How exactly does the Electoral College work?
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
862532
We don't. Perhaps we did back when it took days travel between the states. Now that modern technology allows votes to be counted almost instantly, its a bit of an anachronism. \n\nElectoral votes could be portioned out and assigned right as the vote comes in, without the use of Electors. Giving each state two extra votes balances out the power disparity between small and large states. This means in some ways that people who live in a small state have a greater say in national politics, however this was done because of the Federal nature of our government. Power is divided between the State governments and National government. The use of Electoral votes balances things out somewhat.
234740
Yes,thank God someone remembered to ask this question. The Electoral College ,what's it good for, the President should be elected by popular vote,case closed. The electors, constitutionally, aren't even required to vote for who the people say they should vote for. This is a "horse and buggy",extremely archaic law, which has no relevance in the modern day US.
748146
Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States are elected every four years indirectly through the United States Electoral College. They are the only nationally-elected offices in the United States, since executive officers and judges are appointed, United States Senators are elected at the state level, and United States Representatives are elected at the district level.\n\nOn election day, the voting public selects its preferred candidate, usually by voting for a slate of electors put forward by the candidate's party. The ballots for each voting citizen typically has the names of the candidates for President and Vice President (running together on a ticket), and votes for those individuals translate at the state level into votes for the electors chosen from their respective parties. Although State Legislatures have the constitutional power to appoint slates of electors, all fifty states have established popular election of presidential electors. In December, following the general election, Electors gather at their respective State capitals to cast their ballots, which are then transmitted to Congress under the care of the sitting Vice President of the United States. Originally, under Article 2, the electors cast two votes for the office of President, the individual with the most votes becoming President, the runner up becoming Vice President. This changed with the 12th amendment, with each elector casting one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. The ballots are counted and certified in January before both houses of Congress. Should a candidate for either President or Vice President fail to achieve a majority of votes, the United States House of Representatives (voting by state) chooses the next president from among the candidates while the United States Senate (voting normally) selects the vice president.
978551
The obvious answer is the candidate who gets the most votes.  I know someone will answer that by saying that didn't happen in the 2000 Presidential Election, but that election is settled by who gets the most Electoral College votes and not by a majority vote.  Regardless whom ever gets elected will find themselves subject to pressure from their party, the outside lobbyist ect to the point that by the time the next election comes they will find themselves to have sold their soles to the one who has the money and not to the electorate that voted them in to office.
709192
Well, with our current system, your vote really doesn't count much. Especially in Presidential elections. The Electoral College is a huge disaster for MANY reasons, and has got to got. Evidence: George Bush is president.
914212
No.  What happens is:  Each state is assigned a number of electoral votes(the bigger the population the more electoral votes).  If a candidate wins by popular vote in that state, they win those electoral votes.  So after the election is over, whoever has the most electoral votes win.  That is why it is possible to have the most popluar vote over all but still not enough electoral votes to win the election.
673007
There are 100 Senators,(2 from each state), and 435 members of the House of Representatives.  The Representatives are determined by population and can change state by state after each Census taken every 10 years at the end of each Decade in the year that ends with Zero.  The number of Senators is set in the original constitution, however the number of members of the House was set by law at 435 in the early 1900's which was determined to be a manageable number.\n\nThe Electors of the Electoral College are determined by the amount of members of both houses each state has for a total of 535 and 3 for the District of Columbia making the total 538 and requiring a majority of 270 Electoral Votes to win the Presidency.  The District of Columbia gets no representation in Congress however they do get 3 votes in the Electoral College for the purpose of electing our President.
352742
it is by the number of electoral college votes.  these are based on the populations of the states the larger the state the larger the number (ie cali and florida are big montana is low) it is not by majority vote or popular vote as some call it.
827831
It's never been done.  \nUlysses S. Grant won the 1872 election against his main opponent Horace Greeley with 286 electoral college votes.  Greeley recieved 3, but they were never counted.  There were, however, four other candidates.  Thomas Hendricks recieved 42 votes, B. Gratz Brown took 18, Charles Jenkins won 2 and David Davis recieved 1 electoral vote.   \n\nit's almost happened a few times; \nIn 1820 Monroe beat John Adams 231-1 \nIn 1936 FDR beat Alfred Landon 523-8\nAnd Reagan beat Walter Mondale in 1984 525-13
942047
Assuming you meet the qualifications in the Constitution (born American, 35 or older, etc.) you get your name out there and convince people to vote for you.  \n\nRealistically, you have to join one of the two parties and convince them to nominate you, and then convince everyone to pick you.  Until the electoral college is abolished, it would take a miracle to be elected if you aren't a Democrat or Republican.\n\nIf you are serious, run for mayor, city council or state legislature something to get the experience you would need to run the country.
812994
Two reasons:\n\n1) The electoral vote is only used for President and Vice President. The U.S. Congress and your state and local offices are elected by the popular vote.\n\n2) The electoral votes from your state is determined by the popular vote in your state.
922672
The electoral college works by giving each state a certain number of votes for president.  Big states like California and New York have more votes than states with fewer people, like Iowa and Montana.\n\nYou need to look at the numbers of votes each state has.  Then look at which states Bush and Kerry won.  When you add up the votes from the different states, Bush had more total votes than Kerry.\n\nTo answer your questions, you need to figure out three different combinations of states that would have still made Bush won, and three different combinations of states that would have made Kerry win.
961975
the electoral college is very fair.   It gives each state equal voting representation.  If we didn't have the electoral college all elections would be decided by NY, TX, and CA.
929885
People elect the electoral college who elects the president
672631
Alabama, my current home state, has 9 electoral votes.\n\nhttp://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/calculator.html
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. "