270 to Win
Read the following article, annotate and answer the questions.
What is the Electoral College?
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
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 Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President.
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Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. Read more about the allocation of electoral votes. Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “state” also refers to the District of Columbia. Each candidate running for President in your state has his or her own group of electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. Read more about the qualifications of the Electors and restrictions on who the Electors may vote for. The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. You help choose your state’s electors when you vote for President because when you vote for your candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s electors. Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation.” After the presidential election, your governor prepares a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President in your state along with the names of their respective electors. The Certificate of Ascertainment also declares the winning presidential candidate in your state and shows which electors will represent your state at the meeting of the electors in December of the election year. Your state’s Certificates of Ascertainments are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election. The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your state’s electors’ votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your state’s Certificates of Votes are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election. Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes. (On December 28, 2012, President Obama signed Pub.L. 112-228, as passed by both houses of Congress, moving the day of the vote count from January 6, 2013 (a Sunday) to January 4, 2013.) See the key dates for the 2012 election and information about the role and responsibilities of Congress in the Electoral College process. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election. What is the importance of swing (battleground) states to the Electoral College? Explain. Swing states are states where the two major political parties, republicans and democrats, have similar levels of support among voters. There are important to the electoral college because it determines the overall result of a presidential election. 2.
What determines the amount of votes each state receives for the electoral college? How does the census affect the number of electoral votes. The number of senators and house representatives determines the amount of votes each state receives for the electoral college. While every state only has two senators, the amount of house representatives can vary since its delegation is determined by the population of the state. The census is the official count of population. This can affect the number of electoral votes since the census is proportional to the number of electoral votes.
Analyze the history of the electoral college on the following website. What trends do you see?
http://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/
I noticed that when one political party covers almost the entirely of the map, their party will continue winning the election for several years. Like how the election of 1932, the democratic party had about 88% of the electors votes and about 60% of the popular votes. The democratic party continued to win the next four elections.
3. Look at the following elections: 1936, 1972, 2000, 2012 and fill in the boxes below:
1936
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1972 2000 Most Recent Presidential Election What was the difference in the popular vote of the election between the two candidates? (Do the math) 11072014 17838725 540520 4856948 How many electoral votes did the elected candidate win? 515 503 5 126 How many states did the elected candidate win? 46 48 21 26 4. Discuss some of the similarities and differences you noticed when analyzing the elections. (Think about the amount of electoral votes, the popular vote, and the amount of states each candidate won. What trends do you see in the different elections?) Use the chart above to help you answer this question. Use CER (Claim, Evidence, Reason). Some similarities I noticed was that the elections of 1936 and 1972 have similar electoral votes that made the elected candidate ein and the amount of states the elected candidate won. Both electoral votes were in the 500s and the amount of states won were in the 40s, these fact tells you the elected candidate candidates won by a landslide. The reason for these candidates won was most likely due to the economy at the time. In the election of 1936, it was during the Great Depression, so most of the public would chose the democratic party since they want change to happen. Some differences I noticed is the differences of electoral votes the elected candidate won between the election of 1936 and 2000. The election of 1936 had the elected candidate winning 515 votes, while the election of 2000 only had the elected candidate winning by 5 votes. This is most likely due to the economic situation at the time, during the 1936 was the Great Depression that caused the people to want change, while nothing drastic happened in the 2000 that the majority of the public didn’t know what they wanted for the country so the election was a close one. Look at the 2012 election map, the following states were considered swing states: 5. What would be the lowest combination of these 9 states would have given Romney the win over Obama? Explain. (Interact with the map) The lowest combination would be Florida and Wisconsin. This is because these nine states have a total electoral vote of 81, and half of it would be 40.5 votes. In order for Romney to win of Obama, he would at least need to win Florida and Washington since their electoral votes added up to 41 votes, just over the middle amount of votes. You will do a prediction of what you think the next presidential election will be. http://www.270towin.com/ 7. Why are some states pre-selected Republican or Democrat? Explain Some states are pre-selected Republican or Democrat because the states are likely to picked that specific political party, or at the very least leans towards it. 8. You will need to screenshot your map prediction below (google how to screenshot on your device, if you don’t know how. copy the screenshot to your clipboard, then paste below) AND give an analysis of why you chose the states going to a particular party for the next presidential election. I based my decisions on which states go to which party by determining how much they lean toward a specific side. To determine how much a state lean toward the republic or democratic party, I used the an article called Massachusetts, Maryland Most Democratic States on a site called Gallup.com, a website that provides data-driven news based on polls, public opinions, and research. Work Cited Jones, Jeffrey M. "Massachusetts, Maryland Most Democratic States." Gallup. Gallup, 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. ***Hint: You need to look at how the states have traditionally voted in presidential elections, you may need to include and cite other research to back up your claim.*** 9. Research alternatives to the Electoral College system and justify why you think the United States should or should not change the way we elect the president. ***Please cite your sources with in text citations, no bibliography is needed.*** There are many alternatives to the electoral college system, most are just not about.
