The Electoral College

True or False?

The candidate with the most votes is elected president.

Answer: Not necessarily. Ask Al Gore.

The 2000 Election

The Popular VoteAl Gore 50,996,039George W. Bush 50,456,141

The Electoral VoteGeorge W. Bush 271Al Gore 267

Historical Background

The framers of the Constitution disagreed on how to elect a president—congressional selection or direct popular election.

The electoral college was a compromise, combining features of both approaches.

The Electoral College and Federalism

The electoral college also reflects the federal nature of the Constitution because it ensures that the states have a role in selecting the president.

Each state is entitled to as many electoral votes as the sum of its representation in the U.S. House and SenateArizona: 9 House members plus 2 senators = 11 electoral votes

There are 538 total electoral votes and 270 electoral votes (a majority) are needed to win.

Electors

Individuals selected in each state to officially cast that state’s electoral votes.

Arizona selects 11 electors to cast the state’s 11 electoral votes.

Framers anticipated that electors would be state leaders who would exercise good judgment.

Today, party leaders select competing slates of electors who are typically long-time party activists.

Electors almost always vote for their party’s candidates.

Selection of ElectorsEach state determines the manner of

selectionAll but two states use a winner-take-all

statewide election systemIf Candidate A gets the most votes in a

state, Candidate A gets the whole slate of electors.

Maine and Nebraska award electors based on the statewide vote and the vote in each of the state’s congressional districts.

Voters and Electors

An Arizonan who votes for Romney or Obama is really voting for a slate of electors pledged to cast the state’s electoral votes for that candidate.

In 2000, Bush won all of Florida’s 25 electoral votes because the final official vote tally showed him ahead of Gore by about 600 votes.

The Real Election

In December, the electors gather in their respective state capitols to cast ballots for president and vice president. In January, Congress convenes, opens the ballots received from each state, and announces the official outcome.

What if no one receives a majority?

To win, a candidate needs a majority, that is, 270 electoral votes.

If no candidate has a majority, the House selects the president from among the three presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. This last happened in 1824 when Congress chose John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson and William Crawford.

The Senate selects the vice president from the top two vice-presidential candidates.

Popular Vote v. the Electoral Vote In a close race, the popular vote winner

may not win the electoral college. One candidate may win states by lopsided margins while the other wins states by narrow margins. One candidate may be helped by winning most of the smaller states, which benefit from the small-state bias caused by each state getting at least three electoral votes regardless of its size.

• Electoral vote winners who lost the popular voteBush over Gore in 2000Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland in 1888Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel Tilden in 1876

Criticisms of the Electoral College

The popular vote winner may lose the presidency.

Electors may vote for persons other than their party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates.

If no candidate receives a majority, Congress will pick the president and vice president.

Political Legitimacy

Political legitimacy is the popular acceptance of a government and its officials as rightful authorities in the exercise of power.

Political Legitimacy and the Electoral College

The proponents of the electoral college believe that it conveys legitimacy to the winner in most closely fought presidential elections. For example, Bill Clinton won 69 percent of the electoral vote in 1992 despite capturing only 43 percent of the popular vote. The electoral college gave Clinton the appearance of the majority support necessary to become president.

But don’t forget Florida

The 2000 election demonstrated that the electoral college can sometimes undermine a president’s legitimacy. Because of the electoral college, the outcome of the national presidential election was in doubt for more than a month. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually determined the outcome of the election by halting the vote count in Florida.