1. Electoral College
Mass Media

2. How do we selectt the president
Linkage Institutions
Electoral College
How do we selectt the president

3. Linkage Institutions
Electoral College

4. Electoral College
Elections

5. It’s a process, not a place.
Electoral College
What?
Electoral College
The institution that elects the president and vice president every four years
It’s a process, not a place.
100
The Electoral College is adjusted every ten years to keep up with changes
in the population.

6. Electoral College How? Electoral College
There are 538 electors from the 50 states and Washington DC
Electors are chosen on a state by state basis by laws determined by the state
100
Almost all the states award them on a “winner take all basis” using
a plurality vote
This means the candidate who gets the most votes (does not have to be 51%) gets all of the state’s electoral votes

7. Electoral College How? Electoral College
Maine & Nebraska do not use winner take all method, they use
the “district method”
When you go to vote, you see the name of the presidential candidate, but you are actually voting for which
elector will get to vote as part of
the Electoral College
100

8. Electoral College Who? Electors
There are no official requirements other than they can’t be in Congress
Each state picks them differently, usually at state party conventions
100
Most positions are given out as rewards for long term party loyalty

9. Electoral College Who? Faithless Electors
Electors are not specifically required by the federal government to vote the way the state vote turned out
Faithless Electors are members of the Electoral College that vote differently than the popular vote outcome of their state
100
Some states have laws that fine them but they have not actually been enforced
There were 7 faithless electors in 2016 – 5 refused to vote for Hillary Clinton and 2 refused to vote for Donald Trump.

10. Electoral College Why it works! Advantages
It prevents only the big cities from selecting the president
It emphasizes the importance of federalism in selection of govt officials.
100
It makes every single state important in the presidential election
It encourages stability and the stability of two party government.
It isolates the impact of any election fraud in a state.

11. How it Works
Elections

12. Electoral College Joint Session Official Count
There is a joint session to
count electoral votes
The standing Vice President presides over the session
100
Each state brings up a box with the “certified vote” and the House & Senate have one Democrat & one Republican count the votes
Any congressman can object in writing if one member of each house agrees, then that state’s votes are ignored

13. A plurality is not enough
Electoral College
Majority
Electoral College
To win the presidency, a candidate must earn a majority of the electoral votes
A plurality is not enough
100
If there are only 2 candidates, one is almost guaranteed to get a majority

14. Electoral College No Majority House
If no candidate has a majority, the House goes into session immediately
They have to choose among the top 3 candidates for President
100
Each state gets one vote.
Representatives in very small states get to decide & the 53 California reps
have to vote on it
One candidate must win 26 states to become president.
They keep voting until one candidate has a majority of the states

15. Electoral College No Majority Senate
If no candidate has a majority, the Senate goes into session immediately
They have to choose among the top 3 candidates for Vice President
100
Each senator gets one vote.
The candidate must earn 51 votes in order to become the Vice President
The standing Vice President may have to vote to break a tie – which could possibly involve his election as VP
The President & Vice President don’t have to have been running mates.

16. Electoral College No Majority They Can’t Agree
They just keep voting over and over
If it’s not agreed upon by inauguration, the current Vice President becomes the president until they can agree
100
IF there’s no Vice President, the Speaker of the House becomes president until the Senate picks a Vice President.
The Senate chosen VP becomes the president until the House can decide

17. Criticism & Reforms
Elections

18. Electoral College Problems Criticism
It’s not an accurate reflection of the vote.
The popular vote winner can lose the election in the Electoral College
100
With modern polling, most states can be predicted accurately ahead of time, decreasing voter turnout
Only a handful of small “swing states” or “battleground states” is critical to winning

19. Electoral College Problems Criticism
It over emphasizes the votes of small states & diminishes the votes of large states.
US Population is about 325 million
100
There are 538 Electoral Votes
State Population
% of US Population
Electoral Votes
% of Electoral Votes
California 39.3 M
12.2% of US 55
10.2%
Wyoming 585K
0.18% of US 3
0.6%
Tennessee 6.7M
2.1% of US 11 2%

20. Electoral College Problems 2004 Election Candidates basically ignore
the non swing states
Purple shows a visit from a candidate
100
Green shows one million dollars spent

21. Electoral College Problems Popular Vote Interstate Compact
Ten states have agreed to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote
Pledge won’t go into effect until enough states to add up to 270 electoral votes join the pledge
100
It’s totally legal without an amendment since states can decide how to award their own electoral votes
It’s an interstate compact, so would ultimately be up to Congress to enforce if a state decided to break it.
This would be advantageous to Democratic candidates

22. Electoral College Problems District Plan
Maine & Nebraska already use this, but don’t normally end up splitting their votes.
Each Congressional district awards one electoral vote.
100
The candidate that wins the most districts in the state would get 2 extra votes from the state.
These elections would be subject to gerrymandering
This would be advantageous to Republican candidates.

23. Electoral College
Problems
100

24. Electoral College
Problems
100

25. Electoral College Problems Proportional Plan
Each state would award their electoral votes at the same proportion of the state’s popular vote totals
Most states would end up fairly close to a split.
100
This would give advantages to Republican candidates.
Republicans would continue to win small states
Democrats would lose many of the electoral votes they get from large states

26. Electoral College
Problems
100

27. Electoral College
Problems
100

28. Electoral College Problems
100

29. Bigly Ideas
Beliefs & Behaviors

30. Mass Media Wrap Up Electoral College Winner take all Advantages
Reforms
Focus on these things:
House & Senate