The Electoral College

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is not a place, it is a process that began as part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. The Electoral College was established by the founding fathers as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. The people of the United States vote for the electors who then vote for the President. Read more about how the terms “Elector” and “Electoral College” came into usage.

How Many Votes do States Get?

Each State is allocated a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives. The number of electors for a State is based on the number of members in the House of Representatives who represent the State, plus two for the State’s Senators. A State’s Congressional delegation is determined by the State’s population.

The number of people in each State is determined by the Federal census, which is taken every ten years and includes a count of every State’s population.

Number of electoral votes needed to win

270. In the early days of the United States, this number periodically increase as the number of states and population grew (e.g. George Washington won his first election in 1789 with a unanimous 69 electoral votes). The number of electoral college members is set by the number of US House Representatives (set at 435 seats since 1911), the number of US Senators (2 per state = 100), plus 3 votes for Washington DC. The total size of the electoral college is thus 538. To achieve victory in the presidential election, a candidate must win half of the electoral college (269) plus one vote, else the election is decided by the incoming House of Representatives. In this case, each state is allotted one vote, and the House must then choose the president among the top three candidates recipients of electoral votes

Who Selects the Electors?

The process for selecting electors varies throughout the United States. Generally, the political parties nominate electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party’s central committee in each State.

Electors are often selected to recognize their service and dedication to their political party. They may be State-elected officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate.

Then the voters in each State choose the electors on the day of the general election. The electors’ names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the candidates running for President, depending on the procedure in each State.

Frequently Asked Questions

Watch the Brainpop Movie On The Presidential Election

Click on the Link  Watch the Brainpop Movie and tell what you learned about the job of presidency in a few sentences.

Comparing Authoritarian and Democratic Governments

First we will look at the things that make a government a democracy.

Next week we will look at authoritarian governments.

 

Comparing Governments

ALL ABOUT FALL MR. SULLIVANS CLASS

FALL PREZI

All about Elections

All About Elections Prezi

Click on the link above to learn how elections work

Answer these questions

How old  do you have to be to vote?

How old do you have to become  the president?

What do you call someone running for office?

What day  and month is election day on?

Who is running for President now?

What must you do before you vote in your state?

 

Democracy Prezi

Birth of Democracy Map

Use the Prezi to answer these questions

Where did democracy start? Hint not in Greece?

What was the earliest country to have democracy?

What kind of a democracy did Rome have?

What was the Magna Carta what did it say and do and in what year.  ?

 

What does democracy mean?

Ms. Dimeo’s Class

•  We have been looking at what it means to live in a democracy. Answer the following questions . You can use the Democracy movie linked here. To Watch click and login.
    The Login is ps373r  Password is learn

What is the purpose of democracy?

1. Who has the power in a democracy?

2. What is a direct democracy?

3. What is a representative democracy?

4. Name one form of government that is not a democracy?

5. What country did democracy start in?

Ms. Cirri’s Class Read the selection and answer the questions here

 

 

Use the piece we read to answer the questions

1. What month is Election day in?
2. What is a polling place?
3. What day of the week is Election day  is always in November?
4. What is a ballot?
5. What is an election?
6. How often do we elect a President?

Ms. Malanka’s class

•  We have been looking at what it means to live in a democracy. Answer the following questions . You can use the Democracy movie linked here. To Watch click and login.
    The Login is ps373r  Password is learn

What is the purpose of democracy?

1. Who has the power in a democracy?

2. What is a direct democracy?

3. What is a representative democracy?

4. Name one form of government that is not a democracy?

5. What country did democracy start in?

Democracy with a D

Here are the review notes from the Brainpop movie.

Democracy began in Ancient Greece a tiny country in the south of Europe

Democracy means  rule by the people. Demos means people – Kratos means power in the greek language. Power to the people.

In ancient Greece they had what is called  a  Direct Democracy. This means every person gets to vote on every law and helps make every decision.

In ancient Greece the only people that could vote were men who owned land, were born in the Greek city of Athens and were not slaves.

In ancient Rome they had what is called a Republic or a Representative Democracy. 

In a republic or representative democracy people vote for people to represent them who will  vote directly on laws and issues.

A Direct Democracy  works well only with a small group of  people,  in a small country where the number of people is small.

For a large group of people a Republic works  better because there are too many people to get a direct vote on every issue. People would spend all their time voting and counting millions of votes in a country like the USA where there are over 330 million people.

A monarchy is a form of government where they have a King, he has all the power,  no one votes.

A dictatorship is like a monarchy as in one man rules and holds all the power no one votes.

We in the USA live in a republic which means we pick leaders who will vote for laws and on issues. This is a representative form of government.