The electoral college is the way we elect our presidents. When there is an election for the president, the people vote, and in most states who gets the majority gets all the electors. Every state chooses their electors. How many is decided by congress. It works like this, Wyoming has two senators and one representative. So they have three electors. California has two senators and 53 delegates. So they have 55 electors. Maine and Nebraska use another system that works like this. Say presidential candidate John Q. Public wins 2 representative districts, and Joe Shmoe gets 3 districts. Joe gets the 3 he won, plus the two senate votes. John then gets his 2.
Why they did this was because in 1790 it was really hard to keep track of every single vote in every single state. The electors helped because then you only have to record one state at a time. Then the elector will (mostly) vote the same way. There are 538 electors. If each candidate got 269 electors, the House of Representatives would break the tie. (This was done in 1800 for Thomas Jefferson, and later for John Quincy Adams.)
There are some flaws with this system though. One of them is that the electors are not bound to vote like the people. They can vote anyway they want.(As shown in 1948, 1960, and 2000.) Also people don't like the winner take all system.
Popular vote would now work, but would give Republicans more power that the Democrat controlled congress would not like. It would give the republicans more power, because they control most of the less populated areas with the electoral system. I they used popular vote, they would have more votes, from the more populated states.
There you have it. That is how the electoral system works, was developed, and what is wrong with it. I learned a lot from this I hope you did as well.
Why they did this was because in 1790 it was really hard to keep track of every single vote in every single state. The electors helped because then you only have to record one state at a time. Then the elector will (mostly) vote the same way. There are 538 electors. If each candidate got 269 electors, the House of Representatives would break the tie. (This was done in 1800 for Thomas Jefferson, and later for John Quincy Adams.)
There are some flaws with this system though. One of them is that the electors are not bound to vote like the people. They can vote anyway they want.(As shown in 1948, 1960, and 2000.) Also people don't like the winner take all system.
Popular vote would now work, but would give Republicans more power that the Democrat controlled congress would not like. It would give the republicans more power, because they control most of the less populated areas with the electoral system. I they used popular vote, they would have more votes, from the more populated states.
There you have it. That is how the electoral system works, was developed, and what is wrong with it. I learned a lot from this I hope you did as well.
Very well done young man!
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