POL 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Federal Election Campaign Act, Universal Manhood Suffrage, United States House Committee On Rules
Document Summary
The formal selection of the president is through the electoral college, where the presidential electors, who are selected every 4 years to represent their state, meet to cast the electoral votes for president and vice. Initially, state legislatures pick the elector and serve as gatekeepers against rash and ignorant voters. Today, people in each state choose the electors. The electors are not bound by election results from their state, each state receives a number of electoral votes equal to its number of senators and members of the house of. The minimum is 3 but each state has at least 1 house member and 2 senators. The electoral votes can be allocated to the candidate who finishes first in the voting or through the winner-takes-all system, which means that if a candidate wins by 1 vote, the candidate gets all the electoral vote. To win presidency, the candidate needs to win the majority(270) of the 538 electoral votes.
