1. Electoral College PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

2. So… What is the electoral college?  When you vote for the President you are actually voting for an ELECTOR to vote for you.  Each state has a determined number of electors. Each elector gets one vote.  All the electors added up are the electoral college  So each election there are two votes-  Popular vote (the people)- November  Electoral vote (based off of the popular vote)- December

3. How do you figure out the number of electors per state?  A state’s number of Electors is the total number of Senators and Representatives in the House  New Jersey 2 Senators + 12 Representatives = 14 Electors

4. Number of Representatives Number of ELECTORS

6. Total number of electors  100 senators + 435 representatives + 3 (for Washington D.C.) = 538 electors

7. So, how do you win electoral votes?  48 out of the 50 states have a “ winner takes all ” method  If you get the most votes in that state by the popular election, you get ALL of their electoral college votes.  Example- If President Obama, who is a Democrat wins the popular vote in NJ (more people vote for him), then the Democratic electors all go to the electoral college to cast their vote for Obama…. If it is split with 51% for him and 49% against him! He wins all of them!  If the Republican candidate wins the popular vote, than the Republican electors are sent to the electoral college to vote.  ***It is possible to get more votes overall in the election from the entire country and NOT be elected President

8. So, how do you win electoral votes?  2 states are different and can divide up their votes based on congressional district - Nebraska and Maine

9. How do you win the Presidency?  To win the presidency, you need 270 electoral college votes  If no single candidate gets the required 270 electoral votes then the House of Representatives votes to decide the President.

11. True or False… The candidate with the most votes is elected president.

12. Answer  Answer: Not necessarily. Ask Al Gore.

13. 2000 Election The Popular Vote (people) Al Gore50,996,039 George W. Bush 50,456,141 The Electoral Vote George W. Bush271 Al Gore267

17.  http://www.270towin.com/ http://www.270towin.com/  How the Electoral College Works How the Electoral College Works  The Trouble with the Electoral College The Trouble with the Electoral College  http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/usgovernmentandlaw/presidenti alelection/preview.weml http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/usgovernmentandlaw/presidenti alelection/preview.weml  Electoral college brain pop