1. have the Congress choose the
president;
2. have the State Legislatures select
the president;
3. elect the president by a direct
popular vote.
The
prevailing suggestion was to have a College of Electors select a president
through an indirect election.
·
Each state is allocated
a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Representatives plus its
two senators (in CA the total number of electoral votes is 55).
·
The political parties
of each state submit a list of individuals pledged to their candidates for
president (that is equal to the number of electoral votes for the state) to the
State’s chief election official (in CA it is the Secretary of State). Each
party determines its own way of choosing its electors.
·
Congressmembers and
employees of the Federal government are prohibited from serving as Electors.
·
After the parties hold
their caucuses and the states hold their primaries, the major parties nominate
their candidate for the Office of President. The names are then submitted to
the state’s chief election official (in CA, the Secretary of State) as they
will appear on the general election ballot.
·
On November 4, 2008,
registered voters in each state cast their ballots for the Office of President
and Vice President.
·
Whichever presidential
candidate gets the most popular votes in a State wins all of the Electors for
that state except for the states of Maine and Nebraska which award electoral
votes proportionately.
·
On Monday, December 15,
2008, each state’s electors meet in their respective state and cast their
electoral votes (one for President and one for Vice President).
·
Each Elector must cast
at least one of their two votes (see above) for a person outside of their state
in order to prevent the election of a president and vice president from the
same state (however, the presidential and vice presidential candidates choose
each other as running-mates and are on the same ticket in the popular vote).
·
The electoral votes are
sealed and sent to the President of the U.S. Senate and are read aloud to both
Houses of Congress on January 6, 2009.
·
The candidate with the
most electoral votes – 270 or more – (over one half of the total vote of 538)
is declared president.
·
If no one candidate
receives an absolute majority of electoral votes the U.S. House of
Representatives selects the President from the top three vote-getters.
·
On January 20, 2009, at
noon, the elected president and vice president are sworn into office.
In its over 200-year
history, the electoral college has received its share of criticism and praise.
The following is a list of some comments made by supporters and opponents of
the Electoral College. These comments are not the opinion of the Santa Cruz
County Clerk/Elections Department; the department is simply providing them as
information.
Pro's:
· Requires a
distribution of popular support to be elected president – the winning candidate
must demonstrate both a sufficient popular support to govern as well as a
sufficient distribution of that support to govern.
· Strengthens the
status of minority groups – the votes of small minorities within a state may
make the difference between winning all of a state’s electoral votes or none of
them.
· Enhances the
political stability of the nation by promoting a two-party system – protects
that presidency from impassioned but transitory third-party movements and
forces the major parties to absorb the interests of minorities.
· Maintains the
federal system of government and representation.
Con's:
·
There is a possibility of electing a president who does not have a
majority of the support.
· There is a risk of
having “faithless” Electors – Electors who won’t be loyal to their party or
candidate.
· The Electoral
College may depress voter turnout – because each state is only entitled to just
so many electoral votes regardless of voter turnout, there is no incentive for
states to encourage voter participation.
· Does not accurately
reflect the national popular will because it does not elect a candidate by a
direct popular vote. In the past 125 years, there have been three occasions
when a presidential candidate won the popular vote, but lost the election: in
1876, Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but Rutherford B. Hayes won the
electoral vote, and, therefore, the election; and in 1888, Grover Cleveland won
the popular vote, but Benjamin Harrison won the election. Most recently, in
2000 Al Gore won the popular vote, but George Bush was elected President.
U.S. Electoral College 2008 - List Of
States And Votes
Total: 538 – Majority Needed to Elect: 270
|
Alabama
- 9 |
Montana - 3 |
Source: United States National Archives & Records
Administration
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/index.html
Other resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Presidential_Election,_2008
http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_electoral_college.php
http://people.howstuffworks.com/electoral-college4.htm