Every year on the 4th of November, approximately 90 million voters in the USA cast their votes for their preferred presidential candidate. After this, in mid December, the country’s president is elected by 538 citizens; these citizens are members of what is called the Electoral College (Jamie, 2010, p. 8). The college is composed of voters chosen by each state to formally decide on who becomes the president. All the states are represented in this college; however, U.S. territories are not allowed to appoint representatives to the Electoral College.
There are people, both in the U.S. and in other countries, do not understand the significance of the Electoral College in the election for the U.S. president. When Americans vote for their preferred presidential candidate they are actually casting their votes to direct the Electoral College representatives from their state to vote for the same candidate in the mid December elections. When a candidate wins the majority votes in a particular state, all the state’s electors will vote for the candidate.
Article II of the U.S. Constitution established the Electoral College mechanism of voting. The article was later amended in 1804 by the 12th Amendment (Shaw, 2006, p. 19). The number of electors each state is allowed is equal to the number of members it has in the House of Representatives in addition to one elector for each of their two Senators in the U.S. Senate. Since the Electoral College system is based on representation in congress, states that have larger population sizes have more electors in the college. The Columbia District has three electors. Important to note is that though the state establishes the regulations and framework for choosing electors, it is the committees of various political parties that actually chose the electors. Each state elector is allowed one vote in the Electoral College, hence a state with for example 6 electors casts 6 votes in the college. For any presidential candidate to win the electoral vote they have to garner a majority votes in the Electoral College, 270 votes. In an event that none of the presidential candidates has the majority electoral votes, the House of Representatives decides the election as stipulated in the 12th Amendment. In such a scenario, representatives from each state are allowed a single vote and a candidate only requires a simple majority to win. Deciding of the presidential vote by the House of Representatives has only happened in two occasions, in 1801 and 1825, where Thomas Jefferson and Quincy Adams were elected respectively (Alexander, 2012, p. 78). One interesting thing to note is that though electors have an obligation to choose their party’s candidate, they are under no legal obligation to vote for the candidate from their party (Jaime, 2010, p. 13).
The Electoral College system has been criticized by many Americans mainly because it denies them the final say in who gets to be their president. The Electoral College system creates the possibility of a candidate losing the nationwide majority vote and still being elected president by the electors. Such a scenario has happened three times, in 1876, 1888, and 2000. In the last scenario Al Gore won the nationwide votes with 50,999,897 votes against George Bush who had 50,456,002 votes. However, Bush beat Al Gore in the Electoral College vote with 271 votes against the latter’s 266 (Shaw, 2006, p. 103). But before the system is legally rectified, Americans will have to live with the Electoral College as the final decision maker in the vote for their president.
References
Alexander, R. (2012). Presidential Electors and the Electoral College. New York: CambriaPress.
Jaime, C. (2010). Understanding the Electoral College. New York: CreateSpace
Shaw, D. (2006). The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
