Does My Vote Count?

Understanding the Electoral College

Under the Federal system adopted in the U.S. Constitution, the nation-wide popular vote has no legal significance. As a result, it is possible that the electoral votes awarded on the basis of State elections could produce a different result than the nation-wide popular vote. Nevertheless, the individual citizen’s vote is important to the outcome of each State election. - National Archives and Records Administration

No, the Electoral College is not the worst team in the SEC. It’s the group of people who actually elect the president of the United States. How the Electoral College works is one of the more complicated parts of the American electoral process — or can be, at least, when things don’t go smoothly.

HOW THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORKS

The people of the United States elect a president every four years, but not directly. Here’s how it works:
1. In November of a presidential election year, each state holds an election for president in which all eligible citizens may vote. Citizens vote for a “ticket” of candidates that includes a candidate for president and a candidate for vice president.
2. The outcome of the vote in each state determines a slate of electors who then, in turn, make the actual choice of president and vice president. Each state has as many electors as it has senators and members of the House of Representatives, for a total of 538. (The District of Columbia gets three electors even though it has no representation in Congress.)
3. In December, the electors meet in their respective state capitols to cast their ballots for president and vice president. States may or may not require their electors to vote with the popular majority, and they may or may not give all of their electors to the winner of the statewide popular vote.
4. These ballots are opened, counted, and certified by a joint session of Congress in January.
5. If no candidate wins a majority of the electoral votes or if the top two candidates are tied, the House of Representatives selects a president from among the five candidates with the most votes. Each state’s delegation has a single vote. The Senate selects a vice president by the same process. (This hasn’t happened since 1876, but it almost happened in 2000.)

What does this mean in practice? It means, as everyone learned or was reminded in 2000, that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide does not necessarily become president. There is no national election for president, only separate state elections. For a candidate to become president, he or she must win enough state elections to garner a majority of electoral votes. Presidential campaigns, therefore, focus on winning states, not on winning a national majority.

It also means that — at least in theory — electors can thwart the popular will and vote for a candidate not supported by the voters of their state. In practice, however, electors are pledged to cast their votes in accordance with the popular vote, and “faithless electors” who go against the popular vote are extremely rare.

WHY NOT A POPULAR VOTE?
(AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE)

When we’re debating whether some aspect of the Constitution makes sense, it’s useful to think of the Constitution as an experiment — as a work in progress. Some of its original framers referred to it that way, as a Great Experiment in democracy. In 1787, no republic like the United States existed anywhere in the world. The “founding fathers” were making things up as they went along, looking at history, philosophy, and what they did and didn’t like about existing governments in Europe and America. And not all of them agreed — in fact, many of them disagreed completely, even on important issues such as how much power the people should have.

The electoral college was a compromise on two important issues: The first was how much power the people should have, and the second was how much power small and large states should have.