To win the presidency, however, a candidate must win the Electoral College. The candidate who wins the most electoral votes wins the Electoral College. What this means is that the candidate who gets the majority of the votes in the country still may not win the presidency. Instead we use a system where the votes cast in each state are counted to see which candidate wins the state. Each state is assigned a number of electoral votes, depending on how many people live in that state. For example, New Hampshire has four electoral votes, and Florida has 25. The candidate who wins the most electoral votes becomes president. We saw an example of this in the recent Presidential election of 2000 when former Vice-President Al Gore won the popular vote (the most votes in the country), but President George W. Bush won the electoral vote. In that particular election, many lawsuits were fought in trying to decide whether certain votes should be counted in Florida. Whether or not to count them would have made a difference in which candidate won Florida’s electoral votes, and the presidency.Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides for the Electoral College. (Part of this was amended in 1804 by the passage of the 12th Amendment, which changed how electoral votes are counted.) This is a group of people who are appointed in each state for the purpose of casting their votes for a presidential candidate. When we go to the polls on election day, we are really voting for a slate of electors who are pledged to vote for one of the candidates. Although the electors are not legally bound to cast their votes for the candidate who has won their state’s popular vote, they “pledge” to vote for their state’s preference.
Although it is rare, it has happened that electors have not kept their pledge (these are called “faithless electors”). Another concern is that sometimes a candidate wins the presidency even though a majority of the voters nationwide did not vote for that candidate. For these reasons, some people question whether the Electoral College is the best method for electing the President of the United States. Others argue, however, that the electoral vote system helps to keep the people in states with low populations interested in voting. The electoral system assigns all states at least three electoral votes so that everyone can feel that his or her vote makes a difference. We are very fortunate to live in a democracy where we get to choose our President and other government officials. There are other types of governments which do not allow their citizens the same degree of freedom that we experience in a democracy.
