Table of Contents
- 1 How does the Electoral College work with voting?
- 2 Why is there an Electoral College for voting?
- 3 How does the Electoral College work in simple terms?
- 4 What are three main weaknesses of the Electoral College system?
- 5 Why is the Electoral College an indirect election of the president?
- 6 What is the Electoral College in layman’s terms?
How does the Electoral College work with voting?
When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors. 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. The candidate who gets 270 votes or more wins.
Why is there an Electoral College for voting?
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.
Do Electoral College have to vote?
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require that electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore, political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the parties’ nominees.
What is the relationship between the popular vote and the Electoral College?
Electors. Most states require that all electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most votes in that state. After state election officials certify the popular vote of each state, the winning slate of electors meet in the state capital and cast two ballots—one for Vice President and one for President.
How does the Electoral College work in simple terms?
Under the “Electoral College” system, each state is assigned a certain number of “votes”. The formula for determining the number of votes for each state is simple: each state gets two votes for its two US Senators, and then one more additional vote for each member it has in the House of Representatives.
What are three main weaknesses of the Electoral College system?
Three criticisms of the College are made:
- It is “undemocratic;”
- It permits the election of a candidate who does not win the most votes; and.
- Its winner-takes-all approach cancels the votes of the losing candidates in each state.
What is the original purpose of the Electoral College quizlet?
What was the original purpose of the Electoral College? The original purpose was to keep misinformed/poorly educated people from making a mistake and choosing the wrong president.
How are electoral votes assigned?
Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.
Why is the Electoral College an indirect election of the president?
The Electoral College is a method of indirect popular election of the President of the United States. Instead of voting for a specific candidate, voters in an indirect popular election select a panel of individuals pledged to vote for a specific candidate. These electors, in turn, vote for the presidential candidate.
What is the Electoral College in layman’s terms?
The United States Electoral College is a name used to describe the official 538 Presidential electors who come together every four years during the presidential election to give their official votes for President and Vice President of the United States. No state can have fewer than three electors.