1. The system that picks the President and the Vice President
Electoral College
What is it??
The system that picks the President and the Vice President

2. Electoral Votes in Each State

3. What is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College is a group of 538 electors that vote for the President and Vice-President.
-Each state gets a specific number of electors based on the state's Congressional Representation
-In each state... 2 Senators + #Representatives = #Electors
Virginia: 13 Electors
Alaska: 3 Electors
California: 55 Electors

4. Obama: 52.7% McCain: 46.4% Total Electoral Votes: 13
Obama gets ALL 13

5. What’s all that mean? Popular Vote Electoral Vote Counting
*There is a group of electors for each political party.
*They promise to vote for a specific candidate.
*In November, the popular vote decides which electoral group votes
Electoral Vote
*In December, the electors go to Richmond, VA to hold the electoral vote.
Counting
*The winner of the MAJORITY of the electoral votes is officially the President and Vice-President!

6. Winner-Takes-All System is
*Winner-Takes-All System is... when the winner of the popular vote in a state takes all of that state's electoral votes
And favors...highly populated states for campaigning, although candidates must pay attention to small states in a tight election
*The requirements for a majority vote to win in the Electoral College favors... a two party system.

7. Who benefits form the EC?
Big States. Why?
Because of the winner take all feature the big states become very important
California=55, Texas=34
Delaware=3, Rhode Island=4

8. Who benefits from the EC?
Small States. Why?
Tight elections make small states very important.
Creates swing states.
3 Votes
Each

9. Why do we have it?
The framers actually chose the Electoral College for a few reasons
It was a compromise between small and large states
The size of the country (and lack of technology) prevented a national election
The framers thought the common American was not smart enough to select a president

10. How did the framers think it would work?
The framers of the constitution never thought that the Electoral College would elect a president
They expected the Electoral College to serve as a nominating committee
They wanted the House of Reps. to elect the President

11. What have been the historical problems with the EC?
1800 – Both Jefferson and Burr received 73 votes
1824 – No one received a majority of the EC votes, House had to decide the election (Adams picked by House)
1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 – the person that received the most votes did not win the election (Adams,Hayes, Harrison, Bush)

12. Will it ever change?
There would need to be a constitutional amendment to change it.
2/3 of Congress, ¾ of the States
A lot of states think they would loose in the new system
No one knows what the new system would mean

13. What are some problems? Should we change it? Why or why not?
It magnifies small margins.
No one knows how the Electoral College works.
Should we change it? Why or why not?