Will the Popular Vote Ever Matter Again
What is the Electoral College?
The founding fathers established the Balloter Higher as a compromise between election of the President by Congress and election of the President past a popular vote of qualified citizens. The U.Due south. Constitution states in Amendment XII, ratified by the states in 1804:
"The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed …."
Image Source: cnn.com
The Balloter College is made upwardly of 538 electors who cast votes to decide the President and Vice-President of the United States. The number 538 is the sum of the nation's 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and iii electors given to the District of Columbia.
In all but two states, the candidate who wins a majority of popular votes also wins all of that country's balloter votes ("winner take all" rule). The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270 out of 538) then wins the Presidency.
2016 Balloter MAP
Epitome Source: wikipedia.org
How Are Each State's Electors Selected?
There is a two-part procedure to selecting each state's Electors. First, the political parties in each state choose slates of potential Electors erstwhile before the general election. Electors are often called to recognize their service and dedication to that political party. So past the terminate of the commencement phase, each Presidential candidate has his or her own unique slate of potential Electors.
2d, on Ballot 24-hour interval, the voters in each state select their state's Electors by casting their ballots for President. About voters don't know information technology, just when they cast votes for the Presidential candidate of their pick they are really voting to select their land'southward Electors.
In all states except in Nebraska and Maine, the winning Presidential candidate's slate of potential Electors are then appointed every bit the state's Electors.
For example, if Donald Trump won the pop vote in Alaska, his slate of potential Electors are appointed as Alaska's Electors. Those Electors would then bandage their votes for Trump as President.
In Nebraska and Maine, the state winner receives 2 Electors and the winner of each congressional district (who may be the same every bit the overall winner or a different candidate) receives one Elector. This organization permits the Electors from Nebraska and Maine to be awarded to more than than one candidate.
Are Electors Legally Required to Vote for their Party's Candidate?
Information technology depends. In that location is no Ramble provision or Federal constabulary that requires Electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states.
However, 27 states crave Electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote. Nigh 29 states as well provide that so-called "faithless Electors" may exist subject to fines or may be butterfingers for casting an invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector. Throughout history, more than 99 per centum of Electors have voted every bit pledged.
And however, there have been 157 faithless electors in American history. 71 of these votes were inverse because the original candidate died before the day on which the Electoral College bandage its votes.
When Does the Electoral College Actually Vote?
Although the nation goes to the voting booths on November 8, each state'south electors meet on the Monday following the 2d Wednesday of December to cast their votes, which is December 19, 2016, this year. Those votes are then sent to the President of the Senate who reads them before both houses of Congress on Jan sixth. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in equally President of the U.s. on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election.
Can A Candidate Win the Popular Vote But Non the Required 270 Balloter College Votes to Become President?
Yes! This happened to George W. Bush in 2000, who lost the popular vote to Al Gore by .51% but won the electoral college 271 to 266.
Equally explained above, the President is non chosen by a nation-wide pop vote but is adamant by the electoral college. In all elections since the nation's founding, except for three, the popular vote aligned with the electoral votes.
Thethree elections where the popular vote differed from the electoral votes were: the Hayes/Tilden election of 1876, the Harrison/Cleveland ballot of 1888, and Bush/Gore in 2000.
What If Neither Candidate Wins the Required Bulk of 270 Balloter Votes?
The Constitution provides an answer for this scenario, as well. If no candidate receives a majority of Electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the nearly Electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.
Believe it or non, this has actually happened twice in American history!
In 1801 Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Democrat-Republicans, received the aforementioned number of electoral votes, despite the fact that Burr was running every bit a vice presidential candidate, not for the presidency. Following 36 successive votes in the House, Jefferson was finally elected president.
In 1824 John Quincy Adams was elected president despite non winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson actually received 38,000 more than popular votes than Adams, and xv more electoral votes than Adams. Even so, Jackson did not receive the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president. In fact, neither candidate did. The decision went to the Firm of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White Firm.
Fun! The world'due south most terrifying reality TV prove could, under this scenario, continue indefinitely, while either Tim Kaine or Mike Pence serves as interim President.
What do you retrieve? Should the Electoral College organization exist abolished so that the pop vote determines who becomes President? Or is the popular vote too unsafe?
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Source: https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/electoral-college/