2008 Electoral College

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What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is the system used, in the United States of America, for choosing the winners of our presidential elections. It was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as a compromise for the presidential election process.

During that time in our history there were some politicians who thought that choosing our President through a straight popular vote was reckless and wrought with dangers, on the other hand there were others who objected Congress having the power to select the president.

A compromise was to set up where a certain amount of Electors for each state would be chosen by the voters. These Electors would then cast their votes for candidates. This system was described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution... and it is also addressed in the 12th, 20th and 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Do the Electors have to vote in accordance with the State's popular vote?

The short answer is No.

Twenty-six states have no requirement that electors vote in accordance with the popular vote. Nineteen states and D.C. mandate that they vote in accordance with the popular vote, but there's no penalty if an elector fails to do so. Only five states have penalties for deviating from the popular vote; but in most of those states the sanctions are relatively minor. Throughout U.S. history only nine "faithless electors" have violated their pledges to vote for their party's nominees.

Next "Is the Electoral College a Good Thing?"

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Is the Electoral College a good thing?

The answer to this depends upon whom you ask. Some believe it is an outdated system which takes the selection of the President out of the hands of the American people, while others believe it is a good system because it forces the presidential candidates to pay more attention to the less populated states than they would if the process was not in place.

I sort of stand with both views., the electoral college is necessary - but it needs revamped with in the framework of the constitution, bill of rights and amendments.

Each state gets the number of electors equal to that of their congressional districts, plus 2 electors to equal the number of state senators for their states. The Electors for the state can meet and vote on to whom their 2 points will go, the division of those 2 points will be their problem. The other votes will be cast in accordance with the popular votes for each congressional district in the state.

For example, the state of New York has 31 Electoral Votes (E.V., or E.C.V.). 2 of those votes are granted to match the number of senators the state, 29 of those votes are to match the number of representatives the state has. This means the state of New York has 29 Congressional Districts. It looks as if 11 of those congressional districts are primarily republican and 18 are primarily democrat. Goto the following site to see what I base this on and key in on New York:

Mapmaker at Nationalatlas.gov
nationalatlas.gov/natlas/Natlasstart.asp

So, let's say that the November elections are held and McCain wins 12 congressional districts, while the Democrat wins 14 districts. The remaining 3 districts are won by Nadar. McCain would get 12 EV, the Democrat would get 14 and Nadar would get 3 EV. The Electors would then meet on the Monday following election and by the laws of their state award the remaining 2 points by their laws. If NY was required to give their votes to the winner of the Statewide popular vote in the election, then the Democrat would get the 2 points. If the state had the policy to split their Electoral votes, then they could award McCain 1 point and the Dem 1 point (since those are the two leaders). If the state electors was allowed to give their votes to anyone running.. then it's possible they could give Nadar both points, or give McCain or the Dem the 2 points. In this way the people would get the brunt of the say per the popular vote by congressional district. We would not have the "Mob Rules" mentallity in full effect, nor would we have a group of political types choosing for us... yet we still give our political parties a say in the election too by giving them 2 EV points per state to award.

It may sound complicated, but I don't like changing the constitution just because some people can't understand the process or they are sore losers and want to go to a process where our political candidates can ignore large chunks of America.

Discuss your point of view on this topic!