Electoral College/Election 2000

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*The Electoral College*

The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. According to the electoral procedure originally specified in the Constitution, the electors were to vote for the two most qualified persons without specifying which was preferred for President and which for Vice President. The candidate receiving the greatest number of electoral votes, provided the votes of a majority of the electors were received, would be president, and the candidate winning the second largest number of votes would be vice president. The majority of the electoral votes, along with 270 electoral votes, are required to win the presidency. Each state is entitled to a number of electors equal to the total number of senators and representatives it sends to the U.S. Congress. Thus, each state has at least three electors. Each state’s allotment of electors is equal to the number of House members to which it is entitled plus two Senators. There is a major difference between popular and electoral votes. Popular votes are based on the population and electoral votes are the states’ electors. The candidate who receives the most popular votes wins all the electoral votes in a state. The other candidates get none. The electoral system was devised by the drafters of the U.S. Constitution, who hoped thereby to entrust the responsibility to people whose choice would b...

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