The Electoral College

Terms

What is a faithless elector?

An elector that that changes their vote because the electorate votes for someone unfit for office.

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What is a winner-take-all system?

The winner of the popular vote, no matter how small the amount they won by, get to have all of the electoral votes.

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What is a swing state?

A state whose electoral votes could change the result in an election. \n They also are known to not usually vote for one specific party or another.

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What is a popular vote?

Total number of votes a candidate gets from individual voters.

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What is an elector?

Designated representatives that go to cast the ‘official’ vote for the vice president or president.

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You don’t personally elect the president. Here’s how it works.

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You vote for the president. Kind of. When you vote, you’re actually voting for a representative who then goes to vote for you.

1. First, voters cast their vote for whomever they want to be elected.

2. Then, designated representatives, electors, go to cast the ‘official’ vote for them.

3. The president or vice president is elected.

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How does this all work?

Each political party chooses the slate of electors for each state.

The amount of electors per state is determined by population- larger states, more electors.

Also add 2 to that, for there are 2 senators in each state.

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The total number of electors is the total number of Representatives in Congress.

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Now, if the party’s candidate wins the popular vote, then their electors can go to vote in the ‘official’ election in mid-January.

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A lot of states use the winner-take-all system, meaning that the winner of the popular vote gets all of the electoral votes.

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To win, they need at least 270 electoral votes out of 538. This works best with a 2-party system, or else it would be hard to get that many votes.

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And some states, such as Maine, Nebraska, split the electoral votes based on the popular vote.

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What does this mean for presidential elections?

The WTA system (Winner-take-all) leads to the targeting of more populated states. Why? Let me explain with an example.

Joey and Ella both need a dollar. They go looking on the sidewalk for dropped coins. Ellie is picking up all of the pennies she sees. Joey picks up all of the quarters he sees. Who will get a dollar first? Well, Joey of course. Ella will get there, but not before Joey.

This references targeting larger states because if they target lower populated states, they won’t get as many electoral votes. But if they target larger ones, they will get more faster.

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But, candidates also pay attention to swing states, because their electoral votes may make a difference in tight elections.

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This all means we have an indirect democracy, rather than a direct one.

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