Who made the electoral college?
109017
The Electorial College was set up by the Constitution giving the winner of each state a number of electors equal to the Number of Members of the House Of Representitives and 2 for the Number of Senator's from each state.  Each of the original states felt as though they were independent nations belonging to a larger Federal Nation.  This type of voting made each states representation in the National Election on an Equal basis to each other.  Today we have 435 representitives in the House of Representitives total, plus  2 Senator's for each state then we add 3 electors for the District of Columbia and we have a total of 538 electors.  To win the presidency you need a majority of the eletorial vote or 270 votes or better to win.  A person can get a majority of the electorial vote and not win a majority of the popular vote.  This  was the case in 1992 when we had three way race and Clinton won well over a majority of the electorial votes and only had 44% of the popular vote.  No candidate had a majority of the popular vote in 2000, however Gore had the most by over a half a million votes, yet he lost the electorial college in a heavily contested race.  There have been arguements over changing this to a popular vote election, however this would require a majority or over 50% of the popular vote and usually with minor candidates the winner may not have a majority and a run off election would have to be held between the top candidates creating further confusion and delays in knowing the winner giving less time for a smooth transition of power.  While the states do not have the power that they originally thought they wanted, the electorial college still makes sense for being fair to the states.
128579
A few months.\n\nEach state's electors meet in their respective state capitals in December, 41 days following the election, at which time they cast their electoral votes. Thus the Electoral College never meets as one body. The electoral votes are then sealed and sent to the President of the Senate (i.e. the sitting Vice President of the United States), who retains them until the new Congress convenes in January. At that time, the votes are opened and counted in the presence of both houses of Congress. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for President becomes President, and the candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes for Vice President becomes Vice President.
933748
The Electoral College is the thing that actually elects the US President.  Each state gets a number of delegates equal to the sum of their Senators plus Representatives in Congress.\n\nThe actual delegates are selected by mechanisms in each state, but their vote is a foregone conclusion.\n\nWikipedia is your friend....
150821
the founding fathers designed this system because they thought that at the time the population was to uneducated to make such critical decisions as choosing the president. in fact the public couldn't choose senators either--they were chosen by the state legislatures. in any event the electoral college is a system that gives one vote per senator/representative that a state has. the electors are mainly chosen by the party that carried the state and when casting the ballots for the candidate that won the state the elector actually has no obligation to use his vote on that candidate other than the knowledge that should he vote for anyone else he would be committing political suicide
743705
C. \n\nTechnically the answer could be argued for either, so if you picked A, and it's wrong, but can give a good argument, then you may get credit for it.  A good argument would say "The people of the nation elect a president because it is their votes that make the decision on who the state casts a vote for.  The people are a necessary part of the process of the way the electoral college is executed - de facto vs. de jure."\n\nIf the answer is A and you picked C, then I would argue the following. "The electoral college's electors actually are the only votes that matter when electing a president.  The chosen elector for a state could choose to go against who his state votes for, therefore, the electoral college system is responsible for electing a president. de jure vs. de facto. "
64419
"Electoral College"\nhttp://www.newsaic.com/04electoralcollege.html\n\n"... elections in which the candidate who won the electoral college did not receive a majority of the popular votes cast ..."\n\n- 1844: Polk (49.6 percent).\n- 1848: Taylor (47.3 percent).\n- 1856: Buchanan (45.6 percent).\n- 1860: Lincoln (39.8 percent).\n[1876: Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes.]\n- 1880: Garfield (48.3 percent).\n- 1884: Cleveland (48.5 percent).\n[1888: Benjamin Harrison had most electoral votes but fewer popular votes.]\n- 1892: Cleveland (46.0 percent).\n- 1912: Wilson (41.9 percent).\n- 1916: Wilson (49.3 percent).\n- 1948: Truman (49.6 percent).\n- 1960: Kennedy (49.5 percent).\n- 1968: Nixon (43.4 percent).\n- 1992: Clinton (43.0 percent).\n- 1996: Clinton (49.2 percent).\n[2000: George W. Bush beats Al Gore. Bush has 47.9 percent of popular vote, Gore had 48.4 percent.]
210265
My solution to the Electoral College would be split up the states vote by Congressional House of Rep. districts. and then divide each states populous vote by district. To where a candidate could loose a state but still get an electoral college vote accordance with the percentage of the populous vote of that state.
490078
Around election time, each party selects a set of electors to represent their party.  The number of electors for each state is determined by the number of congress people in each state.  A state like Wyoming would have 3 electors (2 senators and one representative) while pennsylvania has 21 electors (2 senators and 17 representatives).  Only exception is D.C. who gets 3 electors.\n\nOn election day, as each winner is announced in each state, that means that that party's set of electors gets to go to their state capitol and cast their votes for president and vice-president.  There are a total of 538 electors (100 senators, 435 representatives, and 3 additional electors from Washington D.C.)  You must get at least 50.1% of the total electors, so 270 electoral votes is what is needed to become president.\n\nIf by some chance there is a tie, or no one reaches the 270 mark, the decision goes to Congress, and they decide who the next president and vice-president will be.
30450
Thurgood Marshall\n\nI wanted to edit, since i saw someone gave you misinformation.  Here is a link to prove:
755889
We need a better system than the electoral college. I don't understand how one candidate can win the popular vote, but because of a few electoral judges, cannot win the election.
124688
This is a good subject I would love to see some debate on.  My first thought is we should elimnate electoral vote and go with the majority vote. But that would mean the east and west coast would pretty much decide who/what gets elected.  With the elctoral vote every state has a say.  Id love to see some answers on this question.
445822
I think the one we have is just fine.  I mean, come on, does any sane person really think that we today are smarter that the men who founded this country? No. In fact, I think we are infinitely more uneducated than they were.  If you study their reason for using the electoral college, they make perfect sense - a lot more sense than any argument that people make for converting to a popular vote system today.
955273
Anything to get rid of the electoral college!
1075665
Shawn Paul Williams\n6/26/06\nI do hereby invoke my good name to the cause of ridding this land of the electoral college.
62688
They are actually voting for electors in the electoral college. In most tates, the electors are required to cast a vote for whatever candidate won the popular vote in that state.
1039857
There is a reason for it to exist.  The Electoral College was designed to make sure that there is a clearcut winner in the Presidential election to avoid the problems that could arise if the transition between administrations was not peaceful, as has been observed in other countries.  It also doesn't cut the small states out of the equation for selecting a President, for, due to the fact that each state's electoral vote is equal to its number of Senators and Representatives in Congress, the smaller states have a larger percentage of the Electoral College total than they do of the overall population (e.g. Wyoming's population is roughly 1/100 that of California, but in the Electoral College Wyoming gets 3 votes to California's 56 or so).  It is also not a "secret society" as almost every state has a law that the electors to the College are bound to vote for the person getting the highest percentage of the popular vote in the state (as each party nominates its own electors for each election, it's usually the case that those people will vote for the candidate of that party).\n\nAnd, given that it is part of the Constitution, and that that can only be changed by an amendment that would have to be ratified by 3/4 of the states, the Electoral College will always be with us, because there are at least 13 states that are intelligent enough to see that they don't want to give any more power to California.
44507
The U.S. Constitution was drawn up by the \nConstitutional Convention.  The biggest contributor was James Madison.\n\nThe Constitution was ratified by the states.  It took nine yes votes (out of 13 states) to ratify it.