1. PowerPoint #5 Electoral College
American Government - Unit 2
“Elections and Voting”

2. Directions This a very involved presentation
DO NOT write everything down!
Read the slides and ANALYZE the graphs, pictures and information
Summarize the information from each slide

3. Essential Questions
Briefly explain (in your own words) the Electoral College
After reading the pro’s and con’s, explain what you think about the Electoral College system. (Is it a good system for electing a president- why/why not?)

4. Electing the President
Election day - the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November
Every 4th year (even years)

5. Electoral College
When citizens go to the polls to vote for a president, they are voting for which candidate will receive their state's electors.
Those electors then cast a vote for the president.

6. Electoral College There are a total of 538 electoral votes
These are divided by each states Congressional representation:
100 Senate – (2 for each state)
435 House – (based on population)
3 electoral votes from District of Columbia (Washington D.C.)

7. How Electoral Votes are Awarded to a Candidate
The candidate who wins the popular vote in each state gets all of the electoral votes
Exceptions: Maine and Nebraska
Each state gets the number of electoral votes equal to its congressional representation.
The least any state gets is 3
The most is California with 55
270 electoral votes needed to win.

8. Controversy
In the 2016 presidential election Hillary Clinton won the popular vote:
Clinton 65,844,954 (48.2%)
Trump 62,979,879 (46.1%)
BUT Donald Trump won 56% of the electoral votes:
Trump 306
Clinton 232
This (again) brought up the debate of the relevancy of the Electoral College system

9. Arguments Against the Electoral College
Those who object to the Electoral College system and favor a direct popular election of the president generally do so on three grounds:
Info for the slide show found at this website

10. 1. The Possibility of Electing A Minority President (3 ways)
A minority president could be elected if the country were so deeply divided politically that three or more presidential candidates split the electoral votes among them so that no one obtained the necessary majority.
This occurred in 1824 and was unsuccessfully attempted in 1948 and again in 1968.
John Quincy Adams
Elected 1824

11. Possibility of a Minority President
A minority president could take office is if, as in 1888, and in 2016 with President Trump one candidate's popular support were heavily concentrated in a few States (Hillary) while the other candidate maintained a slim popular lead in enough States (Trump) to win the needed majority of the Electoral College.

12. No One Receives Over 50% of the Vote
Electing a minority president could happen if a third party candidate drew enough votes from the top two that no one received over 50% of the national popular total.
This has happened 15 times including Wilson in both 1912 and 1916, Truman in 1948, Kennedy in 1960, Nixon in 1968, Clinton in 1992 and Bush in 2000.

13. 2. Risk of “Faithless Electors”
A "faithless Elector" is one who is pledged to vote for his party's candidate for president but instead votes of another candidate.
There were 7 such Electors in the 1900s .
In 2016 there was a historic number of “Faithless Electors” a total of seven:
Five of Hillary’s electors placed their vote for: Sanders (1), and four other people who did not even run for president
Two of Trump’s electors voted for Republican candidates who had lost to Trump in the Primary's

14. 2016 Electoral Vote Blue for Clinton – Red for Trump

15. 3. Its Failure to Accurately Reflect the National Popular Will
The distribution of Electoral votes tends to over-represent people in rural States.
This is caused by dividing the Electors for each State by the number of members it has in the House (which more or less reflects the State's population size) plus the number of members it has in the Senate (which is always two regardless of the State's population).

16. For Example:
In 1988 the combined voting age population, 3,119,000, of the seven least populous jurisdiction of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming carried the same voting strength in the Electoral College (21 Electoral votes) as the 9,614,000 persons of voting age in the State of Florida.
Each Floridian's potential vote, then, carried about one third the weight of a potential vote in the other States listed.
Florida

17. 3. Its Failure to Accurately Reflect the National Popular Will
The Electoral College fails to accurately reflect the national popular will.
This comes from the winner-take-all mechanism whereby the presidential candidate who wins the most popular votes in the State wins all the Electoral votes of that State.

18. This makes it extremely difficult for a third party to ever to make a showing in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College reinforces a two party system, discourages third party or independent candidates, and thereby tends to restrict choices available to the electorate.

19. Arguments For the Electoral College
Those who favor the Electoral College system generally do so on three grounds:
Congressional clerks help unseal and organize the Electoral College votes.

20. 1. Contributes to the Countries Cohesiveness by Requiring a Distribution of Popular Support to be Elected President
Strong regional interests and loyalties have played a large role in American history, proponents argue that the Electoral College system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president.

21. Urban vs. Rural Interests
Without such a mechanism the president would be selected through the domination of one populous region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the rural ones.

22. Analysis Look at the following two maps:
What does the similarity between those areas who voted for Trump, and those areas who voted for Clinton, tell you about the lifestyle (rural or urban) of the voters?
Does the comparison of the two maps, and the area of the red on the 1st map, give validity to the argument of the fear of “the domination of one populous region over the others?”

23. 2016 Presidential Vote by County Red = Trump, Blue = Clinton

24. Population Density (blue = most densely populated)

25. Regional Running Mates
Because of the Electoral College, presidential nominees are inclined to select vice presidential running mates from a region other than their own.
Currently, no one region contains the absolute majority (270) of electoral votes required to elect a president.
Trump is from New York, Pence is from Indiana
Clinton is from New York, Kaine is from Virginia

26. Coalition or Divide
This creates an incentive for presidential candidates to pull together coalitions of States and regions rather than to divide regional differences.
Such a unifying mechanism seems especially prudent in view of the severe regional problems that have typically plagued geographically large nations such as China, India, and Russia

27. 2. Enhances The Status Of Minority Groups
The Electoral College actually enhances the status of minority groups.
This is so because the voters of even small minorities in a State may make the difference between winning all of that State's electoral votes or none of that State's electoral votes.

28. Ethnic Minorities
This "leverage effect" causes the presidency to be more sensitive to ethnic minorities and other special interest groups
Changing to a direct election of the president would actually damage minority interests since their votes would be overwhelmed by a national popular majority.

29. 3. Contributes to the Political Stability by Encouraging a Two Party System
The Electoral College helps maintain a two party system in the United States.
It is extremely difficult for a third party to win enough popular votes in enough States to have a chance of winning the presidency
The Electoral College protects the presidency from impassioned but transitory third party movements

30. Forces Political Parties to Work Together
This forces third party movements to compromise their more radical views and move into one of the two major political parties to attain any of their objectives.
Major parties then have the incentive to absorb minor party movements in an attempt to win popular majorities in the States.

31. Two Parties
We end up with two large, pragmatic political parties which tend to the center of public opinion rather than dozens of smaller political parties catering to divergent and sometimes extremist views.

32. Essential Questions
Briefly explain (in your own words) the Electoral College
After reading the pro’s and con’s, explain what you think about the Electoral College system. (Is it a good system for electing a president- why/why not?)