The Importance Of The Electoral College

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The Electoral College is a process that was established in the Constitution by the founding fathers of the United States (U.S.). There are 538 electors: 435 Representatives, 100 senators, and 3 electors from the District of Columbia. 270 electoral votes are needed to elect the President. We the citizens of the U.S. elect the electors. Each state has their own election to elect representatives and senators to serve in Washington, DC. How many electoral votes each state gets is decided upon how many delegates each state has in the House of Representatives plus two senators (Soni). For Mississippi, we have four delegates in the House of Representatives and two senators; therefore we have a total of six electoral votes. Each state has two senators, but the number of representatives is determined by the population, which determines how many districts are within each state (Carson). …show more content…
In Maine and Nebraska, electoral votes are decided by proportional representation meaning the candidate who gets the most votes wins two electoral votes from the two senators and the remaining votes are distributed by congressional district (Soni). There are twenty-seven states that have laws that require the electors to vote for whoever received the majority of the popular vote in their state (Sonni). The other remaining states do not have this law, but most electors vote for whichever candidate won the popular vote in their state. If no one receives the majority of the electoral votes, then the election is left up to the House of Representatives (Soni). It is the same process for the Vice Presidency except it takes place in the