Are all elections decided by popular vote?
Not all elections are decided by popular vote. For example, in the United States, presidential elections are decided through the Electoral College. Stated simply, each state has a certain number of electors. Each state has as many electors as they do members of Congress.
What is the national popular vote?
The National Popular Vote is a nonprofit working to implement a national popular vote for president, by creating an agreement among the states to elect by national popular vote. The compact will go into effect when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (270).
What happens if a presidential candidate wins 51% of the popular vote?
Most states award all of their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in the state. This method of awarding electoral votes is commonly known as "winner-take-all." So, even if a presidential candidate wins 51% of the popular vote in a winner-take-all state, the candidate is awarded 100% of the electoral votes. 4
What determines the number of electoral votes a candidate gets?
Under the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College determines who is the U.S. president, based on vote totals in each state. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) wins the presidency. Each state’s number of electors is equal to its number of members of Congress (representatives plus senators).
What does the popular vote determine in a presidential election?
Polling Place: the location in which you cast your vote. to cast their vote for president. But the tally of those votes—the popular vote—does not determine the winner. Instead, presidential elections use the Electoral College. To win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes.
What is a popular voting system?
Popular vote, in an indirect election, is the total number of votes received in the first-phase election, as opposed to the votes cast by those elected to take part in the final election.
How are votes determined?
Under the "Electoral College" system, each state is assigned a certain number of "votes". There are a total of 538 electoral votes, and the number of votes each state receives is proportional to its size --- the bigger the state's population the more "votes" it gets.
Do electors vote based on popular vote?
There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their States. Some States, however, require electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote.
How would the national popular vote proposal work?
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
How are electoral votes determined quizlet?
Each State is allocated a number of Electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives - which may change each decade according to the size of each State's population as determined in the Census.
How do political parties select their candidates?
At national party conventions, the presidential contender with the most state delegate votes wins the party nomination. Our extensive news media ensures that state delegate vote counts (and the apparent nominees) are well known before national conventions begin.
What are the four states with the largest electoral votes?
Currently, there are 538 electors, based on 435 representatives, 100 senators from the fifty states and three electors from Washington, D.C. The six states with the most electors are California (54), Texas (40), Florida (30), New York (28), Illinois (19), and Pennsylvania (19).
What is the difference between electoral vote and popular vote?
When citizens cast their ballots for president in the popular vote, they elect a slate of electors. Electors then cast the votes that decide who becomes president of the United States. Usually, electoral votes align with the popular vote in an election.
What are 3 major flaws in the Electoral College?
Three criticisms of the College are made: It is “undemocratic;” It permits the election of a candidate who does not win the most votes; and. Its winner-takes-all approach cancels the votes of the losing candidates in each state.
What is the most popular voting system?
Proportional systems Party-list proportional representation is the single most common electoral system and is used by 80 countries, and involves voters voting for a list of candidates proposed by a party.
What types of voting systems are there?
Majoritarian systems differ according to the number of representatives elected in an electoral district and the kinds of majorities (simple or absolute) that winners must achieve.Single-Member Plurality Systems. ... Multi-Member Plurality Systems. ... Single-Member Majoritarian Systems.
What are the 4 voting methods?
Regular methodsVoice vote.Rising vote.Show of hands.
Electoral College
In other U.S. elections, candidates are elected directly by popular vote. But the president and vice president are not elected directly by citizens...
Overview of the Presidential Election Process
An election for president of the United States happens every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The most recent pr...
Presidential Primaries and Caucuses
Before the general election, most candidates for president go through a series of state primaries and caucuses. Though primaries and caucuses are r...
U.S. Constitutional Requirements for Presidential Candidates
The president must:Be a natural-born citizen of the United StatesBe at least 35 years oldHave been a resident of the United States for 14 yearsAnyo...
National Conventions
After the primaries and caucuses, most political parties hold national conventions.What Happens at a National Political Convention?Conventions fina...
What is a popular vote?
Definition of a Popular Vote. A popular vote works just like it sounds. A group of people vote on an issue or candidate. The votes are then tallied, and the issues or candidates are rank-ordered. The person or issue with the most votes wins. Therefore, a popular vote is really just a method of selecting a candidate or adopting an issue based on ...
How are elections decided?
Not all elections are decided by popular vote. For example, in the United States, presidential elections are decided through the Electoral College. Stated simply, each state has a certain number of electors. Each state has as many electors as they do members of Congress. The president must earn an absolute majority, or more than half of the available electors. There are 538 available electors in the United States so a president must earn a minimum of 270.
