270 electoral votes in the Electoral College are needed to win the U.S. presidency. 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. 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 is 538 - 100 (senators) + 435 (representatives) + 3 (for DC). A majority is 270 - one more than half of the total number of 538.
_____ Members of the Electoral College, called electors, will vote for one person as president and for another as vice-president.
In the United States, individual casting of electoral votes for president occurs when members of the Electoral College cast their votes for the presidential candidate that won their state's popular vote. Each elector has the discretion to vote for the candidate of their choice. However, some states have laws that require electors to vote according to the popular vote result in their state.
You would call that person running for an elected office a Candidate. Here is a defintiion of how we pick our president,we vote for someone (electoral college) to vote for the president like i vote for bob to vote for billy
Yes, but this has never happened.
A person wins a Presidential election in America slightly different from what most people think. Most people would tell you that the citizens vote and all votes are accounted for and whichever candidate receives the most votes is the President. However, the President is in fact selected by the electoral college. This is an uncommon occurrence but in the event that the popular vote (the citizens vote) differs from the electoral college, then the President is selected by the electoral college. So in reality citizens votes don't mean anything.
The final choice is made by the electoral college, just as the choice for president is made. In every state, the vice presidential candidate appears on the ballot along with the presidential candidate; they run as a team. This is a huge change from the original method in the Constitution, wherein the vice president was the presidential candidate with the second most votes.
Yes, because the voters don't choose the President and Vice President; they choose the electors who choose the President and Vice President. A person can be elected President without a majority of electoral votes, too. It happened in 1824. If no candidate has an absolute majority (more than half) of all of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President, and they are not required to vote according to the will of the voters or the electoral college. Since 1964, that required minimum number of votes is 270.
The president is elected by the electoral college. When the Constitution was first written, the authors felt that the common man was not educated well enough to elect the proper person as president. The electoral college system was set up to elect the president. Every state has a number of electors equal to the combined number of representatives and senators it has in Congress. When citizens go to the polls and vote, they elect the candidate for which they want their electors to vote. For example, if your state has twelve representatives and two senators, your state would have a total of fourteen electors. If in the election, candidate X defeats candidate Y, even if it is by just one vote, candidate X will receive all fourteen electoral votes from your state. It is therefore possible for a president to be elected without having the most popular votes, although that is a rare possibility.
Many Americans think that when they cast their ballot, they are voting for their chosen candidate for a better government. In actuality they are selecting groups of electors in the electoral college. A candidate must receive an absolute majority of electoral votes (currently 270) to win the Presidency.The election for President and Vice President is not a direct election by United States citizens. Citizens vote for electors, representing a state, who are the authorized constitutional participants in a presidential election.
Originally the President was the person that won the most Electoral College votes and the Vice President was the person that won the second most Electoral College votes. Unfortunately this usually resulted in the President and Vice President being of different political parties and working toward opposite goals.
If no candidate receives the necessary votes in the Electoral College, the election goes to the House of Representatives. In the House, each state gets one vote. So the representatives of the state gather and vote within their delegation and then vote as one on the House floor. The person who receives a majority (26) is elected President. There are some problems with voting in the House. The small states (population wise) have the same influence as the larger states. If a majority of representatives from a state cannot agree on a candidate, that state loses its vote. If some members of the House favor a strong third-party candidate, it could make it difficult for any candidate to get the needed 26 votes.NovaNet: The House of Representatives
In order to win in the electoral college, a majority is required. There is no such thing as a minority winner there. If no one gets a majority, the House of Representatives elects the President from the three top vote-getters. Every state gets one vote. If they choose a candidate with a minority of the votes, the result would probably be just as controversial as when a person with a plurality of popular votes loses in the electoral college.