Every fourth November, after almost two years of campaign hype and money, over 90 million Americans vote for the presidential candidates. Then, in the middle of December, the president and vice president of the United States are really elected by the votes of only 538 citizens the “electors of the Electoral College” (Web 1).
When you vote for a presidential candidate you are really be voting to instruct the electors from your state to cast their votes for the same candidate. For example, if you vote for the Republican candidate, you are really voting for an elector who will be pledged to vote for the Republican candidate. The candidate who wins the popular vote in a state wins all the pledged votes of the state's electors.
The Electoral College system was established in Article II of the Constitution and amended by the 12th Amendment in 1804. Each state gets a number of electors equal to its number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its two U.S. Senators. The District of Columbia gets three electors. While state laws determine how electors are chosen, the political party committees within the states generally select them.
Each elector gets one vote. Thus, a state with eight electors would cast eight votes. There are currently “538 electors and the votes of a majority of them 270 votes are required to be elected” (Danner, 2004). Since Electoral College representation is based on congressional representation, states with larger populations get more Electoral College votes.
Should none of the candidates win 270 electoral votes, the 12th Amendment kicks in and the House of Representatives decide the election. The combined representatives of each state get one vote and a simple majority of states is required to win. This has only happened twice.............
