Electing the President

Review: Representatives

Options for electing president

1. Congress votes

2. Direct popular vote

Compromise: electoral college system Why did the founders of the U.S.

choose to set up an electoral college system?

Original Electoral College System

Founders of U.S. feared that citizens would not know enough about candidates to make a wise decision

Plus, the most popular candidate might not be the best…

Electoral College system Today

Popular vote- deceiving The candidate that

wins the popular vote does not always win the electoral college vote.

EX: 2000 election› Al Gore won the popular

vote, but George Bush won the electoral college vote.

Popular vote vs. electoral college

George W. Bush, Republican › Popular vote: 50,460,110 (47.87%)› Electoral college vote: 271 (50.4%)

Albert Gore Jr. , Democrat › Popular vote: 51,003,926 (48.38%) › Electoral college vote: 266 (49.4%)

How is this possible?

“Winner Take All” system (every state except Maine and Nebraska)› If a candidate wins the popular vote in a certain

state, then that person gets all of the electoral votes.

› The votes of people who voted for the losing candidate in that state don’t matter in the electoral college

› Example: in 1992, over 2 million people in Texas voted for Clinton, but since Bush got more votes in Texas, Bush got all of Texas’s electoral votes and Clinton did not get any.

So why not get rid of it??

Eliminating the electoral college would weaken the federal system by taking power away from the states

Candidates would only focus on the most populous cities like New York and L.A., while ignoring the rest of the country.

Written response: one paragraph

Do you think the United States should continue to use the Electoral College system to select the president? Why or why not? Use examples from the lecture and discussion to support your claim.