DEFINITION A group of people named by each state legislature to select the President and Vice President.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

DEFINITION

A group of people named by each state legislature to select the President and Vice President

What do the following four men all have in common?

• A. Andrew Jackson• B. Samuel Tilden• C. Grover Cleveland• D. Al Gore

The Answer

• They all won the popular vote in a Presidential election but did not become President.

1824• Popular Vote

Andrew Jackson 43%John Q. Adams 30.5%

Electoral VoteJackson 99 votes

Adams 84* Adams elected by House of

Representatives when Jackson did not receive a majority of the Electoral votes

1876• Popular Vote

Samuel Tilden 51%

R. B. Hayes 48%

Electoral College

Tilden 184

Hayes 185

Winner: Hayes

1888• Popular Vote

Grover Cleveland 48.5 %

Benjamin Harrison 47.8 %

Electoral College

Cleveland 168

Harrison 233

Winner: Harrison

2000• Popular Vote

Albert Gore 48.7%

George W. Bush 48.5%

Electoral College

Gore 266

Bush 271

Winner: Bush

Why?• We do not pick our President by direct

ballot. We only select electors. These electors form what is called the Electoral College and are the people who officially elect the President.

During the General Election when casting a ballot for a particular candidate, voters are actually

voting for a slate of electors. These electors in turn will vote for that

candidate in the Electoral College

Why was it Created?

• People (then) were not knowledgeable enough to select a President. (poor communications)

• This was a check that gave the states a voice in choosing the President

• To maintain regional balance

The Electoral College was devised for 3 reasons

1. The framers of the Constitution feared direct democracy. Hamilton and the other founders did not trust the population to make the right choice.

“election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station” – James Madison

The Electoral College was devised for 3 reasons

2. The founding fathers wanted to protect the interests of smaller states and rural areas

The Electoral College was devised for 3 reasons

3. The Electoral College helps dilute the effect of votes from densely

populated centers which may steer away from the concerns of the rest of the country

Presidential Electors are nominated by their state political parties in the summer before the Popular

Vote on Election Day

• In some states, the Electors are nominated in primaries the same way that other candidates are nominated

• Other states nominate Electors in party conventions

ELECTORS

The number of electors for each state is based on

# of senators + # of representatives

Georgia has 16 Electoral votes

All states have a minimum of 3 electoral votes

The party that wins a state elects its entire slate of Electors.

This is known as a

Winner Take-all System

(2 exceptions: Maine & Nebraska)

The Presidential Electors meet in their respective state capitols in December, 41 days following the election, at which time they cast their electoral votes. Thus the

"electoral college" never meets as one national body.

Candidates must receive a majority of the

electoral vote to be declared the President-elect or Vice-President-

elect

ELECTORAL VOTES

435 U.S. Representatives+100 U.S. Senators

= 535 electoral votes

+ 3 electoral votes (Washington D.C.)-----------------------------------------= 538 total electoral votes

If no candidate for President receives an absolute electoral

majority 270 votes out of the 538 possible, then the

House of Representatives is required to go into session

immediately to vote for President.

(an even split would be 269 votes)

The House votes en-bloc by state for this purpose that is, one vote per state, which is determined by

the majority decision of the delegation from that state.

if a state delegation is evenly split that state is considered as

abstaining.

This vote would be repeated if necessary until one candidate

receives the votes of more than half the state delegations—at least 26 state votes, given the current

number, 50, of states in the union.

As of 2006, the House of Representatives has elected the President on two occasions, in 1801 (Thomas Jefferson) and in

1825 ( John Quincy Adams).

A faithless elector is one who casts an electoral vote for someone other than whom they have pledged to elect. On

158 occasions, electors have cast their votes for president in a different

manner than that prescribed by the legislature of the state they represent.

Of those, 71 votes were changed because the original candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote. Two votes were not cast at all when electors chose to abstain from casting their electoral vote for any candidate. The remaining 85 were changed by the elector's personal interest or perhaps by accident.

Since a state's electoral slate is chosen by the political party,

and electors are usually those with high loyalty to the party and its candidate, a faithless elector

runs a greater risk of party censure than governmental

action

Take 3 minutes…

• With the people in your row, discuss drawbacks to the electoral college system.

What are the drawbacks to the Electoral College?

• Encourages low voter turnout• Diminishes third party influence• Person with most popular votes may not win• Leads to tactical, insincere voting• If there is no majority winner in the Electoral

College, the election goes to the H.o. R and there is a loss of separation of powers

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.

Third Parties• The Electoral College discourages 3rd

parties because a candidate must have a broad based, national platform to have a chance to gain the highest office. Rarely are 3rd parties financially and politically able to do this.

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.

Electoral Map after the 2004 Election

The 2008 Presidential Election

In-Class Activity• Given the electoral map on the previous slide,

students will be asked the following hypothetical question; If you were running for President with limited money and could only focus on a few states, where would you focus your campaign?

• (Only 11 states are needed to become President.)