1. The Electoral College
Chapter 23
Section 3

2. Presidential Election
When you vote for President, do you choose the candidate directly?

3. Presidential Election
No – you actually elect people called electors.
Electors are people who promise to cast votes for the candidate selected by the voters.
The Constitution established the Electoral College.

4. How the Electoral College Works
Each state has the same number of electors as it has members of Congress.
For example, KY has 6 representatives and 2 senators for a total of 8 electors.
The Electoral College has 538 electors, each with one vote.

5. How it works
Before the election begins, each state makes a list of electors who promise to vote for the party’s presidential candidate.
On election day, when you vote for a certain candidate, you are really voting for that candidate’s team of electors.

6. How it works
On election night, the whole nation waits to find out which states each candidate has “won”.
Winning or carrying a state means that a candidate’s whole team of electors has won in that state.
The winning team then has the right to cast their electoral votes in the Electoral College.

7. Casting the vote
A few weeks after the election, the official electoral voting takes place in each state.
An elector is not required by law to vote for the candidate to whom he or she is pledged, but nearly all do.
The votes are then counted in Congress.

8. How the candidate wins
The magic number is 270.
To win, a candidate needs an absolute majority of electoral votes or more.

9. The 2000 Election
Al Gore received about 500,000 more popular votes than George W. Bush
However, Bush was elected President with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 267
Bush is only the 4th president in history to reach the White House without winning the popular vote

11. Electoral College Calculator

12. Electoral College
Do you think the Electoral College is the best way to elect the President?