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Many Americans mistakenly believe that their votes directly determine the President and Vice President of their country; however, the process is somewhat more ceremonial, more intricate. Following the collection of the popular vote, the power to elect the next President goes to the Electoral College, a committee of representatives of each state, the number of which depends on the respective size of that state, and which totals to 538. Though the Electoral College technically has the power to choose whomever they wish, they are more realistically bound by obligations made to the citizens of their state, and risk ruining their careers if they do not vote the way the majority wants them to. However, it also must be noted that their have been discrepancies between the winner of the popular vote, and the actual winner of the presidency. If no presidential candidate wins the majority of the electoral votes, the decision goes to the House of Representatives; to balance this power, the Senate is given the ability to choose the Vice President should no majority be obtained in that race.

Instead of choosing our president by popular vote, the United States uses the electoral system. Basically, each state is given a certain number of electors based on their representation in the House of Representatives (which is based on population) and the Senate (every state has 2). Washington D.C. receives the same number of electors that the smallest state receives. These electors could technically vote for whoever they wanted to, but in practice they vote for whoever they pledged to vote for. This means that presidents have to focus on winning the popular vote in individual states instead of winning the national popular vote (because most states give all of their electoral votes to the person who wins the popular vote there). The candidate for presidency must win a majority of the electoral votes to become president – if not then the election is given to the House of Representatives.

The Electoral College was first set up with the establishment of article two of the constitution and was amended by the 12th amendment in the year 1804. Every state is allowed a certain amount of electoral votes. The number of these votes that the state receives is determined by the number of members they have in the House of Representatives (which is determined by population of the state), plus one for every two senators. A majority wins in the Electoral College, the majority is usually 270. If there is no majority, the house of representatives is determined to decide.


 * http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/electcollege.htm**

The electoral college is a system we have in the United States in which popular vote doesn't decide who is elected president of the United States. Each state gets a number of electoral college votes determined by their number of senators and congressman. The electoral college consists of the 538 Senators and Congessman in the college. Each elector casts one vote for president and one for Vice President determined by who their state votes for. This allows for, although rare, a president to be elected without a popular vote like in the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College

What is the Electoral College? Common misconception, including my previous one, leads people to think that it is a place rather than what it is –a process. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, “The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote.” In simplified terms, the popular vote does not decide who America’s next president is. On the contrary, the Electoral College does. The Electoral College is 538 representatives who were popularly elected, and who then formally elect America’s president in each election. It is unusual for there to be a contradiction in these two decisions as there was with John Kerry and George Bush in the 2004 Presidential Elections. While John Kerry won the popular vote, George Bush won the election because he won the Electoral College’s majority vote. This instance exemplifies the power of the Electoral College: a process which many Americans do not understand. National Archives and Records Administration: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html How Stuff Works: http://www.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college.htm

To be put in simpler words, the electoral college is a group of people each representing the ideals of the masses. Each state gets a member equivalent to its amount in congress, except for Washington D.C. which gets 3 representatives. These representatives cast their votes based off of the popular vote taken by the state they represent. The electoral college currently has 538 members. To be elected, a candidate must have at least 270 of these votes.