Don't understand the Electoral College? Well, you're not alone. Here's a guide to what it is, how it works, and why it matters.
Compiled by Elizabeth Mayer.
What exactly is the Electoral College?
It's not a university, though it sounds like one. It's a group of 538 people (electors) who, according to the Constitution, are responsible for selecting the President and Vice President.
How did this system come about?
When the Constitution was being drafted in 1787, the Framers did not want the President and Vice President to be chosen either by Congress or by the people directly. To establish a role for the states in national elections (as part of our federalist system of government) and to protect the country from what they saw as an ill-informed populace, they devised a system that later came to be known as the Electoral College. They envisioned it as an elite group of distinguished men (there wasn't a female elector until 1912), selected by each state, who could be trusted with choosing the nation's leaders. The system has changed little in 200 years, except that now each state's political parties nominate slates of electors, who are pledged to support their party's candidates.
How many electoral votes does each state get?
The same number as its delegation in Congress: however many seats it has in the House (which is based on population), plus the Senate (always 2). New Jersey, for example, has 13 Representatives, 2 Senators, and 15 electoral votes.
Who is qualified to be an elector?
There are no age restrictions or residency requirements in the Constitution. It's basically up to party officials in each state.
If these 538 electors choose the President, what's Election Day about?
Technically, on Election Day, you're not voting for a presidential candidate (even if his or her name appears on the ballot). You're actually voting for a slate of electors who have pledged to support one of the candidates.
So how does a candidate win?
Each state's electoral votes are awarded on a winner-take-all basis (except in Maine and Nebraska, and Colorado will vote in November on changing its system). In other words, the candidate with the most popular votes in a state (whether the margin of victory is 3 votes or 3 million) gets all of that state's electoral votes. To win, a candidate needs a majority--270--of the 538 electoral votes.
Do electors actually cast their electoral votes?
It's usually a formality, but electors representing the candidate who won the popular vote in each state on Election Day meet in their state capitals in December to cast their votes for President and Vice President. The national election results become official when all the state ballots are counted before a joint session of Congress on January 6. The winners are sworn in on January 20.
What if no candidate gets a majority?
The House selects the President, with each state getting one vote, and the Senate selects the Vice President.
Can one candidate win the popular vote and another win the electoral vote?
Yes, and the electoral vote determines who will be President. It's happened four times, most recently in 2000, when Al Gore won the popular vote, but George W. Bush won the electoral vote. The other three times: 1824, 1876, and 1888.
It sounds like a complicated system.
The trick is to think about the election the way the candidates do: not as a single national election, but as 51 separate elections. They have to figure out how to win enough of those 50 state elections (plus Washington, D.C.) to rack up 270 electoral votes. (See Debate - Should the Electoral College be abolished?, for a discussion on whether the Electoral College should be abolished.)
How is this playing out in 2004?
Bush and Kerry aren't spending much time (or TV ad dollars) in states where they're way behind or way ahead. Instead, they're focusing on "battleground" or "swing" states, where the popular vote seems close. According to New York Times analysts, 13 states were still in play in late September. (For a current map showing these "swing" states, go to the Campaign 2004 section of nytimes.com.) So if you live in Texas or Massachusetts, you're probably not seeing many presidential campaign ads on TV. But if you're in Wisconsin or Florida, it may seem as if Kerry and Bush have taken over your TV set.
From THE NEW YORK TIMES UPFRONT. Copyright © 2004 by Scholastic Inc. and the New York Times Company. Used by permission.