PCS 101 Introduction to American Government
Electoral college is a body of electors chosen or appointed by a larger group to represent
the states of the US, who cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. When
Americans vote for a president and vice president; they are actually voting for presidential
electors, known as the electoral college. It is these electors, chosen by the people, who elect the
chief executive. The constitution assigns each state a specific number of electors equal to the
combined total of the state’s senate and house of representatives; the number of electors in each
state ranges from three to 54, for a total of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is
required to elect the president. The electoral college process consists of the selection of the
electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for a president and a vice president, and the
counting of the electoral votes by the congress. The meeting of the electors takes place on the
first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. The
electors meet in their states, where they cast their votes for president and vice president on
separate ballots. Then the vice president, supervises the count of votes and announces the results
of the vote. the president elected takes the oath of office and becomes the president of the Untied
States on January 20th in the year following the presidential election. The electoral college
process should be preserved and it shouldn’t change because the electoral college is an essential
part of federalism, which is the basis of our government system.
The establishment of the electoral college process has some advantages and
disadvantages. People must be aware of them so that they know where they stand. One of the
many disadvantages of the electoral college process is the possibility of electing a minority
president (one who doesn’t have absolute majority of popular votes) because of the possibility of
depressing voter turnout. One way in which a minority president could be elected is if the
country is deeply divided politically that three or more candidates split the electoral votes among
them, such that no candidate obtained the majority vote. A second way in which a minority
president could become president is if one candidate’s popular support were heavily concentrated
in some states while the other candidate has a slim popular lead in enough states to win the
majority of votes of the electoral college. A third possible way of electing a minority president is
if a third minor party or candidate, no matter how small, drew enough votes from the top two that
no candidate received over 50% of the overall popular votes. Of the many disadvantages of the
electoral college process, the risk of faithless electors worries many people. A faithless elector is
who is guaranteed to vote for his party’s presidential candidate but, however votes for another
candidate. Faithless elect...
