7 Things to Know About How the Electoral College Works

I will confess. During recent presidential elections, I’ve felt a little fuzzy about how the electoral college works. I must have learned about it in school, but over the years, the details have dripped out of my brain, one by one. So, I did some poking around to see how the president in the United States of America is elected. I’ve distilled my findings into seven, easy-to-digest ingredients that make up the electoral-college process. 

1. The electoral college consists of 538 members, one for each U.S. senator and representative, plus three for the District of Columbia. To win the election, a candidate must take a majority of the electoral votes, and that figure is 270.
2. The candidate who wins the popular vote gets all the electoral votes in a state. The other candidates get none—except in Nebraska and Maine where the popular-vote winner receives two electoral votes and the rest are awarded to the winner of each congressional district.  
3. The number of electoral votes assigned to each state is determined by the combination of their members in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. For instance, California (like every other state) has two representatives in the Senate and 53 in the House for a total of 55. Texas comes in second with 38. Florida and New York each have 29. As a comparison, the lowest number of electoral representatives a state can have is three. Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming each have three electors. 
4. How electors are chosen. Within each state, the political parties choose electors who are loyal or consistent party members. On election day, voters cast a vote for a presidential candidate, which is really a vote for that party’s slate of electors. The names of those electors do not usually appear on the ballot. Electors usually pledge to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their state and some are bound by a state law to do so. There is no Federal law that requires them to vote according to the popular vote.
5. The results of the election become official on the Monday after the first Wednesday in December when the electors meet in their states and vote for the president and vice-president. Those votes are sent to Washington to be read to Congress on January 6. The president-elect takes the oath of office as president of the United States on January 20.
6. Opposition to the electoral college includes a dislike for the all-or-nothing nature of the system in which a candidate can win the popular vote and not the electoral vote, as happened most recently in 2016. They argue that less-populated states actually have more power than more-populated states, for instance, that the vote of a Florida resident carries only one-third the weight of the vote of a resident of a state like Wyoming.
7. Support for the electoral college includes a belief that it enhances the status of minority interests. This is because ethnic minority groups are found in higher numbers in states with the most electoral votes. Proponents also believe that the electoral college system encourages a two-party system and contributes to the political stability of the nation. 

After learning about the electoral college, I have a better understanding of how my vote is important, because it counts toward the popular vote in my state, which determines which candidate will be awarded electoral votes. Before digging into the subject, I had a difficult time believing that any vote counted. I’m not for or against the electoral college, but at least I know more about how it works. How about you? Do you think I got it right? Let me know what you think about the subject, in general, too!

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