How does electoral college work and what are its flaws?

Answer 1

States are given electoral votes equivalent to their populations. During the Presidential elections, the candidate with the most votes takes all the votes assigned to that state. For example, winner takes all.

The purpose of this formula is to insure that rural or lightly populated areas of the nation are still afforded some representation and consideration by candidates and politicians.

If the electoral college were not in place and the President was elected by a simple majority then candidates would completely disregard over 75% of the nation that is sparsely populated. For example, they would only campaign in the densely populated urban areas of the coasts and major cities.

This would result in the disenfranchisement of a great number of middle class, midwestern and southern citizens and probably the dissolution of the union or worse.

In their ulimate wisdom, our founding fathers foresaw this eventuality and created the electoral college that forced candidates to campaign across the entire nation.

Answer 2

It is the system the the US has used since the Constitution. it works by having people vote in a state. after all the votes have benn tailed how ever has the highest gets all of the electoral votes, which is based on seats in both the senate and house. that is how candidates "win" a state. Its flaws are that it doesnt fairly represent all the people, Ex: If the republican candidate gets 51% and the democrats get 49% and the state has 20 electoral votes, the republican candidates gets all 20 votes (i think Vermont and Maine are the only two states that doen't work like that). Another flaw is that third parties aren't fairly represented. using the example above, that third party candidate would have to beat both major parties. finally some votes are "worth" more. California has alot of people and Ohio doesnt, so a candidate campaigns more at ohio and this also creates problems because candidates pay more attention to ohio's problems than California's.