Electoral+College+-+Defined

by: Abby Lawlor and Jake Henderson
 * The Electoral College - Defined **


 * History of the [|Electoral College] **

The formal definition of the electoral college is, “ a body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the President and [|vice] President of the U.S.” The __Electoral College__ was established in the Constitution. At that time, __electors__ were chosen by state legislatures, one for each representative in Congress, so two Senators plus one for each House Representative. The electors for each state would then meet together at a date specified for all electors across the country. The __electors__ would then cast a ballot for two people and send their vote to the President of the Senate. The votes were read in front of Congress, and the President would be the man with the most votes, if it was a majority. If there was a tie, or no majority, the House of Representatives would vote and winner would become president. The vice-president was the person who had the second highest number of __electoral votes__, or the second highest votes in the House, in the event of a tie. The __Twelfth Amendment__ changed the system after the Election of 1800, where Thomas Jefferson, the Presidential Candidate, and Aaron Burr, the Vice-Presidential Candidate, received the same number of electoral votes. The amendment changed the voting so that the electors voted for a President and a Vice-President separately. The other restrictions stayed very similar, but with the Senate voting if a tie arose for the Vice-Presidential position.

Another amendment that altered the electoral process was the __Fourteenth Amendment__, which banned any person who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from becoming an elector.

Today the system works like this, in each state the electoral votes go to the candidate who won the popular vote for that state. So if a candidate wins the popular vote in say, California, the candidate who won will receive the 55 electoral votes the state has to offer. Each state has a specific number of votes to offer. The number is votes is based on population.
 * [|270 to win] : **

In order to become the President of the United States, you must win a total of 270 electoral votes, out of the 538 available. If this amount is not reached, then the result is a tie. The decision would then fall to the House of Representatives, where each state has one vote for the President. Whoever receives the majority vote would become the next President.

In most states, there is a “winner takes all” system, where the winner of the state election gets all of the state’s electoral votes. Nebraska and Maine, however, have proportional allocation of their Electoral votes. See map below

Some proposals have been put forward throughout the years for a constitutional amendment to change the electoral process and remove the Electoral College. There are arguments both [|for and against the College process] .To the present, none have been passed by the House and Senate and ratified by the state legislatures. The closest was the __Bayh-Celler Amendment__ in 1968, which passed the House but was not able to pass the Senate.


 * How does the Electoral College Equally Represent the U.S. population? **

Some people ask, “How is the US a true democracy if my vote doesn't even really count for who gets president?” The electoral college system works well because if only the popular vote was counted, only citizens who lived in populous states or cities would really matter when possible candidates were coming up with their platforms and campaigning. States like Idaho or Montana would be seriously under represented under the federal government because they just don’t have as many people as states like New York or Massachusetts. The most recent presidential election, decided just yesterday yielded these results:



__** Vocab: **__

 * Electoral College- ** a body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the President and [|vice] President of the U.S.


 * electors: ** a state representative who is a member of the electoral college system


 * electoral vote: ** the vote cast in the electoral college of the U.S. by the representatives of each state in a presidential election.


 * Twelfth Amendment: ** provides for election of the president and vice president by the electoral college system


 * Fourteenth Amendment: ** provides a legal definition of a citizen of this country, includes a description of citizens who will be able to vote


 * Bayh-Celler Amendment: ** An argument for the demise of the electoral college system of voting

__** Section Review Questions: **__

** 5) ** Who would most likely have won if the 2012 Presidential Election had been a tie for electoral votes, and why?
Answers to Review Questions:

@https://docs.google.com/a/cheshire.k12.ct.us/document/d/1KyRwJ_QLvB0Cqa7_giHFAXIuKkOz81ZID0Uxyh0ga-M/edit

__Works Cited__

"Constitutional Topic: The Electoral College." //- The U.S. Constitution Online//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. .  "U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?" //U. S. Electoral College, Official - What Is the Electoral College?// N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. .  "U.s. Electoral Vote Map." //U.s. Electoral Vote Map//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. .  "WECT TV6-WECT.com:News, Weather & Sports Wilmington, NC Electoral College Info Page." //Electoral College Info Page//. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. .