Hi everyone! I'm Shiela Watka, welcome back
to Election 101. When I was a kid I always
thought voting was so simple. You vote for
the person you want, and the one with the
most votes wins.
But no.
There's this thing called the electoral college,
and today I'm going to explain how all that
works.
When voting for President of the United States,
what's being counted is not each individual
vote cast by each individual person. Instead,
they're counting the votes based on each state's
majority to vote: democratic, or republican.
So if the majority of the people in your state
vote repblican, your state's vote will be
cast as republican. Now this is where it gets
a little tricky, but I'm going to try to break
it down nice and easy for you.
Not every state gets just 1 vote.
States have a different
number of votes based on its population.
Here´s how.
First, every state starts off with three votes
because every state has 2 senators, therefore
every state is given 2 senate votes. In addition,
every state has at least 1 house of representatives.
Therefore, every state gets at least 1 representative
vote. Now some states have more representative
votes than others.
Because this number is actually determined
by the state's population.
For example, the state of Wyoming is the
least populated state in the U.S., 
housing only .18% of the country's
population. Therefore, it is assigned only
1 representative, giving the state a total number
of 3 votes; 2 from the senate,
and one from the representative.
In comparison, California is the most populated
state and houses 12.07% of the whole country's
population. Therefore, California is awarded
53 representatives, giving the state a total
number of 55 votes. If the majority of California
votes democratic, the democratic candidate
gets all 55 votes. That's why your vote is
SO important. It can help decide whether your
states votes are for the republican or democratic
candidate.
This map here shows how many votes each state
gets based on its population.
If you add up the number of votes from each
state, and Washington D.C. is given the same
amount of votes as the smallest state, the
total number of votes that goes into the election
is 538.
Now, I know the question you're asking is
why? Why do we even have the electoral college?
Well this dates back to our founding fathers.
They were afraid that a tyrant possibly could
come to power by persuading the public opinion,
and felt that it was necessary for the men
most capable of analyzing the qualities to have
some control in the voting process.
In addition, the reason the representatives
are determined by population is to spread
out the voting power among the states.
In the electoral college, smaller states are actually given
more electoral votes per person
than larger states.
If the votes were just
according to each individual person, that
would make the state of California a much
more powerful state to win over than say Wyoming.
Thus, candidates would aim all of their attention
at the larger states.
Although this system has been in place for over centuries, it certainly isn't perfect.
There are two main issues with
the electoral college. One main issue, is
that after a state has voted and the majority
has won for either the democratic or republican
party, that outcome doesn't just go straight
to the poles. There's a middle man called
an elector.
So the majority vote whether it be democratic
or republican for each state is given to the
previously elected elector and then the elector
casts a new seperate ballot for president
and vice president in order to represent his
or her state in the poles.
However, it is not illegal for the elector
to take it upon him or herself to cast Florida's
votes as republican or to not even vote at
all. These electors are known as faithless
electors, and there have been 157 instances
of this in the past.
71 of these were due to the fact that the
elector died before casting his states votes.
In third, in three cases, the elector chose
not to vote at all and in 82 instances, the
elector changed the states vote, based on
personal views. The last time this happened
was in 2000. When the Washington DC elector
decided not to vote in hopes to highlight
her views that the district deserved more
representation.
Another big issue with the electoral college
is that the votes are only for the 50 states,
and the District of Colombia. This excludes
the four major territories owned by the United
States, and in turn denies over 4 million
U.S. citizens their right to cast their vote.
Now there's certainly more extensive pros
and cons of the electoral college, but this
is a great basic overview that will help you
feel confident during the election time. Thank
you so much for watching Election 101 and
I'll see you soon.
