1. What is Electoral College?
Objectives:
Be able to explain importance of the Electoral College and its function.
Why was it created
How does the Electoral College affect Presidential Campaigns

2. What do they have in common?
Andrew Jackson
Al Gore

3. Did you get it right?
They both won the popular vote in a Presidential election but did not go on to become the President.

4. 1824 Popular Vote Andrew Jackson 43% John Q. Adams 30.5%
Electoral Vote
Jackson 102 votes
Adams
Adams elected by House of Representatives when Jackson did not receive a majority of the Electoral votes
1824 is notable for being the only election since the passage of the Twelfth Amendment to have been decided by the House of Representatives in accordance with its provision to turn over the choice of the president to the House when no candidate secures a majority of the electoral vote. It was also the only presidential election in which the candidate who received the most electoral votes did not become president (since Andrew Jackson's plurality of electoral votes was insufficient to prevent the election from being thrown into the House of Representatives). The election of 1824 is often claimed to be the first in which the successful presidential candidate did not win the popular vote, however it is not always pointed out that the popular vote was not measured nationwide at the time

5. 1876 Popular Vote Samuel Tilden 51% R. B. Hayes 48% Electoral College
Winner: Hayes

6. 1888 Popular Vote Grover Cleveland 48.5 % Benjamin Harrison 47.8 %
Electoral College
Cleveland
Harrison
Winner: Harrison

7. 2000 Election
George W. Bush vs Al Gore
(Republican) (Democrat)

8. 2000 Popular Vote Albert Gore 48.7% George W. Bush 48.5%
Electoral College
Gore
Bush
Winner: Bush
Al Gore, 50,992,335 popular votes, 266 electoral votes, George W Bush, 50,455,156 (537,179 votes less), 271 electoral votes, Florida was decided by only 537 votes!

9. 2000 Electoral College Map

10. 2004 Election
George W. Bush vs John Kerry
(Republican) (Democrat)

11. 2004 Electoral College Map

12. Were There Any Similarities in the 2000 and 2004 Elections?

13. 2000
2004

14. Does the Electoral College Match What the People Want?
George W. Bush
50,456,002 popular votes
271 Electoral Votes
Al Gore
50,999,897 popular votes
266 Electoral Votes

15. 2008 Election
Barack Obama vs. John McCain
(Democrat) (Republican)

16. 2008 Electoral College Map

17. 1984 Presidential Election
Walter Mondale
Ronald Reagan

18. 1984 Electoral College Map

19. Why did this happen?
Americans do not pick the President by direct ballot.
Technically, they only select electors.
These electors form what is called the Electoral College (it’s the Electors who officially elect the President).

20. What is it? The Electoral College was created by the Founding Fathers.
It was established by Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution.
The Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system. Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process. Many different proposals to alter the Presidential election process have been offered over the years, such as direct nation-wide election by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the States for ratification. Under the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States.

21. “Electors will determine the president and vice-president.”
ARTICLE II Section 1
“Electors will determine the president and vice-president.”

22. Why was Electoral College created?
People were not knowledgeable enough to select a President. (Poor communications)
This was a check that gave the states a voice in choosing the President, the objective was to maintain regional balance.
The Founding Fathers felt an EC was necessary for a few reasons: First, they questioned whether the electorate was capable of selecting an adequate leader for the nation if the people chose the “wrong” President, the EC could override the vote. Second, voters had very little knowledge of candidates outside of their local area or state voting was based primarily on REGION

23. However, since universal suffrage, this has no longer been an issue.
What’s the point?
The Founding Fathers saw the Electoral College as a mechanism for protecting the nation from mob politics.
However, since universal suffrage, this has no longer been an issue.

