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Frequently
Asked Questions
How's it work?
Electors
Electoral votes
Winner-take-all
Ties
College?
How do states appoint electors?
The Constitution calls for each state to appoint
electors “in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct.”
Although state legislatures still possess the ability to
appoint its own electors for the state, generally, the parties pick
their own electors at State party Conventions.
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Who are electors and how are they chosen?
Can anyone be an elector?
Electors are usually long-term, loyal party
members that are chosen by their party to vote for the party’s
candidate in the Electoral College.
Each party chooses enough electors to cover all of the
electoral votes in each state, and also picks some alternates as
well. The two major
parties usually select their electors either at their State party
Conventions or through appointment by the State party leaders. When we go to the polls, we are not actually electing a
president; rather, we are selecting slate of electors that have been
pledged to a certain candidate.
This is why most general election ballots read: “Electors
for…” for each set of candidates.
Since the electors are pledged to vote for their party’s
candidate, we are actually voting for electors, who then fulfill
their party duty. Electors can never be sitting Congressmen or
federal government employees so as to maintain checks and balances.
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How many electoral votes does each state
get?
Based on the results of each 10-year census,
the 50 states are rewarded one electoral vote for each of their
Congressional districts (equal to the number of representatives it
has in the House) plus two more for each of its Senators.
With the District of Columbia receiving three votes in the
Electoral College, the total number of available votes comes to 538,
of which 270 are needed to win the presidency (a majority).
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Do all states use winner-take-all?
No, there are some states that use a different
system of allocation than most.
Maine and Nebraska use a system in which each of their
Congressional districts gets one of the states total electoral
votes. The candidate
that wins that district receives the district’s electoral vote.
Then, the winner of the statewide vote receives the remaining
two as a cap. (However,
since both states have adopted this modification, the statewide
winners have consistently swept all of the state’s districts as
well, so this system has not really had much of an affect). Also, in
Colorado this year, there will be a ballot measure proposing the
adoption of a proportional allocation of the state’s electoral
votes. This means that
if Bush wins the state with 60% of the vote, but Kerry has a solid
40%, each candidate would get 60% and 40% of Colorado’s electoral
votes, respectively.
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What happens when there is no winner in
the Electoral College?
When no candidate receives 270 electoral votes,
the election is thrown into the House of Representatives and the
Senate to elect the President and Vice President, respectively.
Here, each state would be equalized even more unfairly, with
each delegation casting only one vote, despite differing party
representation within any state.
Are there any elections that would have
been decided in the House of Representatives with a different
allocation of electoral votes or without the Electoral College
altogether?
Yes, in fact the elections of 1948, 1968, 1992,
and 2000 would have been decided in the House.
However, we should keep in mind that the Founders expected
most Presidential elections to be decided in the House than actually
have been, which is why they created the provision in the first
place.
Why does the House of Representatives
choose the President in the event of an Electoral College tie and
not the Senate, or a combination of both?
The House of Representatives is given this
responsibility because it is the chamber of Congress closest to the
people.
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Why is it called a
college?
Traditionally, a college is defined as a body
of people sharing the same duties and/or concerns.
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Electoral
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