Presidential elections in the United States are won not by receiving a majority of the country's electoral votes, but by a mechanism involving a body, called the Electoral College. In it, each of the 50 states and the federal District of Columbia has a certain number of votes depending on its population, writes BTA.
WHAT IS THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
When voters go to the polls, they usually only see the names of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. In reality, however, they vote for electors who are members of the Electoral College, who then vote for the president. The total number of electors for the whole country is 538, which means that the votes of 270 electors are needed for a candidate to win.
Electors are usually party loyalists who take responsibility to vote for the candidate who receives the most votes in their state. Electors are usually chosen by people who have credit to either of the two major parties at the state level. They can be state elected officials, state party leaders or people in the state who have a personal or political connection to their party's presidential candidate, according to a report published on the official US government website.
Each state has as many electors as it has representatives in both houses of Congress. Each elector has one vote in the Electoral College.
In 2020, Democratic candidate Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes and defeated Republican President Donald Trump, who received 232. In the previous election in 2016, Trump won 304 votes to 227 for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
p>
The system written into the US Constitution is a compromise between the "founding fathers" of the country, who argued whether the president should be elected by Congress or by popular vote, notes Reuters.
HOW MANY ELECTORS EACH STATE HAS
As mentioned, each state has as many electors as representatives in Congress. In its upper house, the Senate, each state has two senators. But in the lower House of Representatives, the number of congressmen varies according to population.
California, the most populous state, has 54 electors because it has 52 congressmen and 2 senators in Congress, according to a chart from the US National Archives and an infographic from Encyclopedia Britannica. Texas has 40 electors, Florida has 30, New York - 28, Illinois and Pennsylvania - the most contested state in this election, each have 19. The six states with the least population (Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming) and Washington, DC have only 3 votes each.
That means a voter in Wyoming, the smallest state, represents about 192,000 people, while a voter in Texas, which is among the most disproportionately represented states, represents about 730,000 people, according to Reuters.
>
In all but two states, the candidate who wins the majority of votes (even by a very slim margin) receives the votes of all the electors of that state. Only in Maine and Nebraska of all 50 US states are votes distributed on a more proportional basis, with two delegates instructed to vote for the state winner and the rest to vote according to the outcome in each congressional district, an AFP tally shows.< /p>
CAN THE CANDIDATE WHO WINS THE POPULAR VOTE LOSE THE ELECTION?
The answer to that question is yes.
Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016 became president despite their rivals receiving a larger percentage of the electoral vote. This happened three times in the 19th century.
This phenomenon has often been pointed out by critics as one of the system's main flaws. Supporters of the Electoral College, however, point out that this system is valuable because it forces candidates to seek support from multiple states, including small towns, rather than focusing only on voters in big cities that would provide them with enough support to win. with a proportional system and with direct election of the head of state.
WHAT HAPPENS IF ELECTORS DON'T VOTE FOR WHOM THEY SHOULD
Typically, the Electoral College meeting is ceremonial and electors vote for the candidate who won the vote in their states.
But in 2016, 7 out of 538 electors cast their vote for a candidate who did not win the presidential election. This was an unusually large number. Three electors then voted for Colin Powell, and John Kassick, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders and Faith Spotted Eagle each received 1 electoral vote. These were all candidates for the presidential nomination of the two leading American parties, who dropped out in the primary party elections, or independent candidates for the presidency. Of these total of 7 electors who voted for these total of five people, 5 electors had to vote for Clinton and 2 - for Trump, CBS News recalls.
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that provide penalties for "dishonest" electors according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
WHAT IS DONE IN CASE OF A TIE
One of the disadvantages of the system is that theoretically the result could be 269:269. If that happens, the newly elected House of Representatives (in addition to presidential elections, there are also congressional elections on November 5) will decide the fate of the presidency on January 6, with each state's representatives voting as one. This is provided for in the 12th amendment to the constitution.
In the case of an equal number of votes, the House of Representatives is responsible for electing the president, and the Senate for the vice president. In choosing from among the three candidates who received the most votes for president, each state delegation in the House of Representatives casts one vote. A majority of votes (26) is required to win. The District of Columbia does not vote.
Choosing between the two candidates who received the most votes for Vice President, each senator casts one vote, with a majority (51 votes) required to win. Due to these separate votes, it is possible for the president and vice president to be elected from different parties, according to a reference on the specialized site "Balutpedia".
If necessary, the House of Representatives will continue to vote until one candidate receives a majority. This process has a constitutional deadline of March 4. If the House does not elect a new president by March 4, the newly elected vice president becomes acting. president.
Voting for vice president could, of course, also result in a tie, which would mean that the Speaker of the House of Representatives would serve as president from the day of the inauguration until agreement is reached on a president or vice president.