Because of the controversies with the last two races and the need to clean up and repair the wreckage left by the Bush Administration, electing  the right candidate (in this election) could not be more important. 

Most Americans believe that casting their vote in this Presidential election is important as we have always been told that “every vote counts” because at the end of the day….the candidate with the most votes wins! Right?

NOT EXACTLY! There is a little thing called the “Electoral College” and if you’re like me, you are aware of it’s function but haven’t a clue as to how it all works…am I close?

Well, due to the monumental importance of this election, will attempt to simplify the “political cluster-fuck” devised at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as a compromise between those who proposed a direct popular election of the President and those who preferred to make him subject to election by the legislature. Here goes….

The is a mechanism for the indirect election of the President and Vice President of the United States and is made up of 538 presidential electors who meet every four years to cast the electoral votes for the two. The College was created with each state having as many electors as it has representatives and senators in the national legislature, plus 3 for the District of Columbia. To be elected, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority in the Electoral College, (currently 270) an if no candidate gains an absolute majority, the US House of Representatives makes the choice, with the delegation from each state having one vote.

Presidential Electors meet in their respective state capitol buildings (or in the District of Columbia) on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December but never as a national body. At the 51 meetings, held on the same day, the Electors cast the electoral votes. As such, the collectivity of the 51 groups is the technical definition of the college, despite never convening together. The electoral college system, like the national convention, is an indirect element in the process of electing the president. The Constitution does not require the Electors to vote as pledged, but many states do require their Electors to vote as pledged.

READ ON IF YOU WISH TO KNOW ALL of the INTRACACIES OF OUR ELECTORAL PROCESS….

Most of these arrangements were devised at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as a compromise between those who proposed a direct popular election of the President and those who preferred the legislature be given the power. As originally conceived, members of the Electoral College were expected to be prominent state citizens impervious to corruptive influences, however that proved to be  an extremely naïve notion.

Reformers regularly query the merits of the Electoral College system for ‘misfired’ elections (where a loser gains more popular votes than the winner) and for the contingency arrangements that come into play when no candidate wins a majority in the Electoral College. The elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000 misfired and misfires came perilously close in 1844, 1880, 1884, 1960, and 1968. Of these, 1876 and 2000 sparked legitimacy crises. The 1876 election was resolved by a ‘corrupt bargain’ whereby the Republicans kept the Presidency and the Democrats were allowed back into power in the South, where they resumed their oppression of African-Americans. The 2000 election was suddenly ended by the terrorist attacks of September 2001, which diverted the nation’s anger towards the terrorists and conferred a sort of “pseudo-legitimacy” on President George Bush that his election by one vote in the Supreme Court had failed to do.

The Presidential Electors of each state (and DC) meet to cast their electoral votes 41 days following the popular vote. The Electors ballot first for President, then for Vice President. On rare occasions, an Elector does not cast the electoral vote for the party’s national ticket, usually as a political statement; these people are called faithless Electors. Each Elector signs a document entitled the Certificate of Vote which sets forth the electoral vote of the state (or DC). One original Certificate of Vote is sent by certified mail to the Office of the Vice President.