How does Electoral College work?
In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election; there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.
Who picks the Electoral College?
Who selects the electors? Choosing each State’s electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election. Second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting their ballots.
What role does the electoral college play in elections?
When citizens cast their ballots for president in the popular vote, they elect a slate of electors. Electors then cast the votes that decide who becomes president of the United States. Usually, electoral votes align with the popular vote in an election.
What is an example of the Electoral College?
The United States Electoral College is an example of a system in which an executive president is indirectly elected, with electors representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The votes of the public determine electors, who formally choose the president through the electoral college.
What are the major flaws in the electoral college system?
Three criticisms of the College are made: It is “undemocratic;” It permits the election of a candidate who does not win the most votes; and. Its winner-takes-all approach cancels the votes of the losing candidates in each state.
Why did they create the Electoral College?
The Electoral College was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as an alternative to electing the president by popular vote or by Congress. Several weeks after the general election, electors from each state meet in their state capitals and cast their official vote for president and vice president.
Is the electoral college in the US Constitution?
Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States.
How many votes do states get in the Electoral College?
For California, this means we get 55 votes (2 senators and 53 members of the House of Representatives) — the most of any state.
What state has the most electoral votes?
Currently, there are 538 electors, based on 435 representatives, 100 senators from the fifty states and three electors from Washington, D.C. The six states with the most electors are California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), and Pennsylvania (20).
How electoral votes are allocated to states?
Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.
How many electoral votes does California have 2020?
California has 55 electoral votes in the Electoral College, the most of any state.
How many electoral votes did each state have in 2020?
Electoral College Certificates and Votes by State
| State | Number of Electoral Votes for Each State | For President |
|---|---|---|
| California | 55 | 55 |
| Colorado | 9 | 9 |
| Connecticut | 7 | 7 |
| Delaware | 3 | 3 |
What happens if the electoral college is split?
In such a situation, the House chooses one of the top three presidential electoral vote-winners as the president, while the Senate chooses one of the top two vice presidential electoral vote-winners as vice president.
Can there be a tie in electoral votes?
A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the presidency or the vice presidency. If no candidate receives a majority in the election for president or vice president, that election is determined via a contingency procedure established by the 12th Amendment.
How is electoral vote determined?
What does the 12 Amendment prevent?
To prevent deadlocks from keeping the nation leaderless, the Twelfth Amendment provided that if the House did not choose a president before March 4 (then the first day of a presidential term), the individual elected vice president would „act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability …
Has a president ever contested an election?
The contested 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York was the last to require congressional intervention. Tilden won the popular vote and the electoral count.
What happens when the presidential election is undecided?
Section 3 of the 20th Amendment specifies that if the House of Representatives has not chosen a president-elect in time for the inauguration (noon on January 20), then the vice president-elect becomes acting president until the House selects a president.
What does the US Constitution say about presidential elections?
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.