How many electors does the President have?
The president must earn an absolute majority, or more than half of the available electors. There are 538 available electors in the United States so a president must earn a minimum of 270. So, instead of each American's vote being tallied as a popular vote, their representatives or 'electors' vote for them. For this reason, it is possible ...
What is the most simplistic form of election?
In summary, a popular vote is simply a vote in which the individual or issue with the most total votes from a population of voters is the winner. It is perhaps the most simplistic form of an election. Because of its simplicity, it is a system that is used in numerous arenas.
How do you determine the winner of an election?
There are many ways to determine the winner of an election. One of the most common and simple methods is the popular vote. In this lesson, you will learn what constitutes a popular vote and how it works.
Who are the three candidates for Employee of the Month?
Consider three candidates for Employee of the Month: Bob, Cindy, and Diane. An email is sent out to all employees identifying the three candidates for this month's award. All employees are instructed to anonymously place their choice for Employee of the Month on a slip of paper and to place it in a ballot box located outside of the main office. There are 100 employees, including Bob, Cindy, and Diane, who are all eligible to vote, as well.
Did George Bush win the popular vote?
Bush and Al Gore were the two leading presidential candidates. Of course we know that George Bush would become president. However, he did not win the popular vote. The race was incredibly close and ended in controversy over how votes were collected and counted.
What is the popular vote?
The popular vote is simply which candidate has received the most total votes.
What is the national popular vote?
The National Popular Vote is a nonprofit working to implement a national popular vote for president, by creating an agreement among the states to elect by national popular vote. The compact will go into effect when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (270).
Why do some people want to abolish the Electoral College?
Often with many electoral votes at stake, these are where candidates spend most of their time and resources competing for votes. These states have a lot of power and can decide the outcome of a presidential election.
What states have an advantage with the Electoral College? And which states are at a disadvantage?
The makeup of the United States has changed a lot since the implementation of the Electoral College. Because of the distribution of electoral votes, some believe the Electoral College actually gives an advantage to some states.
What are electors?
Electors are people chosen by their state parties prior to the general election who cast their vote for president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. On Election Day, voters cast their vote for president and the winner of the popular vote in each state is awarded their party’s slate of electors.
What happens if a candidate doesn't receive 270 votes?
If no candidate receives 270 Electoral College votes, the president is then selected by the House of Representatives. Each state gets a single vote.
Why do people in states that have a large population but are not battleground states lose the value of their own vote?
Meanwhile, people in states that have a large population but are not battleground states lose the value of their own vote because electoral votes are already decided and there is less incentive for candidates to spend time campaigning in that state.
What is the popular vote?
In a US presidential election, the popular vote is the total number or percentage of votes cast for a candidate by voters in the 50 states and Washington, D.C.
What is the national popular vote?
The "national popular vote" is the sum of all the votes cast in the general election, nationwide. In the event that no candidate for one or both of these offices wins an absolute majority of votes in the electoral college, a contingent election will be the next procedure. A continent election for choosing the next US president is decided by ...
What is an en bloc vote?
An “en bloc” vote means they will cast a vote all together, rather than a vote from each representative. Senators cast votes individually for the vice president.
How many votes does each House delegation cast in a contingent election?
During a contingent election, each House state delegation casts one “ en bloc” vote to determine the president
How is the election of the next president decided?
A continent election for choosing the next US president is decided by a vote of the US House of Representatives, while a contingent election for the vice president is decided by a vote of the US Senate. During a contingent election, each House state delegation casts one “en bloc” vote to determine the president.
How is the US presidential election determined?
However, the US presidential election is not determined by the popular vote like other elections in the US - such as the Congressional elections. That means the President and Vice President are not elected directly by citizens. Instead, they’re chosen by “electors” through a process called the electoral college.
What amendment governs the process of electors?
These procedures are governed by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 2016, Mrs Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the election. Popular vote: The US election outcome is decided by ...
What can you vote for in a primary?
During an open primary or caucus, people can vote for a candidate of any political party.
Why do people vote for one president and one vice president?
The presidential candidates campaign throughout the country in an attempt to win the support of the general population. People in every state across the country vote for one president and one vice president. When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people known as electors.
How many electors do you need to vote for a candidate?
A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the presidential election. In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place in mid-December when the electors meet in their states.
What happens if no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes?
If no candidate receives the majority of electoral votes, the vote goes to the House of Representatives. House members choose the new president from among the top three candidates. The Senate elects the vice president from the remaining top two candidates.
How many electors do you need to win the presidential election?
A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the presidential election.
