The 2024 presidential election has ended as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris rushed to garner votes ahead of November 5th. The president-elect will be decided not by the number of votes cast in their favor but by the 538 people who make up the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and the election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.
“[The Electoral College] is our voting system. Every state gets a certain number of points based on population,” NHS sophomore Victoria Baghdady said.
The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.
“The people vote in the towns and they compile that and then they compile it for the state and then based on how many votes in the state they go toward the representatives that then vote for the president,” NHS sophomore Sierra Marx said.
There are 538 electors in the college, and a majority of 270 electoral votes are required to elect the President. Each state has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators.
“There are 270 electoral votes required to elect the president,” said NHS sophomore Lola Arpi-Tenesaca after being asked how many she thinks there are.
The District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) is allocated 3 electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution.
Each candidate running for President in each state has their own group of electors. The slates are generally chosen by the candidate's political party in said State, but State laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are.
The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. When you vote for a Presidential candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s preferred electors, not the presidential candidates.
Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the Presidential candidate who wins the State’s popular vote. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation”.
After the general election, each state’s executive prepares a Certificate of Ascertainment listing the names of all the individuals on the slates for each candidate. The Certificate of Ascertainment also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were appointed as your State’s electors. This Certificate of Ascertainment is sent to the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) as part of the official records of the Presidential election.
“I had no idea this occurred after the election,” NHS junior Nikki Tabor said.
The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election. The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your State’s electors’ votes are recorded on a Certificate of Vote, which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. The Certificate of Vote is then sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and to the NARA, as part of the official records of the Presidential election.
Each State’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber to conduct the official count of electoral votes. The Vice President of the United States, as President of the Senate, presides over the count in a strictly ministerial manner and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.
The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the general election.
There is much controversy about the Electoral College. Many say it should be abolished, whereas others proclaim it should be followed to a tee.
One big reason why people believe the Electoral College is a good thing is that it ensures that all parts of the country are involved in selecting the President of the United States. If the election depended solely on the popular vote, then candidates could limit campaigning to heavily populated areas or specific regions. To win the election, candidates need electoral votes from multiple regions and have to build campaign platforms with a national focus. This means the winner will be serving the needs of the entire country.
“The current Electoral College system creates a needed balance between rural and urban interests and ensures that the winning candidate has support from multiple regions of the country,” South Dakota Representative Tina Mulally said.
On the other hand, some argue that the Electoral College gives too much power to the swing states and allows the presidential election to be decided by only a handful of states. The two main political parties can count on winning the Electoral votes in certain states, such as California for the Democratic Party and Indiana for the Republican Party, without worrying about the actual popular vote totals. Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates only need to pay attention to a limited number of states that can swing one way or the other.
“The fact that in presidential elections people in Wyoming have [nearly four] times the power of people in California is antithetical at the most basic level to what we say we stand for as a democracy,” Harvard University political scientist Gautam Mukunda said.
Moreover, those for the Electoral College believe that it was created to protect the voices of the minority from being overwhelmed by the will of the majority and that the college can preclude calls for recounts or demands for run-off elections, giving certainty to presidential elections. Others believe that the Electoral College is rooted in slavery and racism and that democracy should function on the will of the people, allowing one vote per adult.
Ultimately, it is up to you to decide whether the Electoral College benefits our society or if it hinders the way we navigate our elections today.
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