Matthew Green, a writer for KQED learning, said we should try elections “decided state by state… it’s a winner-take-all system… the candidate who receives the most popular… votes in each state gets all of the electors from his/her party. The other candidates in the race… get no electors from that state at all,” (Green 4). This is just one example out of the endless amount of alternatives to the electoral college system. We should change the way we elect the president because with the electoral college system, it “completely blocks out 3rd parties,” ignores the people’s vote on who should be the president and their “voice”, and it “undemocratic,” (Should the US adopt a different method of electing its President? 1-4). The government should start thinking of alternatives to the electoral college system today rather than
later. Work Cited Green, Matthew. "Do Now #38: Should We Change the Way We Elect Our President?" KQED Learning. KQED Learning, 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2016. "Should the US Adopt a Different Method of Electing Its President?" Debate.org. Debate.org, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.
The Electoral College is a system where the President is directly elected. This process has been used in many past elections as well as the current 2016 election. This process also helps narrow down the large numbers that were made by the popular votes, into a smaller number that is easier to work with for electing the President. Some states use a system called “winner-takes-all”, which is another system that is connected with the Electoral College. This allows a candidate with the most electoral votes, to get the rest of the votes that the state provides.
The Electoral College is the name given to a group of electors who are nominated by political activists and party members within the states. The electoral college really isn't necessary and should be abolished. There are numerous reasons why this is so. With the Electoral College in affect third parties don't have a chance to become the president, which isn't fair. Electors are expected to be honest but in the past our country has caught some untruthful ones. The electoral College was created so long ago that it is now outdated, so we shouldn't even have electors. People of the U.S. may think that they are participating in a direct election for the president, but with the Electoral College system technically, this isn't the case.
The second biggest change in politics was the way candidates campaigned. Document D shows a democratic party ballot in 1828, which demonstrates the way state candidates from the governor to the coroner associated themselves with Andrew Jackson, and incredibly popular candidate, in the hope of winning their ...
over the past two centuries, the electoral college needs to be abolished and the election process needs to be changed. Keeping elections away from physical situations and making them into efficient, easy at home polling will make the election process smoother. Making the popular vote be the determining vote for president will keep more electors happier and will give them less reasons to lash out against the results. The recent elections have evolved from just electing the president, to being strong emotional situations that can possibly endanger many people when they end the wrong way. I think that if we can implement these two new ideas into the election process that it will keep electors safer, make them happier with the outcome, and will prevent elections from turning into bad
Every four years, the citizens of America migrate to their respective polling locations and cast their vote. On this important day, the second Tuesday of November, the next President of the United States is elected. The election race for United States presidential candidates undergo a political marathon, negotiating primaries, party conventions and an electoral college system along the way. The electoral college is one of the main aspect of a presidential election. The Electoral College is made up of electors in each state, who represent the states popular vote. Each presidential party or candidate designates a group of electors in each state, equal to the States electoral votes, who are considered to be loyal to that candidate, to each State’s
The Electoral College can be a bit confusing to understand. It was created by the founding fathers and according to the History, Art & Archives, U.S House of Representatives, “…established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States.
