Today we vote (or finalize the voting) for the members of the Electoral College who are pledged to follow the popular vote for President and Vice President in their state. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines who gets all of that state’s votes regardless of the closeness of the vote; there is no splitting of the electoral votes.
The system was originally developed through congressional compromise and the adoption of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. The votes are assigned based on the number of Representatives and Senators from each state. There are 435 members of Congress and 100 senators plus the District of Columbia gets three votes making a total of 538 Electoral College votes. A majority determines the winner which is 270 votes. The least votes a state could have is 3 for 2 Senators and 1 member of the House of Representatives. California with 2 senators and 53 House members gets 55 votes followed by Texas with 38 and Florida and New York with 29 each. 7 states plus D.C. have 3 votes each. Every ten years based on the census these numbers can change.
If no candidate gets a majority, i.e. 270 votes, the election is then decided by the House. In that case, each state regardless of the number of representatives gets one vote, so 26 votes determine the result. Right now the Democrats control the House in total numbers, but the Republicans actually control 26 state delegations thereby having a “majority” of the House members that might decide the election. However, the vote would be by the House sometime after January 3rd when a new Congress is sworn in and the makeup of which is an unknown as of right now.
The idea for this blog and some of the information was obtained from An Electoral College Primer by Stuart E. Seigel, Senior Consultant to The Dilenschneider Group. If you want the entire paper which has additional information, email me at [email protected] and just put Dilenschneider as the Subject. I found this very interesting and hope you did too. And if you haven’t voted yet, you better hurry up and get to the poll.
If you have any business or financial issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
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