1. Steve Breen, New Jersey -- Steve's Pulitzer Prize winning cartoons from the Asbury Park Press

2. Seriously, why does it even exist?
Electoral College
Seriously, why does it even exist?

3. Electoral College
Requires a majority of the electors from the 50 states
270 electoral votes

4. What is the Electoral College?
Electors: popularly-elected representatives
formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States.

5. So basically…
Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, United States citizens vote for electors.

6. Whatever happened to democracy?

7. The creation of the Electoral College
WHO:
The Framers (creators) of the U.S. Constitution.
WHAT:
The Electoral College:
Article III, Section 1, Paragraphs 2 and 3 in the U.S. Constitution.
WHEN:
1787 – 1791.
WHERE:
Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
WHY:
Representation, Fear, and Knowledge

8. Framers: Why we need electors
James Madison, Federalist No. 39:
Constitution was designed to be a mixture of state-based and population-based government.
The Congress would have two houses:
the state-based Senate
population-based House of Representatives.
President would be elected by a mixture of the two modes

9. Representation Balance representation (power)
big states (like New York)
small states (like Delaware)
States were already suspicious of giving the government too much control over state affairs.

10. SOLUTION
The people oppose allowing the national government to decide a presidential election
State elections
Each state cast an overall electoral vote for the winning candidate

11. Fear
Believed that the general public did not know enough about candidates or politics to cast an adequate vote.
Create a system to keep the general “masses” from directly voting for a President.

12. SOLUTION: A “fool-proof” plan
State electors cast official votes for President and Vice-President after the popular vote occurred
Appointed electors
men of character
knowledgeable about politics
agree upon and select candidates who could represent the majority of the people as a President.

13. Knowledge
How were citizens supposed to know anything about candidates from other states?
No “mass media”
transportation and communication were difficult.
Unlikely that even those citizens who were knowledgeable about politics could be fully informed to make decisions about candidates from other states.

14. Justification
Electors would keep the people from voting on candidates from their own state.
(No candidate would get a national majority if that happened)

15. Today The election process is basically the same:
voting allows a voter to “tell” electors which candidate the voter wants the elector to vote for.
“faithless electors”
No law stating that electors have to vote for the candidate that they originally pledged their vote to!

16. An Ideal Election President = + Political Knowledge
Educated Man
+ Political Knowledge
+ Majority Popular Vote
+ Majority Electoral Vote

17. The Election Process in Plain English

18. Another way to look at the Electoral College…

19. Compare it to the World Series…
A comparison by George Will, newspaper columnist, journalist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner.

20. Electoral College
Requires a majority of the electors from the 50 states
270 electoral votes

21. A World Series winner must be the first to win four of a possible seven games*
GM 1: Yankees 10, Red Sox 7 GM 2: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1 GM 3: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8 GM 4: Red Sox 6, Yankees 4
GM 5: Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 GM 6: Red Sox 4, Yankees 2
GM 7: Red Sox 10, Yankees 3
*Our example will use the 2004 Championship Series: Red Sox defeat Yankees. The concept, however, is the same.

22. If the World Series were won by total points (popular vote)…
Yankees: 45
Red Sox: 41

23. One team scores more, but who won the series?
You can’t change the rules in the middle of a game.

24. Flaws in the System
The winner of the popular vote is not guaranteed the presidency
Electors are not required to vote in accordance with the popular vote
Any election might have to be decided in the House of Representatives