Electoral College Notes Executive Branch

What is the Electoral College? Group of persons chosen in each state and the District of Columbia every four years who make a formal selection of the President and Vice President Outlined in the Constitution Each state has the same amount of electors as it does members of Congress (538) 270 needed to win Most electors tend to vote in a partisan way You cast your vote as the Popular Vote Electors cast their vote as Electoral Vote This is the one that “counts”

What are the flaws of the Electoral College? 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 by the House of Representatives

The winner of the popular vote is not guaranteed the presidency Occurred in elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 Election of 2000 George W. Bush (R) Al Gore (D) Gore won Popular Vote with 50,992,335 which was 537,139 more then Bush Bush received 271 electoral votes

Electors are not required to vote in accordance with the popular vote No where is it stated in the Constitution that a state’s electors have to vote in accordance with the popular vote However, this has only happened 11 times

Any election might have to be decided by the House of Representatives If a candidate does not receive a majority of the electoral votes (270) the decision to elect the president goes to the House of Representatives Only happened twice 1800 and 1824 Election of 1824 John Q. Adams defeats Andrew Jackson Jackson had more electoral votes but the H of R gave the win to Q. Adams

Proposed Solutions & Flaws

The District Plan Electors would be chosen in each state in the same way as members of Congress 2 electors selected at large and would cast electoral vote in accordance with popular vote Other electors would be elected in each of the state’s congressional districts and electoral vote would be in line with popular vote in each FLAW: Does not eliminate possibility of electoral winner who loses popular vote

The Proportional Plan Each presidential candidate receives same share of a state’s electoral vote as he or she received in the state’s popular vote Ex. Candidate wins 40% of popular vote in a state with 20 electoral votes, then candidate would receive 8 votes FLAW: Eliminates winner-take-all system, increase number of third parties

Direct Popular Election Eliminates Electoral College all together Supports idea of Democratic choice The winner would always have a plurality of support FLAWS: Needs constitutional amendment to change, small states lose political power, candidates would need to spend more time and $ to campaign in each state, higher likelihood of voter fraud

National Bonus Plan EC basically stays the same A pool of 102 bonus electors are awarded to winner of national popular vote Electoral votes and bonus electors would need to add to majority of 321 to win presidency FLAW: Not widely supported or understood, extra electors seem unnecessary

Electoral College Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= W9H3gvnN468 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o yIFqf3XH24

Assignment https://www.icivics.org/games/win- white-house Go to the following link and play the game Win the White House You will create a candidate, debate issues, and try to win electoral votes in order to win your campaign!

https://www.icivics.or g/games/win-white- house