Thread: What influence does the electoral college have on the election?

Ok, once the votes have been casted in each state, it goes to the electoral college? I've heard from a lot of people that the electoral college ultimately decides who the next president is. How does this work? What's the point of voting if this is true? Someone please explain this in detail to me so that I can understand it. Thanks!

the electoral college is supposed to vote with what the people vote with, but this isn't always the case, as in the 2000 elections, where Al gore won the popular vote, but George Bush was still elected by the electoral college

Yes, the electors for each state cast their ballots based on the results in their state. The electoral college limits the impact of massive voter fraud in one state to that state. For example, if Acorn in Illinois delivers 100,000,000 votes for Obama next Tuesday, it would throw the popular vote massively in his favor, but would only affect the electoral votes of Illinois. Thus, the electoral college is a check on fraud.

Each state has a number of Electors (people who vote in the Electoral College) equal to the number of representatives that the state has in the House of Representatives plus the number of its senators. Since every state has two senators and at least one Representative, no state has less than 3 Electoral Votes. - 48 out of the 50 states cast their Electoral Votes on an all or nothing basis. For example in Florida in 2000 when George Bush won the state by about 500 votes, he got all of that state's electoral votes.

The current system gives a lot of power to the voters in swing states (states with approximately the same number of voters who are likely to vote Republican and Democrat.

For more information and a way to in effect get rid of the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment, see:

http://www.everyvoteequal.com