Every four years we elect a president to preside over the United States of America. Because we are a democracy we as the people, vote to elect our president. In order to make sure that all have a fair share in voicing their presidential opinions we use the Electoral College.
The Electoral College was started by the founding fathers when our country was first starting out. It was designed as a compromise between letting citizens or congress elect the president. It is a process that was designed to let each state have a fair shot at affecting the election. To keep this respectfully fair, every state has at least 3 electors. The state’s electors are determined by the number of people that sate has in congress. Due to the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allowed to have 3 electors.
Even though the people in the state do not vote the president in directly, they vote for who they want the electors to vote for. In all states except for Maine and Nebraska the person with the most votes gets all the elector votes for that state. The votes from the people are tallied and known as the popular vote. More times than not, the person who wins the popular vote also wins the presidency. There have only been four times in history where the president did not also win the popular vote. The first time was in 1824 when John Quincy Adams did not receive the popular vote, but was awarded the presidency by congress after a tie in the Electoral College. The most recent time was in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George Bush became president by a small margin. This has also happened in 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes winning over Samuel J. Tilden and 1888 when Benjamin Harrison beat out Grover Cleveland.
There are multiple ways that people can become electors. The two main ways are by campaigning to be an elector or nominated by the state’s party committee. There are very few requirements for becoming an elector. They cannot be in congress, they cannot be a high ranking paid government official, and they cannot have committed a rebellious act against the United States. The majority of electors are involved with politics directly. There are 538 electors. It take 270 electoral votes to become president.
On Monday following the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in state capitals to cast their votes for president and vice president. They use the Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President in your state along with the names of their respective electors. The Certificate of Ascertainment also declares the winning presidential candidate in your state and shows which electors will represent your state at the meeting. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to count the electoral votes. The president of the Senate, the Vice President, presides over the count. They then announce who has been elected the President and Vice President.
There are some who believe that the Electoral College has its fair share of problems. They say that it doesn’t really represent the majority of Americans. They also fear the risk of the electors not voting as they should. I think that something like this is fairly unlikely of happening. That being said I do agree that it’s tricky to really represent the majority’s views. Since state’s electors are based on their members in congress there are quite a few states that can make a bigger change by themselves, than a cluster of smaller states. Still, I think that this is a fairly good system and has appeared to work so far. You can’t make everyone and every state happy, you have to do what’s best for the majority and I think the Electoral College does that well.
http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/INFORMATION/electcollege_procon.php
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html
http://people.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college.htm
Comments
Excellent job Haley!