How is our President elected? Osvaldo Macias

Electoral college How President and Vice-President are elected They are NOT elected directly by voters Americans are actually voting for electors, who are elected by popular vote by each state Electors chose the president based on how each state’s citizens want them to

Electoral College Map 538 total electors 438 representatives 100 senators The more people a state has the more votes it gets 270 or one more than half of the electoral votes are needed for the president to be elected

Brief History The founders of the constitution didn’t trust the American citizens to vote for the President Believed a small group of electors should pick the president At first electors voted for two candidates Whoever got the highest votes became president and whoever got the second highest votes became vice-president

Brief history continued… In 1800 their was a tie between Jefferson and Burr 12th amendment made it so tie’s wouldn’t happen elector would vote for one person for president and another for vice president

Criticisms Electors aren’t required to vote for the candidate that their state’s citizens wanted If a candidate wins a majority of the vote that person would get all of the electoral votes What does this mean? Even if a candidate gets the majority of the individual votes it doesn’t mean they’ll become president