An Electoral College Thread (CVILLE, Please enter)

[lemondrop]

So, of course people are bitching that the electoral college sucks, but obviously Obama won the popular vote, so it doesn't hold water. (Gore won the popular vote.) Yes, America would be different without the electoral college, but Obama would still be president.

But I do have a question, in South Dakota we elected the electors to the electoral college, so on the ballot it says "Obama/Biden Electors" and then lists their names. In Minnesota it was worded as voting for Obama/Biden directly. I know each state manages it's elections the way it wants, but are there predetermined electors for each candidate or do some states have the same number of electors who just vote the way they are asked by their state?

(I do realize that SD having only three electoral votes makes it much easier to list the electors out, I'm just curious about the construction of the electoral college in other states.)

[Deleted]

I had thought electoral votes were determined by population.

They are also supposed to vote the way the people want.

Cville knows a lot more.

[lemondrop]

Nov 7, 2012 12:01:14 GMT -5 ninjabridemom said:

I had thought electoral votes were determined by population.

They are also supposed to vote the way the people want.

Cville knows a lot more.

I understand that part.

I'm just curious if for example, California has the same 55 people in the electoral college who then vote as the people voted, or if there are 55 people already predetermined for each candidate.

[aliciar6]

i would still prefer we go with popular vote for the president. i feel like that way fewer people are going to feel like "my vote doesn't count because i live in a red/blue state" and you'd get more people out to vote.

my home state of Nebraska actually will split their electoral votes for the president, last election 2 went to McCain and 1 to Obama.

and i do believe electoral votes are based on population.

[candreco]

Actually, not every state requires their electors to vote according to the popular vote, though I don't think it's ever actually happened that an elector went rogue.

Don't know if it's a set of electors for each candidate, or one set that votes depending on the popular vote.

[looseseal]

I think it's each party has a set of electors.

[VeryViolet]

Nov 7, 2012 12:03:03 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

Nov 7, 2012 12:01:14 GMT -5 ninjabridemom said:

I had thought electoral votes were determined by population.

They are also supposed to vote the way the people want.

Cville knows a lot more.

I understand that part.

I'm just curious if for example, California has the same 55 people in the electoral college who then vote as the people voted, or if there are 55 people already predetermined for each candidate.

This could vary by state but I believe the party in each state chooses the electors. So if the Dems win CA the CA Democratic Party chooses the electors. If this is decided before hand as it appears it is in SD or if they wait to see who wins and then the party chooses electors I don't know. Did that answer your question?

[Deleted]

Ooooohhhh I thought it was by popular vote.

I do vaguely remember high school teaching me it was more complicated than that........

[lemondrop]

Nov 7, 2012 12:07:51 GMT -5 VeryViolet said:

Nov 7, 2012 12:03:03 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

I understand that part.

I'm just curious if for example, California has the same 55 people in the electoral college who then vote as the people voted, or if there are 55 people already predetermined for each candidate.

This could vary by state but I believe the party in each state chooses the electors. So if the Dems win CA the CA Democratic Party chooses the electors. If this is decided before hand as it appears it is in SD or if they wait to see who wins and then the party chooses electors I don't know. Did that answer your question?

Yup, I assumed it varied by state, but I wanted a little more clarification.

[sonrisa]

Nov 7, 2012 12:01:14 GMT -5 ninjabridemom said:

I had thought electoral votes were determined by population.

Each state gets the same number of electors as members of congress (both the Senate and the House). While it is influenced by population, the less populous states are overrepresented (ie. Wyoming gets three electors for its less than 500K residents while California only gets 55 for more than 37 million residents).

[VeryViolet]

This is what wiki says:

Pursuant to Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, each state's legislature determines how its electors are to be chosen, but no person holding a federal office, either elected or appointed, may become an elector.[34] Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, any person who has sworn an oath to support the United States Constitution in order to hold either a state or federal office, and later rebelled against the United States, is barred from serving in the Electoral College. However, the Congress may remove this disability by a two-thirds vote in each House.
Candidates for elector are nominated by their state political parties in the months prior to Election Day. In some states, the electors are nominated in primaries, the same way that other candidates are nominated. Other states, such as Oklahoma, Virginia and North Carolina nominate electors in party conventions. In Pennsylvania, the campaign committees of each candidate name their candidates for presidential elector (an attempt to discourage faithless electors).
Federal law sets the Tuesday following the first Monday in November as the day for holding federal elections.[35] Forty eight states, and Washington, D.C., employ the winner-takes-all method, each awarding its electors as a single bloc. Maine and Nebraska use the "Congressional District Method", selecting one elector within each congressional district by popular vote and selecting the remaining two electors by the statewide popular vote. This method has been used in Maine since 1972 and in Nebraska since 1996.[36]
The current system of choosing electors is called the "short ballot." In all states, voters choose among slates of candidates for elector; only a few states list on the ballot the names of the candidates for elector. In some states, if a voter wants to write in a candidate for President, the voter is also required to write-in the names of candidates for elector.[37]

[sonrisa]

Most states require all the electors to vote in a block "winner take all" style. However Nebraska and Maine allocate their electors proportionately. 2 electoral votes go to the winner of the overall count in the state. The other electors are allocated based upon the winner of each congressional district.

[lemondrop]

Thanks for the clarification!