24. Popular Votes:
The votes that are cast by citizens over the age of 18
Electoral Votes:
The votes that are cast by ELECTORS for each party if their party wins more than 50% of the popular votes

25. How many electoral college votes are there?
The total electoral vote of 538 is based on 100 senators, 435 representatives for the 50 states.
The 23rd Amendment gave Washington, DC 3 electoral votes.
The Presidential Election should be viewed as 51 separate elections each with a “winner take all” system since the candidates compete in 50 states and DC for electoral votes.
The District of Columbia has three electoral votes because the 23rd Amendment granted it the same number of votes as the least populated State.

26. 270 to win!
To win a candidate must get a majority of 538 votes or 270.
Each state is represented in the Electoral College according to their total number of members of Congress.

27. On your copy of the map below, imagine you are running for President with limited money and can only focus on a few states, where are you going to focus your campaign?
Students should list the states, in order that they would need to win the necessary 270 E.C. votes. They should find that there are only 11 states needed to become President!

28. What If Not Every State Likes You?
CA = 55
TX = 34
FL = 27
OH = 20
NY = 31
PA = 21
NJ = 15
IL = 21
NC = 15
MI = 17
D.C. = 3
IN = 11
_____________
Total = 270

29. So how many electors are there?
Each state is allocated a number of electors.
Every ten years a Census is taken to determine how many representatives each state will have in the House of Representatives.
This number helps to determine the number of electors for each state.
The number of electors is determined by combining the number of congressional representatives a State has (the minimum one) with its senators (two) plus three votes from Washington DC.

30. How many electors does each state have?
The number can change after each census to reflect shifts in population, thus in 2000 Florida had 25 electoral college votes but in 2004 it had 27 votes.
California, the most populous state, has two senators and 52 representatives. This gives California 54 electoral votes.
Wyoming, the least populous state, has two senators and 1 representative. This gives Wyoming 3 electoral votes.

31. Becoming an Elector Electors will be appointed by state legislature.
Electors must be loyal party members.

32. Each state has a number of electoral votes, these are equal to the number of members the state has in Congress:
No. of House Representatives
+ 2 Senators
Example: Wisconsin has 8 House Representatives and 2 senators, therefore Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes,
Texas has 36 House Representatives and 2 Senators, therefore Texas has 38 Electoral votes.

33. Winner-takes-all
The states have their general elections, and by the winner-takes-all system (similar to FPTP), the majority vote of that state’s population gets all the votes of the electoral college.
This happens in all but two states: Maine and Nebraska.
Individual votes count only in the state where they are cast. When all states have voted, the candidate with the most votes in each state gets all the electoral votes of that state.

34. The two exceptions
In Maine and Nebraska the overall state majority vote winner gets the two Senate electoral college votes.
Each congressional district in the state is given one electoral college vote and the winner of the majority of that district gets the vote.
Example Nebraska: in 2008, McCain won the two Senate electoral college votes for the overall state and also two of three congressional districts and Obama won the third congressional district.
There are 48 States that have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate receives a majority of the vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate) takes all of the State's electoral votes.
Only two States, Nebraska and Maine, do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those States, there could be a split of electoral votes among candidates through the State's system for proportional allocation of votes.For example, Maine has four electoral votes and two Congressional districts. It awards one electoral vote per Congressional district and two by the state-wide, "at-large" vote. It is possible for Candidate A to win the first district and receive one electoral vote, Candidate B to win the second district and receive one electoral vote, and Candidate C, who finished a close second in both the first and second districts, to win the two at-large electoral votes. Although this is a possible scenario, it has not actually occurred in recent elections.

35. In December, following the November Election
The winning electors in each state go to their respective state capitals and cast their votes and send them to Congress.
States put in the final vote for president based on their individual population’s majority vote.

