Transcript The Electoral College

The Electoral College
“A sham and a waste of time”
-Robyn Sunderland*
*The only thing she remembers from her high school history classes
What is the Electoral College
• NOT a place, it is a process
• Constitutional process for electing the
President and Vice-President
• Perhaps the weirdest part of our political
system
• Very confusing
• Very controversial
• Endured nonetheless
Why the Electoral College?
• Framers fearful of “mob rule”
• Put in a safety valve in case the people ever
wanted to elect someone terrible
How Does it Work?
• Total # of Electoral Votes = 1 for each seat in
Congress
– Today = 538
• Senate seats = 100
• House seats = 435
• DC
= 3 (per 23rd Amendment)
• To become POTUS, must have highest
number of electoral and at least a majority
– Today, to win presidency must have at least 270
Today’s Electoral Map
Who Casts Electoral Votes?
• Each candidate’s party chooses electors who
have pledged to vote for that candidate if
given the opportunity
• Regular voters in each state cast votes for the
electors of the candidate of their choice
– Popular Vote
• The candidate whose electors get the
majority of popular votes in each state are
“elected” to vote in the Electoral College
Winner Take All
• All but 2 states (ME & NE) use “Winner
Take All” method
– Whichever candidate’s electors gets a majority
of popular vote, has ALL of their electors
elected
• Ex. PA = 20 electoral votes
– Candidate A’s electors get 51% of popular vote in PA so
100% of Candidate A’s electors in PA get to vote in
Electoral College
– ME & NE use divide electoral votes
proportionally
WTH? (The Weird Stuff)
1. Pretty Undemocratic
2. Faithlessness
3. Winner Take All System =
– Only have to win 11 most populous states to win
– Possible for candidate who lost the popular vote to
win the electoral vote
• Happened 4 times so far (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000)
– Possible for candidate who did not win a majority of
popular votes to win electoral vote
• Happened 14 times so far
• Maybe this is a virtue of the Electoral College