What is the purpose of the primaries and caucuses?
Though primaries and caucuses are run differently, they both serve the same purpose. They let the states choose the major political parties’ nominees for the general election.
What happens after you cast your ballot for president?
After you cast your ballot for president, your vote goes to a statewide tally. In 48 states and Washington, D.C., the winner gets all the electoral votes for that state. Maine and Nebraska assign their electors using a proportional system.
Which states award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote?
Forty-eight of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote there. 4 Nebraska and Maine award their electoral votes in a different manner. 4
What is the key phrase pertaining to the distribution of electoral votes?
The key phrase pertaining to the distribution of electoral votes is obvious: "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.". The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the states' role in awarding electoral votes is "supreme.".
How many electoral votes are needed to win the election?
Number of Electoral Votes Needed to Win. There are 538 "electors" in the Electoral College. 1 To become president, a candidate must win a simple majority of the electors, or 270, in the general election. 1 Electors are important people in each major political party and are chosen by voters to represent them in selecting a president.
How many electoral votes are up for grabs in 2020?
Updated October 03, 2020. There are 538 electoral votes up for grabs in every presidential election, 1 but the process of determining how they are awarded is one of the most complicated and widely misunderstood facets of American presidential elections. The U.S. Constitution created the Electoral College, but the Founding Fathers had fairly ...
How many votes are there in the 2016 presidential election?
A look at how the 538 votes are divvied up in presidential elections. Delegates from Texas take part in the roll call in support of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at the Republican National Convention on July 19, 2016. Tom Murse has been writing about politics and government for over two decades, and has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation ...
What created the electoral college?
The U.S. Constitution created the Electoral College, but the Founding Fathers had fairly little to say about how electoral votes are awarded by each of the states . Here are some common questions and answers about how states allocate electoral votes in presidential contests.
What is the difference between electors and delegate?
Electors are part of the mechanism that chooses a president. Delegates, on the other hand, are distributed by the parties during the primaries and serve to nominate candidates to run in the general election. Delegates are people who attend political conventions to choose the party nominees.
How many electoral votes does it take to win?
The important number is 270. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961.
Who decides who wins the presidency?
It’s the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, that determines who wins the presidency.
Where does the 2020 electoral count stand?
On Dec. 14, as electors gathered across the country to cast their ballots, Joseph R. Biden Jr. had earned 306 electoral votes, 36 more than needed to win. President Trump had earned 232 electoral votes. Mr. Biden was leading in the popular vote, with more than 81 million votes. More than 74 million votes had been counted for Mr. Trump.
Are all states winner-take-all?
Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said.
Why are smaller states overrepresented in the electoral college?
There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. In a stark example, sparsely populated Wyoming has three votes and a population of about 580,000, giving its individual voters far more clout in the election than their millions of counterparts in densely populated states like Florida, California and New York. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors.
What percentage of Americans support abolishing the electoral college?
Gallup reports 61 percent of Americans support abolishing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote. However, that support diverges widely based on political parties, with support from 89 percent of Democrats and only 23 percent of Republicans.
Which states have two electoral votes?
Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. The winner of the state’s popular vote gets two electoral votes, and one vote is awarded to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district.
What is the difference between popular vote and electoral vote?
Electoral Vote vs. Popular Vote. In a presidential election, the popular vote simply means an aggregate of all voters from all states in America. The candidate who gets the most votes nationwide is said to have won the popular vote. But the winner of the popular vote may end up losing the election, like Al Gore did in 2000 ...
What is the winner take all basis for electors?
In all states except Nebraska and Maine, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. This means all electors/delegates in a state are awarded to the winner of the popular vote in that state. So in a closely contested election like 2000 (Bush v. Gore), when George Bush won Florida with a roughly 50-50% split of the popular vote in that state, he won all 27 electoral votes for Florida.
Why is the electoral vote unfair?
They say that the system is undemocratic because the number of electoral votes is not directly proportional to the population of the state. This gives smaller states a disproportionate influence in presidential elections. For example, Hawaii has a population of only 1.36 million but has 4 electoral votes while Oregon has a population 3 times that size (3.8 million) but only 7 electoral votes. If the power of a single vote were calculated in terms of number of number of people per electoral vote, states like New York (519,000 people per electoral vote) and California (508,000 people per electoral vote) would lose. The winners would be states like Wyoming (143,000 people per electoral vote) and North Dakota (174,000 people per electoral vote). [3]
How many faithless voters were there in 2016?
