Electoral College

What do you think of when you think of Presidential elections? Why was the vote in Florida so important in 2000?

Most Americans probably need to read this…. Let’s hope not!

What is the Electoral College? It is the constitutional system used to elect the Chief Executive. Established by Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment (1804). Each state is assigned a specific number of electors. When you vote for President, you are actually voting for the group of electors from your state.

Once again.... When you cast your vote, you are actually voting for the ELECTORS from your state. The candidate that gets the most votes in your state, gets those electors.

To Find the Number of Electoral Votes for a state So: There are 538 Electoral Votes on the map To win: 538/2=269 A majority is 50% + 1 So to be President you need 270 Electoral Votes Number of Representatives in the House + Number of Senators (Always 2) Total Number of Electors TO WIN THE WHITE HOUSE YOU MUST WIN A MAJORITY OF ELECTORAL VOTES The candidate that wins the popular vote in that state gets all that state’s electoral votes (except for Maine and Nebraska).

23rd Amendment gave DC 3 electoral votes! OK – but if there are 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate, there should only be 535 electoral votes! Where do the other 3 come from? 23rd Amendment gave DC 3 electoral votes!

Michael Jordan played for the Washington Wizards and wore number 23! That’s 3 Electoral Votes!

After the 2000 census, the Electoral Map was updated

What if no candidate gets a majority of the electoral vote? Should none of the candidates win a majority of the electoral votes, the 12th Amendment kicks in and the election is decided by the House of Representatives. The combined representatives of each state get one vote and a simple majority of states is required to win. This has only happened twice. Presidents Thomas Jefferson in 1801 and John Quincy Adams in 1825 were elected by the House of Representatives.  

Do the electors have to vote for the candidate from their party? NO .   While the state electors are "pledged" to vote for the candidate of the party that chose them, nothing in the Constitution requires them to do so. In rare instances, an elector will defect and not vote for his or her party's candidate. Such "faithless" electors rarely change the outcome of the election and laws of some states prohibit electors from casting them.

One elector from the District of Columbia left her ballot blank as a protest of DC's lack of representation in Congress. 2000 Electoral Results

SUMMARY There are 538 electoral votes and the magic number is 270 The popular vote only matters in the state There can be, but rarely are, faithless electors The Founders were concerned about the President having too much power and the small states being ignored, so this system protected against both

Analyze this cartoon…

…and that is the Electoral College