And Why Don’t We Get Rid of It?
Legally, the Electoral College chooses
our president, but our votes DO control that result. And until we can remove
the marketing geeks from the election process, we do still need the Electoral
College.
As usual on election night, news
reporters announced each state’s vote totals as the polls closed and kept a
running tally of electoral votes. Incumbent President Barack Obama won re-election
by 4,602,212 popular votes and earned 332 Electoral College votes. Former
Gov. Mitt Romney won 206 electoral votes. Other
candidates won 2,227,841 popular and zero electoral votes. A candidate needs
270 electoral votes to win the election. But what’s the point of having the
Electoral College?
Our founders were afraid to permit the
uninformed and uneducated public to elect the president and vice president, but
didn’t want to give that much power to Congress. The Electoral College was
their compromise. The constitution allots each state the same number of
electors as it has members of Congress – both in the House of Representatives
and in the Senate. There are 435 House of Representatives members and 100
senators. The 23rd amendment allots three electors to the District
of Columbia, just as though it was a state, so there are 538 total electors.
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