POLS 230 Lecture 2: Electoral College and Coalition Building
7 Oct 2016
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Week 2 lecture: electoral college and coalition building. 50 state elections and dc election held on the same day. Elections determine which candidate wins each state"s votes in the electoral college. The set of rules governing presidential selection. Us didn"t want to have a monarchial system. There are a total of 538 votes in the college. States are allotted votes based on number of seats they have in house and senate. The most populated states have more electoral college votes. You need 270 votes to win the presidency. Different states are more likely to be democrat or republican, there are several states that are a tossup (swing states). Pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin are states clinton cannot afford to lose. The candidate that wins a plurality of the popular vote cast in the state wins all of that state"s votes in the electoral college. This is referred to as a winner-take-all rule. Ec votes are proportional to a state"s size.
