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Anti American Posts
Don Jacob:
i jumped a few chapters in my government book at school and heres what it says about the electoral college
The original version of he electoral college worked as the framers intended only for as long as George Washington was willing to seek and hold the presidency. He was twice, and uanimously, elected President. That is, in 1789 and agan in 1792, each elector cast one of his two ballot for the great Virginian.
flaws began to ppear in the syste in 1796, however. By the, political partie had begun to form. John Adams the Federalist candidate, was elected to the presidency. Thomas Jefferson , an arch-rival and Democratic-Republican, who lost to Adams by just 3 votesin the electoral ballotin, became his vice president.
the framers wre against selecting the president by eitherof the obvious ways: by Congress or by a dirct vote of the people. Early in the convention, most of the delegates favored selection by Congress. Lter nearlyall delegates came to the view that congressional selection would as hamilton said, put the presidet "too much under the legislative thumb" only a few o the framersfvored choosing the president by popular vote. nerly all agreed that that wouldlead "to tumult and disorder" the Most delegates felt, too, that the people, scttered over so wde an area, could not possibly know enough about the available candidates to make wise, informed choices. George Mason of virginia spoke for most of his colleagus at the convention: "te extent of the country rendes it impossible tha the people can have the requisite capacity to judge th respective contentions of the candidates"
After week of debat, the Framers finlly agreed on a plan first put forward by hamiltonnder it, the president was to be chosn by a special body of electors. in detail the plan provided :
1. each of the several states would have as many presidential electors as it has senators and representatives in congress
2. these electors would be chosen in each state in a manner the state legislature directed
3. the electors, meeting in their own States, would ach cast two votes-each for a diffeent person for president
4. the electoral votes from the states would beopened and counted before a joit session of congress
5. the person receiving the largest nmber of electoral votes, provided that total was a majority of all the elector, would become president
6. the person wit the second highest number of electoral votes would become vice president
7. if a tie accurred, or if no one received the votes of a majority of the electors, the president would be chosen by thehouse representatives, voting by states
8. if a tie occurred for the second spot , the vice president would be chosen by the senate
the 12th amendment
the election of 1800 produced another natable rsult the 12th amendment was added to the constitution in 1804, to make certain there would never be another such fiasco. the amendment is a lengthyone, but it made noly one major change in the electoral college system. it seperated the presidential and vice presidentail elctions : "the electors...shal name i ther ballots the person voted for as prsidet, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president"
the electoral college today
here you come to one of the least understood pars of the american political process. As the people vote in the presidential election, they do not cast a vote directly for one of the contenders for the presidency. instead, they vote to elect presidential electors
the electors are chosen by popular vote in every state and on the same day everywhere, the tuesday after the first monday in november every fourth year .
the electors are chosen at lage in every state except maine. that is, they are chosen on a winnertake all basis. the presidential candidate tchnically, the slate of electo candidates nomiated by is party-receiving he largest popular vote in the state wins all of that state's electoral votes. today the names of the individual elector candidates appear on the ballot in less than a fourth of te states. in most, only the names of the presidential and vice presidential candidates are listed. they stand as "shorthand" for the elector slates
.(...then it talks about dates which arn' important for thisargument)
there is ever present threat that the winner of the popular vote wil not win the presidency. this continuing threat is largely the result of two factors. the most important is he winer take all featureof the electoral college system. in each state the winning candidae customarily receives all that states electoral votes thus, in 1992 bill clinton won arely 50 percen of the popular vote in NY, butall of that states 33 electoral votes -even though some 2.2 millon new yorkers voted for republican George Bush and aother 1.1 for Ross Perot
the other major culprit here is the way the electoal votes are distributed among the states. rmember, each state has 2 electors becuase of it's senate seats, regardless of it's population. because of them, the distribution of electoral votes does not match the facts of population and voter distribution
take the extreme case to illustrate this situation : California , the largest state, now has 54 (56 now, but this book was published in 95') electoral votes, 1 one for each 551,112 persons, basedon its 1990 population of 29,760, 021 ( it's well into 30 now and if i was never born it woulda been a clean 29,760, 020 in 1990 lol) Alaska has 3 elevtoral votes, or 1 for each 183,343 persons,with it's 1990 population of 550,043.
The popular vote winner has, in fact, failed to win the residency 3 (4 now)times : 1824, 1876, and 1888 (and now 2000) IN 1824 Andrew Jackson won the largest share (a plurality, but not a majority) of the popular votes: 151,174, or 40.3 percent of the ttal Jackson's nearest rival, john quincy adams, received 113,122 votes or 30.9% Ninety-nine of the 261 electors then voted for jackson agin more than any other candidate but far short of a majority. the election thus went to the house early in 1825, it elected adams to the presidency.
in the election of 1876 , republican candidate Rutherford B Hays received 4034311 pop votes and his democrat opponent Smuel J Tilden, won 4288, 548. Tilden received 184 electoral votes and Hayes won 185 electoral votes and so became president
then it explains like 5 pages more about the elctoral college but i think this is the most important stuff
so basically when i'm 18 and i go vote for gore (if he runs) i'm voting for a dude who will vote for him for me in the electoral college ...if the majority of californians say no we want the republican to win.... my vote goes to the republican candidate and he gets california's 56 electoral votes....but california is usually democrat so 56 point would go to gore...basically you got to win key states like california texas florida and new york who have the most votes and get the middle states like ohio and wisconsin which are the difference makers
so how Gore lost the electoral but won the majority was he won a bunch states that got 3 or 2 votes and barely lost states like texas and florida that had big
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