What happens if no winner in the election is determined by the Electoral College?
If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. The Senate elects the Vice President from the two vice presidential candidates with the most electoral votes.
Do all states use popular vote for Electoral College?
States have chosen various methods of allocation over the years, with regular changes in the nation’s early decades. Today, all but two states (Maine and Nebraska) award all their electoral votes to the single candidate with the most votes statewide (the so-called “winner-take-all” system).
What happens if the Electoral College can’t decide?
If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes.
Why is there an Electoral College vote?
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.
What happens at the Electoral College?
The number of electors each state gets is equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives in Congress. A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College. Each elector casts one vote following the general election. The candidate who gets 270 votes or more wins.
What are some reasons to keep the Electoral College?
Five reasons to keep the Electoral College. The Electoral College restores some of the weight in the political balance that large states (by population) lose by virtue of the mal-apportionment of the Senate decreed in the Constitution. This may seem paradoxical, given that electoral votes are weighted in favor of less populous states.
What problems exist with the Electoral College?
The main problem with the Electoral College is that while electors are supposed to vote according to the outcome in their state, they are not required to do so. And in fact, since the founding of the Electoral College, individual electors have voted against the person the citizens voted for over 80 times.
Why is the Electoral College so important?
The Electoral College is important because it ensures the President of the United States is selected by the constitutional majority. Basically, the Electoral College magnifies the margin of victory and grants legitimacy to the winners.
How do people get into the Electoral College?
The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress. The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots.