How The Electoral College Functions
Why am I posting this?
Because, I am sick and tired of how ignorant people are about the process for electing the President of the United States of America. Too many people believe that the popular vote means something and believe that the actual Electorate is the general population of the United States. The truth is that the actual Electorate is made up of the Electors selected to vote in the Electoral College.
How are the Electors chosen?
Each Party in each state chooses their own Electors. These Electors promise to vote for the Party's candidate when they gather to cast their votes after the General Election. This means that the Electors chosen by the Democratic Party promise to vote for the Democratic Candidate should they win their particular state. The same goes for the Electors chosen by the Republican Party and any other Party involved in the election. The only difference between the states are that in Maine and Nebraska, the Electors actually have districts that they represent rather than the entire state. The method for choosing Electors is actually up to each Party, but most are chosen at a State Party Convention before the General Election.
How are Electoral votes distributed?
Only Nebraska and Maine have a district system for determining the winner of the Electoral votes. This means the popular votes of each district determines the winner of that district's Electoral vote and the corresponding Elector to vote for that candidate in the Electoral College. The state's overall popular vote total determines the corresponding Electors for the "Senate" Electoral votes. Remember, each state has a number representing the number of Congressional districts and two Senators for that state. Wyoming has 3 Electoral votes, because it is a single Congressional district and has 2 Senators. Oregon has 7 total Electoral votes due to having 5 Congressional districts and 2 Senators.
What does the popular vote represent?
The popular vote only represents the total number of people in the country that voted for one candidate or another. They do not represent the actual votes that a Presidential candidate receives, because that is only determined by the Electors whom can change their promise for the most part without any consequence. That means that an Elector promising to vote for the Republican Candidate can change their vote to a different Party's candidate or even someone not even officially running for President. The only affect the popular vote has is within a state or a district within Maine or Nebraska to determine which Party's Electors end up going to the Electoral College.
Is there Gerrymandering regarding Electors?
No, unless the districts of Maine and Nebraska are Gerrymandered. All, but Maine and Nebraska, are "winner-take-all" states where the winner of the state's popular vote determines which Party's electors go to the Electoral College. This means that in 49 of the states and District of Columbia (as they can send Electors to the Electoral College),the popular vote for that state determines the victorious Party. So, when Trump won Texas, the Republican Party sent their Electors to the Electoral College. When Hillary won Maine, the Democratic Party sent 3 Electors to the Electoral College, while the Republicans sent 1 Elector as Trump won one of the Congressional District popular votes.
Hopefully, this clears up how the Electoral system works for the President of the United States of America.
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I am tired of explaining this to supposedly learned intelligent people whom seem to have no idea how Presidential Elections work in the United States.
"This means that in 49 of the states and District of Columbia (as they can send Electors to the Electoral College),the popular vote for that state determines the victorious Party."
That should read 48, ay?
However, the popular vote determines which electoral ballot is cast, so in effect, the popular vote does matter, just not in the way people think it does. But it could have even more relevance if there wasn't "winner take all" in the 48 states that use that method. If each electoral vote was counted individually, it would more closely mirror the popular vote.
Nope 49. The District of Columbia by Constitutional Amendment gets 3 electoral votes. So, 48 actual states and the District of Columbia. I was going for an inclusive statement there.
Ah yes. I forgot about the DoC in that count. Fair enough.
That's because we have a Federal system rather than a Unitary system. While individual voters make the selection inside a State, the vote of the State is weighted to reflect the choice of the State itself. This used to be even more apparent when the Senate was selected by State legislators rather than the popular vote. While that fostered corruption, it also kept us from being ruled by a mob.
I would support doing away with winner take all on the state level and make all 436 electoral votes go to whoever wins the majority in that district and the two senate EV's going to the winner statewide in each of the 50 states and one district.
That's the model of both Nebraska and Maine, and is my preferred model as well.
Indeed it is and I want their method used nationwide. No more whole states automatically conceded to the other side and no more battleground states where 8-12 decide the entire election.
Everyone pretty much knows at least the members of NT do.
I've personally explained it more than twice, I even went to the lengths of explaining why the party politicians in each state made the choice to be "Winner take All" rather than what the Founders envisioned as voting by district being the preferred choice.
People know why.....
Certain political sides reject being a republic in favor of being a mob.
