1. Who Really Elects the President?
A Look at the Electoral College

2. What Is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College was established by the Constitution
It is a group of individuals who cast votes to determine who will become the President of the United States
Each state gets a number of Electors equal to the state’s number of representatives in Congress

3. Why Did the Framers Create the Electoral College?
First, the Framers were fearful that without the Electoral College, politicians campaigning for the presidency would ignore smaller states.
Second, the Framers hoped the Electoral College would protect the government from the “mob” of uneducated masses.

4. …How Does the Electoral College Work? (Condensed Version)
Political Parties nominate Electors at state party conventions
When citizens vote, the ballots say the names of presidential and vice-presidential candidates. In reality, though, citizens are voting for slates of electors who will then usually vote for the corresponding candidate
In 48 states, whoever wins the popular state vote receives all of the state’s electoral votes
The candidate who wins a majority of the Electoral College votes (270) becomes President of the United States

5. Problems

6. Disproportionate Representation
Voters in larger states are grossly underrepresented when compared to voters in smaller states
Ex: Wyoming, Population: 493,782; Electoral Votes: 3
Texas, Population: 20,000,000; Electoral Votes: 32
Wyoming has 1 Elector for every 165,000 people
Texas has 1 Elector for every 652,000 people
Each individual vote in Wyoming counts four times as much as each individual vote in Texas

7. The Third Party Dilemma
The Electoral College effectively guarantees the failure of a third party candidate.
Because support for a candidate must be geographically concentrated, third party candidates – who may have strong support across the country but almost never have dense support in a particular region or state – are at a significant and devastating disadvantage.
Ex. In 1992, Ross Perot won 19% of the popular vote
Though he won nearly a fifth of the country’s support, under the Electoral College system he did not receive a single electoral vote.

8. Regional Favoritism
Candidates focus on bigger states, which have bigger Electoral College payoffs.
Candidates also focus on so-called “battleground” states at the exclusion of other states, meaning that states that clearly lie in the pocket of one candidate or another merely watch from the sidelines as the election is won or lost in contested states.

9. “Winner Take All”
If a candidate wins a majority of a state’s popular vote, he wins all of the state’s electoral votes.
Ex. Candidate A wins California by a percent margin of 51.1%. Candidate B loses California by a percent margin of 48.9%.
Candidate A receives 55 electoral votes. Candidate B receives 0.

10. The Stalemate
Occurs when no candidate receives a majority of Electoral College votes
When this happens, the President is chosen by the House of Representatives, and the Vice President is chosen by the Senate
By design, and because of the extremely partisan nature of Congress, this could result in a number of politically devastating consequences, and the government could effectively grind to a halt

11. Review: The Whole Voting Process

12. Part I: Primary
The direct primary was established to give voters more of a say of who gets nominated by the party.
This reduced the influence of political party officials
Here the party members vote in each state to select who will run for office (president governor etc.)
The Party helps connect people with their candidates, and recruits people to run for office

13. Part II: Primary Campaign
Political Action Committees (PAC’s) raise money for candidates often based on issues they support or oppose.
Straw polls are taken at campaign events. These are polls of event participants to see who the people at events are likely to vote for.
Telephone polls are taken of likely voters to try and figure out who people are likely to vote for.
As voting happens exit polls are taken so the media can try to predict the winner of the election early.
Whoever receives the most delegates from the states will become the nominee for the party.

14. Part III Nominating Convention
Here the party officially selects the candidates who will be running for office.
It is also here that the candidates platform is adopted.
Lobbyists (people who represent specific groups of people or interests) will attempt to influence the platform here through campaign donations.
Third parties will nominate a candidate as well.
Their goal is usually to get their ideas adopted by the major parties.
However often what happens is they take votes away from a major party’s candidate causing his opponent to win

15. Part IV: Presidential Campaign, Where They Campaign
Every ten years the population is counted, this is known as a census
Reapportionment of representatives in congress are decided based on the census (how many members of the House of Representatives each states receives).
A state has a number of electoral votes based on the number of representatives they have plus the number of senators.
Therefore the electoral votes of a state is based on that states population.
Because of this presidential candidates focus on big states
Because of winner takes all candidates focus on states that either side can win (battleground states)

16. Part IV: Presidential Campaign, How They Reach the Public
PAC’s and donors contribute millions of dollars to candidates
This money is used to buy ads and use propaganda (bandwagon, stereotyping, name calling, etc.) to convince people to vote for them.
The mass media also informs the public of why people are running and gives them a platform for the candidates to give their views to millions of Americans

17. Part V: Voting, What is on a Ballot
The ballot will have more than just the presidential candidate, it will have your member of the House of Representatives, and sometimes your governor, senator, and mayor.
Ballots can also contain
Recalls  Choosing to remove or replace an elected official
Referendums  Laws put on the ballot by the state legislature for people to vote on
Initiatives  Laws put on the ballot by a petition for people to vote on
These and the secret ballot were put in place during the progressive era in order to limit the power of parties

18. Part V: Voting The popular vote is then cast.
Each state will give its electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most popular votes in that state (winner takes all).
The older you are, the more likely you are to vote
If you are out of town the day of an election, you can vote via absentee ballot by registering for a ballot beforehand
Usually the incumbent wins an election unless they are very unpopular

19. Coda: Why You Should Vote
Registering to vote is part of being a good citizen and the first step in getting involved in what is going on in your community
You have more say in local elections than national elections because the numbers are smaller and you likely are more familiar with the issues
A person can influence their candidates through letters since this puts pressure on a candidate to give the voters what they want