Most Americans have little to no idea about what the Electoral College is, even though it is critical to the voting process. When we as Americans vote, our individual votes do not directly go towards the candidate that we select on the ballot. Our vote is then transferred to the Electoral College.
An elector is someone that has been previously chosen to represent a population of people, who then will directly vote for the President. There are 538 electors from the 50 states. Every state has two senators and then a group of representatives based on population. That is why California has fifty-five electors and Wyoming has two. The bigger the population, the greater the pull on the electoral vote. Within a state, whichever candidate gets the majority of public votes, then receives all the electoral votes.
Only Maine and Nebraska divide electoral votes. From this, if Candidate 1 gets 49% of the votes of Texas, and Candidate 2 receives 51%, then Candidate 2 receives all the electors and shoots ahead in the vote. Whichever candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, or reaches 270, then they win the presidency.
The Founding Fathers created this system while writing the constitution because they did not want an “ill-informed” public to directly elect the future president\vice president. Many have questioned whether this dated system is hurting the election process and discouraging people to vote. Only once in history has the public vote and electoral vote not matched up. This occurred in the Bush vs Gore election in 2000.
The Electoral College is here to stay, unless the public creates another system and backs it. No matter what, your vote counts. So get involved!
Does my vote count? 