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Electoral votes in the Electoral College determine the President of the United States. Every state and DC are awarded a certain number of electoral votes with which to elect the President. Each state has electoral votes equal to the total of the 2 representative the state has in the U.S. Senate plus the number of representative the state has in the House of Representatives. The states choose as many electors as it has electoral votes and these electors elect the president. The electors are elected by popular vote in each state and each candidate for elector swears in advance whom he will vote for. 270 electoral votes in the Electoral College are needed to win the U.S. presidency. Since every state has two senators and at least one representative to the House, every state has at least 3 electoral votes. The District of Columbia gets 3 electoral votes. Therefore, the total number of electoral votes in the Electoral College is 538 - 100 (senators) + 435 (representatives) + 3 (for DC). A majority is 270 - one more than half of the total number of 538.
It is possible that a candidate could win the "national" popular vote total but lose the electoral vote total. However, the electoral vote of every state accurately reflects the popular vote within that state. A candidate could win the electoral votes in a large state such as California winning the state by a huge margin. However, the opposing candidate could win the electoral votes in other states because a majority of the voters in those states vote for the opposing candidate.That enables the citizens of every state to have a say in the election of the president. If the president was selected by the national popular vote, the citizens in a few large states would select the President of the United States.
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Why doesn't the popular vote decide the president?
because its electoral votes and it technically is the most popular but congress also has to vote the new president in.
Does the electoral college decide the next president?
No the next president is decided by the amount of electoral votes the candidate gets. They need to have so many electoral votes to win the elections.
What was the margin of popular votes Kennedy won by?
John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election defeating Richard Nixon. In the 1960 presidential election John F. Kennedy received 303 electoral votes, Richard Nixon received 219 electoral votes, and Harry Byrd received 15 electoral votes. The popular vote totals were Kennedy 34,226,731 and Nixon 34,108,157.
Who won Maryland electoral votes?
Maryland cast its 10 electoral votes for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The popular vote count was Hillary Clinton 1,677,928 and Donald Trump 943,169.
How does popular vote relate to electoral votes?
It is possible that a candidate could win the "national" popular vote total but lose the electoral vote total. However, the electoral vote of every state accurately reflects the popular vote within that state. A candidate could win the electoral votes in a large state such as California winning the state by a huge margin. However, the opposing candidate could win the electoral votes in other states because a majority of the voters in those states vote for the opposing candidate.
Why are there popular votes if the electoral colleges decide the presidency?
Because the popular vote decides which candidate wins that State's electoral college votes. In the present case, the electoral college will hardly have a choice and could be said to be redundant, but this has not always been the case.
How do electoral votes determined the president?
The candidate who receives the most electoral votes wins the presidency. It is possible to lose the popular vote but win the electoral vote to be elected president.
How do most states decide the winner of their electoral votes?
By popular vote.
What is the number of electoral votes need to win the presidency?
270 electoral votes.
How many electoral votes does a candidate need to receive to win the presidency in the electoral colldge?
A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. However, if neither candidate reaches this threshold, the election is thrown to the House of Representatives and they vote (1 vote per state) to decide who becomes president.
Who are the people that can directly elect?
electoral college electoral votes are the only votes that count towards presidency
How does Minnesota decide how many electoral votes each candidate will get?
All ten of Minnesota's electoral votes go to the Presidential candidate with the most popular votes in the state and his running mate.
Which is more important electoral votes of popular votes?
Candidates need a majority of electoral votes to be elected. Because most states* award all of their electoral votes to the top candidate in that state, candidates do not need to win the national popular vote to win a majority of electoral votes. The result is that winning a few large population states (called swing states), even by a tiny margin, can guarantee election to the presidency. In 1876, 1888, and 2000, the winning candidate did not get the most popular votes nationwide.
How would the National Popular Vote bill change current Electoral College?
When states with a combined total of at least 270 electoral votes enact the bill, the candidate with the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC would get the needed majority of 270+ electoral votes from the enacting states. The bill would thus guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes and the majority of Electoral College votes.
How Wilson won the presidency without winning the popular vote?
He got enough electoral votes. To become president you don't need the popular vote.
Purpose of the creation of the electoral college?
The purpose of the electoral college is to ' break the tie' between two opposing parties. Let's say, there are two candidates running for the presidency. For the sake of argument we'll call them George W. Bush and Al Gore. After all the campaigning is done and all the votes have been tallied and counted, we find that both candidates seem to have about the same number of popular votes. Basically, we have a tie. This is when the electoral college steps in to cast their votes. It is their votes that will be the deciding factor as to which candidate will win the nomination for the presidency.
Are US senators elected by electoral votes or popular votes?
Popular votes
