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On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U.S. citizens go to local voting booths to elect, among other officials, the next president and vice president of their country. Their votes will be recorded and counted, and winners will be declared. But the results of the popular vote are not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral College has not cast its' vote.

The Electoral College from start to Finish
The national presidential election actually consists of a separate election in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In these 51 elections, the voters are really voting for "electors" pledged to one of the tickets. These electors make up the Electoral College.

Each state has the same number of electors as it has Senators and Representatives (there are two senators from each state, but the number of representatives depends on the state population in the most recent census). The District of Columbia, although it isn't a state, also participates in presidential elections -- it currently has three electors.

Registered voters in each state vote for electors in the Electoral College. In most of the states, and also in the District of Columbia, the election is winner-take-all; whichever ticket receives the most votes in that state (or in D.C.) gets all the electors. The only exceptions are Maine and Nebraska.

The Electoral College then votes for president and for vice-president, with each elector casting one vote; these votes are called electoral votes. Each elector pledges to represent the popular vote winner for their state at the Electoral College. Most of the time, electors cast their votes for the candidate who has received the most votes in that particular state.

Under this system, each state is assigned a specific number of votes that is proportional to its population, so that each state's power is representative of its population. Winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory, so they must try to gain popular support of particular states in order to win the votes of that state. The goal of any candidate is to put together the right combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes. If there is no majority winner, then the U.S. House of Representatives votes to determine who will become the next president.

Reasons for the Electoral College
In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, the founders were debating on how to decide on choosing the President. At the time, there existed many differing ideas on how the president was going to be elected. At the convention, the founders realized that having Congress elect the chief-executive, would throw off the system of checks and balances. If congress elected the president , it would mean the office could be controlled by the legislature. The founders also rejected the idea of actually letting the people directly elect the president. Instead they opted for an indirect popular vote - the Electoral college. DID YOU KNOW?

In most elections, all the electors pledge to vote in accordance with the popular vote winner. However, only 27 U.S. states have electors who are legally bound by their constitution to vote for their candidate. It is not clear what would happen in the unlikely event that a large number of electors violated their pledge and voted differently.

2008 Presidential Election, Electoral College Votes by State Total electoral votes: 538
Majority needed to elect: 270

Winning the Popular Vote but not the Presidency
In most presidential elections, a candidate who wins the popular vote will also receive the majority of the electoral votes, but this is not always the case. There have been four presidents who have won an election with fewer popular votes than their opponent, but acquired more electoral votes:

1824: John Quincy Adams received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.

1876: Nearly unanimous support from small states gave Rutherford B. Hayes a one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000 votes.

1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65.

2000: George W. Bush loses the popular vote by 539,898, but won a greater majority of larger states to defeat Al Gore.

The Pros and Cons of The Electoral College
There are many pro and con arguments regarding the Electoral College , but this system does guarantee that the person elected president has substantial support distributed throughout the country. Proponents argue that the Electoral College is a block or weighed voting system, designed to give more power to the states with larger populations. This also means that smaller states have the ability to swing an election. Those opposed to the Electoral College believe that the United States should abandon its indirect popular vote , in favor of elections that rely solely on the direct popular vote.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS:
Project Vote Smart
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FirstGov
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Google U.S. Government
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Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
bensguide.gpo.gov

Infoplease.com
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781446.html

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