidate wins all the electoral votes for a state