Why would anyone want to eliminate the Electoral College? What other process distributes the rights of all individuals more evenly than giving every state a voice in the election process. By doing so would be likened to shoveling more coal into a runaway train.
Everywhere I read it's far right this, far right that. I think the far left have gained control over way too many people's brains here and around the world. The Electoral College was and is a brilliant means of giving as close to equal rights to all the citizens in this country as I can imagine. The Democrats do have the majority of voters in this country and will have a larger percentage of voters than the Republicans from here on out. Should we let mob rule run this country from this day forward?
We already have mob rule in the metropolitan cities in this country and how is that working out for us? These people in states who need to have a voice will lose that voice from here to eternity if we eliminate the Electoral College. The Democrats should take a look at themselves and ask themselves how can we say we want equality for everyone when we say "fuck you to all the states who only have a few Electoral delegates and don't have much of a voice in the direction of this country anyway".
So this is where we are today with all this "Hope and Change" more divided than in my lifetime, a party who has gone completely bonkers and have lost every shred of common sense, clams to want to represent everyone equally but wants to take the rights of those who disagree with them away forever.
This is not who we were suppose to be.
Where are the top 4 states in population and how do they vote.
The number 1 state in population is California. California has supported only Democrat candidate in the Electoral College for President since 1992 for the last 24 years. California has 55 electoral votes. California had over 3 million more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate each of the last 3 Presidential elections.
The number 2 state in population is Texas. Texas has supported only Republican candidates in the Electoral College for President since 1980 for the last 36 years. Texas has 38 electoral votes. Texas had over 800 thousand more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate in 2016. The Republican candidate had 1.2 million in 2012 and 951 thousand in 2008 more popular votes than the Democrat candidate.
The number 3 state in population is New York. New York has supported only the Democrat candidate in the Electoral College for President since 1984 for the last 32 years. New York City hasn't supported a Republican for President since 1924. New York has 29 Electoral votes down from 36 in 1988. New York had 1.5 million to 2 million more popular votes for the Democrat candidate over the Republican candidate in 2016. The Democrat candidate had 2 million in 2012 and 2 million in 2008 more popular votes than the Republican candidate.
The number 4 state in population is Florida. Florida has supported the Democrat Presidential candidate in the Electoral College since 2008 and 2012 until 2016 when the Republican candidate won the state in Electoral votes. Florida has become the number 1 swing state with the most Electoral votes since 1980 increasing Electoral votes from 10 in 1980 to 29 in 2016. Since 1980 there have been 14 Presidential elections and the state has supported the Democrats 5 times and the Republicans 9 times. Florida had around 112 thousand more popular votes for the Republican candidate over the Democratic candidate in 2016. The Democrat candidate had 74 thousand in 2012 and 236 thousand in 2008 more popular votes than the Republican candidate.
These 4 states, California, Texas, New York and Florida carry 56% of the Electoral votes to win the Presidency (55+38+29+29= 151 Electoral votes divided by 270 = 55.9%
States that voted Republican with less than 2 million total votes in their state:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming
19 states 19/51 or 37.2% of the states with less than 2 million total votes in their states voted Republican.
States that voted Democrat with less than 2 million total votes in their state:
Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
11 states 11/51 or 21.5% of the states with less than 2 million total votes in their states voted Democrat.
States that voted Republican with between 2 and 3 million total votes in their state:
Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin
States that voted Democrat with between 2 and 3 million total votes in their state:
Maryland, Minnesota, Washington
States that voted Republican with between 3 and 4 million total votes in their state:
Georgia and Indiana
States that voted Democrat with between 3 and 4 million total votes in their state:
Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia
States that voted Republican with between 4 and 5 million total votes in their state:
Michigan, North Carolina
States that voted Democrat with between 4 and 5 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 5 and 6 million total votes in their state:
Ohio and Pennsylvania
States that voted Democrat with between 5 and 6 million total votes in their state:
Illinois
States that voted Republican with between 6 and 7 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 6 and 7 million total votes in their state:
New York
States that voted Republican with between 7 and 8 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 7 and 8 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 8 and 9 million total votes in their state:
Texas
States that voted Democrat with between 8 and 9 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Republican with between 9 and 10 million total votes in their state:
Florida
No states with over 10 million total votes in their state voted Republican
States that voted Democrat with between 9 and 10 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 10 and 11 million total votes in their state:
None
States that voted Democrat with between 11 and 12 million total votes in their state:
California