It states that “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” (US Const. Art. II, sec. 1). The number of electors the each state receives is equal to the combined total of its Senate membership and House of Representatives delegation. By combining both the Senate and the Houses of Representatives, that Founding Fathers made it so that smaller states would not be forgot, while insuring that states with a larger population would have a larger say in the election. The 23rd Amendment, ratified on March 29, 1961, provides an additional three electors to the District of Columbia. Currently there are a total of 538 electors, corresponding to the 435 representatives and 100 senators, plus the three electors the District of Columbia is provided. The number of electoral votes in each state ranges from three to fifty-four for California, the most populous state. The total number of electors each state gets are adjusted following each decennial census in a process called reapportionment, which reallocates the number of Members of the House of Representatives to reflect changing rates of population growth (or decline) among the
Some people believe the Electoral College system weakens the fundamental principle of a representative government- that one person should have one vote. If we switch to a popular vote, people will have a greater amount of saying than before. The candidates will have a better chance to get
The United States of America is often touted as the guiding beacon of democracy for the entirety of the modern world. In spite of this tremendous responsibility the political system of the United States retains some aspects which upon examination appear to be significantly undemocratic. Perhaps the most perplexing and oft misunderstood of these establishments is the process of electing the president and the institution known as the Electoral College. The puzzle of the Electoral College presents the American people with a unique conundrum as the mark of any true democracy is the citizens’ ability to elect their own ruling officials. Unfortunately, the Electoral College system dilutes this essential capacity by introducing an election by
Instead of a direct democracy, the United States has what is called a representative democracy, which means that when you vote, you are voting for a representative who in turn will vote for the president. This system may seem fair but it gives more power to people in a less populated states than those who live a highly populated state. If the 538 total votes in the Electoral College were divided evenly, then there would be one vote for every 574,000 people. However, the rules of the Electoral College say that each state gets at least three votes, regardless of population. Then the rest of the votes are given out based on population. This happens because the Electoral College gives the votes to the state rather than the people. California has about 37,000,000 people and has fifty-five compared to the 560,000 people in Wyoming, which gets represented by three votes. So Wyoming gets one electoral vote or one for every 187,000 people. However California gets 55 electoral votes, or one for every 677,000 people. This means Wyomingites have three and a half times the power of Californians in the Electoral
The electors in each state are equal to the number of representatives that state has in Congress resulting in at least three electors per state regardless of population (McKenzie 285). Each state has two votes to correspond to the senators representing that state in Congress, and then each state has one vote to correspond to the House representative that represents that state in Congress. Smaller states comprise a higher percentage of the total electoral votes than would a popular vote for the president in those states (Muller 1257). The Founders intended the Electoral College to protect overshadowing the small states’ interests of the larger populous states by allowing at least three representative votes rather than none at all, and the smaller states were not willing to give control of the election process to the larger states, which was similar to their fight for representation in Congress (Muller 1250). However, it ignores the people who voted against the winner, since once the result is determined at the state level; the losing voters no longer have any significance nationally (Wagner 579). Wagner also points to the fact that the winner-take-all system can lead to selecting the minority candidate over the majority vote, as in the George
The Electoral College Should Be Abolished Many years after the United States was founded, the Constitutional Convention met to decide how the new nation would govern itself; they later came to settle on the Electoral College. The Electoral College is a system in which the president and vice president are chosen indirectly. In general, the delegates did not believe that a direct popular vote was acceptable, however that it should be decided by the US senators and representatives instead. The way in which it works: a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes to be officially declared president. If no candidate obtains a majority, the US Representatives selects the president from the top three contenders; this means each state receives
The Electoral College was a compromise between those at the Constitutional Convention who wanted the US president elected by popular vote and those who wanted congress to select the president. They believed that having it where each state would get a certain number of votes based on population would keep a manipulative and charming person out of office. They thought it would prevent bribery and corruption along with secret dealings. I don’t think that this is the case and it one of the reason I feel that the Electoral College should be abolished.
Originating in 1787, the Electoral College was created as the official body within American politics that elect the president and vice president. The decision of who will win is based off the vote totals in each state, and “the founding fathers established it in the constitution as
Americans do not vote for their presidential or vice-presidential candidate. Instead, they indicate their preference of candidate. Whichever candidate gets a plurality of the vote in a state gets all the Electors for that state. Each state's number of Electors is based on the number of Representatives and Senators it has in Congress. Once a candidate gets a plurality, the Electors vote in the "Electoral College" (a sort of caucus in their state six weeks after the election) for that candidate. So a candidate who gets just one more vote than the other in a given state wins all the votes from that state. Notably, although it is called a College, the Electoral College is a process administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). It is not a particular place (NARA 1).