Electoral college?

[Deleted]

what don't you get?

the electoral college is a group of "electors" who choose the president. there are 538 total (just like # of people in congress). the number of electors per state is apportioned based upon the various states' populations, with the minimum being 3.

the electors in all states but three are winner-take-all based upon the results of that state's popular vote. so, you win california with 51% of the popular vote, you still get all 55 electors. this is how you can end up with someone winning the popular vote, but losing the presidential election (like gore). say you don't win key electoral states with lots of electors, but you win in other, smaller states with like 70% of the popular vote, so on average you win 51% of the popular vote but don't get 271 electors.

the idea was to prevent the rabid, unwashed population from fucking up the presidency, back in the day. and also to deal with the complications of the fact that there were large populations in the south, which were largely comprised of slaves who couldn't vote.

[mrsjuleshs]

All I have to add is that I seriously hate the way the electoral college is set up today. I really hate the whole winner take all that the majority of states go by.

[angelaa73]

Gubbamint can't stay small.

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[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2012 12:33:51 GMT -5 ste said:

Hopefully someone can answer this. I DISTINCTLY remember my 8th grade social studies teacher telling us that the electoral college members are urged (suggested? recommended?) to vote the way the state goes, but that it's still a sealed, private ballot, so there's no guarantee.

Did I dream that? Or she made it up?

you did not dream that. not voting the way the state has voted is called being a "faithless elector." when you become an elector, you pledge to vote in the manner your state has set for electors to vote (i.e., winner take all or apportioned).

[pantsparty]

Is there anything else the electoral college does? Seems like the easiest job ever.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2012 12:38:24 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

Is there anything else the electoral college does? Seems like the easiest job ever.

nope.

i don't think it's particularly highly paid.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2012 12:39:20 GMT -5 TR said:

So what I don't understand is why we still use the electoral college.

i'm not really up on this, but as i recall one concern is that both proximity to polling places and population concentrations would mean that, without an electoral college, most elections on a national scale would be decided by urban areas and thus favor urban interests over the interests of more rural communities. with the electoral college system, the whole state matters.

another is that it keeps things even between the states, sorta, based on population. like if a small state has 100% turnout and a medium state has 30% turnout, a popular vote could mean that the small state "decides" stuff for the bigger states.

i think it's sorta bunk too. but doing away with it would literally require a constitutional amendment. and those selected to be electors are often bigwigs in state government/politics, so there's some inertia built in.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2012 12:41:27 GMT -5 ste said:

Oct 30, 2012 12:37:28 GMT -5 cville said:

you did not dream that. not voting the way the state has voted is called being a "faithless elector." when you become an elector, you pledge to vote in the manner your state has set for electors to vote (i.e., winner take all or apportioned).

PHEW!! lol all these years I've wondered about that.

What happens then? Does it still count? Do they get kicked out? How do they know who it was?

you have reached the end of my knowledge. because each state separtely sends in and certifies its electoral college vote, we'd know which state it was. i'm not sure if each elector signs their own vote too. it's very very rare, i believe.

typically, my guess is that it if it does happen, it doesn't make a difference in the outcome. like, one rogue guy voting for hillary clinton in 2008 (this didn't actually happen) wasn't going to screw it up.

[Deleted]

i'm totally going to email my con law/fed courts professor and let him know that i used my knowledge today.

[PinkSquirrel]

Oct 30, 2012 12:57:35 GMT -5 @kizmet said:

Oct 30, 2012 9:46:18 GMT -5 cville said:

this is how you can end up with someone winning the popular vote, but losing the presidential election (like gore).

That's the part I don't get. Why do we bother voting!?!

I know it's not as simplistic as that but this part baffles me.

I have a love hate relationship with the electoral college because of this. I understand it and in a lot of ways think the electoral college does help to even out the playing field a bit. That said, there's a reason why I could throw my vote to Hillary last election without worrying that my "throw away" vote would negatively affect Obama. I think it does leave some people feeling disenfranchised especially in states that are solidly red or blue.

Also, I get irrationally irritated at the fact that NH constantly has politicians coming to kiss their swing state ass and MA gets virtually nothing because we'll go blue even though we're significantly larger. I think there is a problem with the fact that swing states are pandered to so heavily and other states are avoided. Wasn't one of the many reasons the EC initially created was to help combat politicians only focusing on heavily populated areas?

I feel like either way someone is going to leave the polls feeling like their vote didn't matter enough to the totals or the politicians.

The one thing I do love oh so much about the electoral college, is that those polls are so much more fun to follow. www.electoral-vote.com/
*you should note that the barely Dem/Rep stats technically fall into statistical ties

[mouse]

The electors are selected by the state parties though. So the Democrats choose their own electors and the Republicans theirs and then whoever wins in that state, those electors are the ones who vote. They're very, very loyal party members, the kinds that go to the conventions every time for decades, etc. The chances of them going against their party are vanishingly small.

[Deleted]

I asked my husband this question yesterday, and I'm not sure I totally understood his answer, but I think what he said is that as per the electoral college, the president is actually not representing the citizens as people or individuals, rather he represents the 50 states as states, or parts of the country, therefore they all have a vote as issued by the percentage of their population to the national population.

Originally, the federal government was only meant to provide Defense, and maybe one or two small issues, and the states were meant to take over everything else. However, today's federal government Is involved in pretty much everything, so things have changed, quite obviously. However, from what I understood from his explanation, that wasn't the original goal.

I'll be sure to ask him again. I'm not 100% certain I completely understood it all.

[angelaa73]

Can we all go watch mo rocco's documentary? Bc those third graders have some bones to pick with this....

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