How is the number of electoral seats per state determined?
Each state appoints electors according to its legislature, equal in number to its congressional delegation. The congressional delegation of a state is the sum of its two senators, plus all of its representatives. The appropriateness of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate.
How are the number of delegates in the Electoral College decided?
In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election; there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.
How does popular vote affect electoral college?
When citizens cast their ballots for president in the popular vote, they elect a slate of electors. Electors then cast the votes that decide who becomes president of the United States. Usually, electoral votes align with the popular vote in an election.
Why do some states have more electoral votes?
There are a total of 538 electoral votes, and the number of votes each state receives is proportional to its size — the bigger the state’s population the more “votes” it gets. For California, this means we get 55 votes (2 senators and 53 members of the House of Representatives) — the most of any state.
Who sits on the Electoral College?
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your 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.
What happens if the Electoral College is tied?
If no candidate for president receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes, pursuant to the 12th Amendment, the House of Representatives is required to go into session immediately to choose a president from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes.
Why did the Founding Fathers create the Electoral College?
The Electoral College was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as an alternative to electing the president by popular vote or by Congress. Several weeks after the general election, electors from each state meet in their state capitals and cast their official vote for president and vice president.
Who is the only US president to serve in the Senate after his presidency?
Only one president, Andrew Johnson, served as a U.S. senator after his presidency.
Who decides the presidential election if there is a tie in the Electoral College?
Each state may cast one vote and an absolute majority is needed to win. Similarly, the Senate decides who the next Vice President will be if there is no absolute majority after the Electoral College vote.
Who breaks a tie in Senate votes?
The vice president of the United States is the ex officio president of the Senate, as provided in Article I, Section 3, Clause 4, of the United States Constitution, but may only vote in order to break a tie.
Has there ever been an Electoral College tie?
The 1800 election resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. In the election of 1836, which made Martin Van Buren president, Kentucky’s former Democratic senator Richard M. Johnson fell one electoral vote short of a majority among four vice-presidential candidates.
Which president won the most electoral votes in a single election?
Roosevelt won the largest number of electoral votes ever recorded at that time, and has so far only been surpassed by Ronald Reagan in 1984, when seven more electoral votes were available to contest. Garner also won the highest percentage of the electoral vote of any vice president.
What was the closest presidential election?
The 1960 presidential election was the closest election since 1916, and this closeness can be explained by a number of factors.
How many times has Congress chosen the president?
After Congress counts the votes, the candidate with a clear majority—270 out of 538—is elected. If no one gets a majority, the election goes to Congress to resolve. But the House has elected the President only twice, in 18, and the Senate has chosen the Vice President only once, in 1837.
What does Amendment 12 say?
The Twelfth Amendment requires a person to receive a majority of the electoral votes for vice president for that person to be elected vice president by the Electoral College. If no candidate for vice president has a majority of the total votes, the Senate, with each senator having one vote, chooses the vice president.
How many times can you run for president?
The Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) to the United States Constitution limits to two the number of times a person is eligible for election to the office of President of the United States, and sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors.
Under what circumstances must Congress choose a president?
While Members of Congress are expressly forbidden from being electors, the Constitution requires the House and Senate to count the Electoral College’s ballots, and in the event of a tie, to select the President and Vice President, respectively.
Who decides the presidential election?
It is the electors’ vote that technically decides the election, and a candidate must gain 270 electoral votes to win the White House. In most elections, the winner of the popular vote also wins the majority of the electoral votes.
How do you determine electoral votes?
Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.