Electing the President The Electoral College 2008 – Barack Obama versus John McCain

The USA is too big to count all of the Presidential votes in one go. Instead, people vote for the candidates state-by-state.

The votes are then counted up in individual states. Each state has a certain number of delegates (or “electors”) to the electoral college. Following a Presidential Election, these electors meet at either their state capital cities or in Washington DC, where they cast their votes for the Presidency. Whichever candidate receives at least 538 electors’ votes is elected President of the USA.

The bigger the state, the more electors it has in the electoral college. FLORIDA has a large population, so it has lots of electors (27) IDAHO has a small population, so it has few electors (4) So how is the number of electors allocated?

The delegates for a state should all vote for a single party. The party they vote for is the party most people in that state vote for. So if 51% of voters in Florida vote Democrat, all the delegates should vote Democrat. Even if they personally are Republicans. So how do the electors choose which candidate to vote for? How do they reflect the opinions of the voters living in their state?

Idaho 4 electors in college. e.g 70% vote Republican and 30% vote Democrat, all electors have to vote Republican. Florida 27 electors in college. e.g. 51% vote Democrat and 49% vote Republican all electors have to vote Democrat. Note – These are hypothetical examples and not real election results!

Swing states A swing state is a state in which no candidate has overwhelming support, meaning that any of the major candidates have a reasonable chance of winning the state's electoral college votes. Such states are targets of both major political parties in presidential elections, since winning these states is the best opportunity for a party to gain electoral votes.

States coloured yellow are considered swing states in the 2008 presidential election. States coloured blue are considered relatively safe for Democrats. States coloured red are considered relatively safe for Republicans.

So a majority of votes is not always needed to become President. This means US Presidential campaigns can concentrate on winning the popular vote in a combination of states that choose a majority of the electors, rather than campaigning to win the most votes nationally.