U.S. Elections – College Electoral or Popular Vote
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U.S. Elections – College Electoral or Popular Vote
According to the Columbia Encyclopedia (2001-09), “the Electoral College, in the U.S. government, is the body of electors that chooses the president and vice president. Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. It continues that “the electors are directed by the Constitution to vote in their respective states, and Congress is authorized to count their votes. To win, a presidential candidate must have a majority in the electoral college”.
The Electoral College
“The Electoral College consists of the popularly elected representatives (electors) who
formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been
538 electors in each presidential election. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution
specifies how many electors each state is entitled to have and that each states legislature decides
how its electors are to be chosen. U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is an example of an indirect election.
The election for President and Vice President is not a direct election by United States
citizens. Citizens vote for electors, representing a state, who are the authorized constitutional
participants in a presidential election. In early U.S. history, some state laws delegated the choice
of electors to the state legislature. Electors are free to vote for anyone eligible to be President but
in practice pledge to vote for specific candidates and voters cast ballots for favored presidential
and vice presidential candidates by voting for correspondingly pledged electors.”
The Popular Vote
In the past, debates have come before Congress to abolish the Electoral College vote and
be substituted by the popular vote or “direct election”. There have been arguments for or against
the electoral vote and these questions come to mind, “is this really fair and representative, and
does it in fact give a clear idea of what the real will of the voters is?
Lets think about it this way, the state of New Mexico has two votes based on the fact that they have two U.S. Senators, the same as the state of Texas. Additionally, they (NM) have two additional votes based on their representation in the US House of Representatives.
If you take the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa, combined, they have less population than the State of Texas, but they represent more electoral votes. Taking that into consideration,