36. Advantages Disadvantages
Preserves the federal system-winning individual states is important. Without the EC, state lines mean nothing
Complex system which can be confusing, votes are for the EC not the candidate.
Candidates need to focus on all regions of the nation - States with the smallest populations can have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.
The person with the most votes may not win (see examples at outset of lesson).
Usually produces a clear winner, with voters able to see and understand which states each candidate has won and why.
Encourages low voter turnout
Preserves the two party system
Diminishes third party influence
Extreme parties have little chance of winning any state
Person with most popular votes may not win
Protects minorities
Leads to tactical, insincere voting
If there is no majority winner in the EC, the election goes to the H.o.R and there is a loss of separation of powers.
While it is important to win large States, such as California and Texas, the 2000 Presidential election demonstrated that in a close race it is important not to neglect small states

37. Why low voter turnout?
The Electoral College is a winner take all system of deciding who receives a states electoral votes.
Consequently, if a person gets 50.1% of the popular vote (in a two man race), he get 100% of the electoral votes.
Therefore, many people feel that their vote does not matter and choose to not vote.

38. Minor parties
The Electoral College discourages minor parties because a candidate must have a broad based, national platform to have a chance to gain the highest office.
Rarely are minor parties financially and politically able to do this.

39. Tactical Voting
Voters often resort to tactical voting in Presidential elections because the person they truly support cannot win the all of the electoral votes.
For instance, many people would have preferred Ralph Nader in the 2000 Presidential election but knew that he was not going to win.
Instead, they often voted for Al Gore because he was the major candidate with the platform closest to Nader.

40. What if there is a tie?
If no Presidential candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the US House of Representatives takes a vote to determine the winner (this happened in 1800 & 1824).
If no Vice Presidential candidates receives enough votes to win, the Senate takes a vote to decide who the winner is (this happened in 1837).
If the system does not work, the House elects the President and the Senate elects the Vice-President. This has not happened since 1824.

41. Has this ever happened?
In the Presidential election of 1836, the election for Vice President was decided in the Senate.
Martin Van Buren's running mate, Richard M. Johnson, fell one vote short of a majority in the Electoral College.
Vice Presidential candidates Francis Granger and Johnson had a "run-off" in the Senate under the 12th Amendment, where Johnson was elected 33 votes to 17.

42. Do Electors have to do they are told to do?
Electors have refused to vote for their party’s nominee
1796
1820
1948
1956
1960
1968
1972
1976
1988
2000
2004: an elector from Minnesota voted for John Edwards (twice, President & Vice President)

43. What are "faithless electors“?
Electors are under no constitutional or Federal law to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their States.
Some States, however, require electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote, there are two types:
Electors bound by State law
Electors bound by pledges to political parties.
The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require that electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore, political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the parties' nominees.
Some State laws provide that so-called "faithless electors" may be subject to fines or may be disqualified for casting an invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector.
No elector has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote as pledged.

44. Summary
On election day, voters choose who they want to be President & Vice President.
What voters are actually choosing are ELECTORS who represent the political party of the candidate they like.
These electors are then supposed to vote for the candidate that wins the popular vote in a given state.
The Electoral College system is “winner take all” (candidate with the most popular votes gets ALL of the electoral votes -except in Maine and Nebraska where the electoral votes can be divided).
The electors then meet in the State capitol to cast votes for the candidate they represent (Monday after the 2nd Wednesday in December).
Those votes are then sent to the president of the Senate in DC.
The president of the Senate counts the votes on January 6 (this is done before Congress).
It is important to remember that the President is not chosen by a nation-wide popular vote. The electoral vote totals determine the winner, not the statistical plurality or majority a candidate may have in the nation-wide vote totals. Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of the popular vote in each State.
Note that 48 out of the 50 States award electoral votes on a winner-takes-all basis (as does DC). For example, all 55 of California's electoral votes go to the winner of that State election, even if the margin of victory is only 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent.
In a multi-candidate race where candidates have strong regional appeal, as in 1824, it is quite possible that a candidate who collects the most votes on a nation-wide basis will not win the electoral vote. In a two-candidate race, that is less likely to occur. But it did occur in the Hayes/Tilden election of 1876 and the Harrison/Cleveland election of 1888 due to the statistical disparity between vote totals in individual State elections and the national vote totals. This also occured in the 2000 presidential election, where George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a majority of electoral votes.