Inconvenient Facts About the Electoral College

Abstract

The Electoral College has its internal logic and mathematics that are not easy to understand in depth. Constitutionally, a person voted for as President in the Electoral College and who received any majority of votes from all the appointed electors becomes President. However, since the 1824 election, votes cast in all the states that appoint their electors by holding popular elections have been tallied. The tally of votes cast in 50 states and in D.C. does not have any constitutional status. Nevertheless, this tally is customarily considered as the popular vote that presidential candidates receive though the votes are cast for their electors rather than for the candidates themselves. Chapter 4 analyzes the concepts of the popular vote, of the voting power of a voter and of a state in a presidential election, and of the will of the nation, along with their customary understanding by a sizable part of the American people. The chapter presents percentages of the popular vote that could have elected President one of the candidates in the elections held from 1948 to 2004.