Nevertheless, there were 7 faithless electors in 2016. Donald Trump ended up getting 304 electoral votes even though he won 306, and Clinton ended up with 227 even though she won 232. Some states have laws that requires electors to be faithful. However, not all of these states have penalties for faithless electors.
How many electors are there in the US?
There are 538 total electors in the Electoral College, who are chosen by each state of the United States and by the District of Columbia (but not by other territories like Puerto Rico). The number of electors for a state is based upon the voting membership of that state in Congress i.e. the number of representatives in the House plus the number of senators. There are a total of 435 Representatives and 100 Senators in Congress; so along with 3 electors from the District of Columbia that brings the total number of electors to 538. A presidential candidate needs 270 (just over 50%) electoral votes to win.
How many electoral votes did George Bush get in Florida?
Gore), when George Bush won Florida with a roughly 50-50% split of the popular vote in that state, he won all 27 electoral votes for Florida. Maine and Nebraska use a slightly different method for allocating electoral votes.
Why is there a discrepancy in the presidential election?
This discrepancy occurs because although Americans vote directly for their chosen candidate in the presidential election every 4 years, the president is elected by the institution called the Electoral College. This article explains the difference between the electoral vote and the popular vote, i.e., how the Electoral College system works.
How does the electoral college determine who is the president?
Under the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College determines who is the U.S. president, based on vote totals in each state. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes (270) wins the presidency. Each state’s number of electors is equal to its number of members of Congress (representatives plus senators).
Who said a candidate can win the electoral college without winning the popular vote?
David W. Brady, a political scientist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that a candidate can win the Electoral College – and as a result, the presidency – without winning the popular vote. It’s happened four times. Brady pointed to Andrew Jackson and Samuel Tilden, who won the popular vote in 1824 and 1876, respectively, ...
What would happen if the electoral college was eliminated?
Eliminating the Electoral College would empower voters, McAdam said, likely driving up voter registration and voting rates while creating a greater focus on issues (and not states) in presidential races.
How does the electoral college affect the presidential election?
The Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns , disenfranchises voters and drives partisanship, Stanford scholars say. They suggest constitutional reforms to adopt a single national popular vote where the one-person, one-vote concept applies.
What was the margin of difference between the remaining 44 states in 2012?
McAdam noted that the mean margin of difference in the remaining 44 states was a whopping 19 percent. “Even with such populous states as Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio in the mix, the total population of the 2012 battleground states was barely 20 percent of the country’s total,” he said.
How many amendments have been passed since the Constitution was adopted?
Still, 17 such amendments have passed since the Constitution was adopted in 1789, the last being in 1992. McAdam said that another flaw with the Electoral College occurs when none of the candidates wins 270 electoral votes.
What is the electoral college?
The Electoral College is responsible for disenfranchising, in effect, huge swaths of American voters, said Doug McAdam, a professor of sociology who studies American politics. A single national popular or “constituency” vote would determine the president based on who won the most votes total across the country.
How many times has the president-elect not been the most popular candidate?
There have only been five occasions in the history of the US (three in the 19th century) when the president-elect hasn't been the candidate with the most popular votes, and this has allowed the system to endure.
When did the president not win the popular vote?
The two most recent occasions when the president had not won the popular vote (George W Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016) sparked discussion as to the relevance of the Electoral College, as people questioned the reason for preserving a system that doesn't always follow the democratic principle of the majority of a nation.
How many members are in the electoral college?
The 538 members of the Electoral College are appointed based on the number of representatives a state has in the lower house of Congress, plus its two senators, and a majority vote of 270 is needed to elect a president. Defenders of the system say it promotes federalism and prevents the possibility of challenges and recounts on a national level.
How did the Convention delegates elect the president?
So the Convention delegates went for an indirect system in which the members of the Electoral College would be appointed in each state, by popular vote or by decision of the state legislature, and these electors, in turn, would elect the president.
How does the US elect a president?
In the US election, a candidate becomes president not by winning a majority of the national popular vote but through a system called the Electoral College, which allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia largely based on their population.
Why did the South want electors based on the white population?
Granting electors only based on the white population would put the southern states at a disadvantage compared to the northern ones, but those in the north were reluctant to take the entire population of the south into consideration unless slavery was abolished completely, a notion that was unacceptable to the south. This controversy also cropped up in defining congressional districts and representatives and in establishing taxes.
When was the electoral college created?
The Electoral College system was created during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and was the result of a compromise between those who were advocating for the popular vote and those who wanted the president to be appointed by Congress. In an age when the national identity still had not been defined and there was a lot of competition between the states, it was feared that the large, populous states might overpower those with fewer inhabitants.
