US Elections: Why the Country Uses the Voting Table Instead of Direct Vote to Elect President | 2020 U.S. elections

This is because the president is not directly elected by the voters, but rather by what is known as the Electoral College.

Why was this system chosen?

When the United States Constitution was written in 1787, it was virtually impossible to hold a national popular vote to elect a president. This is due to the size of the country and communication difficulties.

At the same time, there was little enthusiasm for allowing lawmakers in the capital Washington DC to elect the president.

Thus, the creators of the Constitution invented the Electoral College, and each state elected delegates to compose it.

The smaller states liked the system because it gave them a stronger voice in the election of the president than in the national popular vote.

The Electoral College was also preferred by the southern states, where slaves made up a large part of the population. Even if the slaves did not vote, they were counted in the US census (about three fifths of a person).

Since the number of delegates to the College was determined by the size of a state’s population, the southern states had more influence on the election of the president than on a direct vote.

How does the electoral college work?

When Americans go to the polls in presidential elections, they are actually electing a group of delegates who will represent the state’s decision in the Electoral College.

The word “university” here simply refers to a group of people with a common task. These people are called “electores” (voters) and their role is to appoint the president and vice president.

The Electoral College meets every four years, a few weeks after Election Day, to fulfill this task.

The number of slim voters in each state roughly corresponds to the size of its population and is proportional to the number of parliamentarians in the United States Congress (deputies in the House and senators).

California has the most delegates, 55, while some sparsely populated places, like Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota and Washington DC, have a minimum of three.

In total, the College has 538 delegates.

Each delegate represents one electoral vote and a candidate must obtain a majority of the votes, 270 or more, to win the presidency.

Generally, the candidate who obtains a simple majority in the state vote wins all the delegates of that state in the Electoral College.

For example, if a candidate wins 50.1% of the votes in Texas, they receive all 38 state electoral votes in the College. If the same candidate won overwhelmingly, say with 70%, he would still get only 38 votes.

Thus, it is possible for a candidate to become president by winning a series of fierce disputes in certain states, despite having fewer votes across the country.

There are only two states (Maine and Nebraska) that divide Electoral College votes according to the proportion of votes each candidate receives.

That’s why presidential candidates are targeting so-called pendulum states, places without a clear preference for Democrats or Republicans, where they can give as much as one another, rather than trying to win as many voters across the country as possible.

Each state in which they win approaches the 270 votes needed in the Electoral College.

Has a candidate already lost the national vote, but became president?

Yes. In fact, two of the last five elections were won by candidates with fewer votes in the national total than their rivals.

One person may be the most popular candidate among voters across the country, but still fails to win enough delegates to get all 270 votes in the Electoral College.

In 2016, Donald Trump had nearly three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, but he got more votes in the Electoral College.

In 2000, George W. Bush won with 271 electoral votes, although the Democratic candidate Al Gore won the popular vote with more than half a million votes.

Only three other presidents were elected without winning the popular vote, all of them in the 19th century: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison.

Do delegates have to vote for the candidate who won?

In some states, there is no express obligation, but in practice, these delegates always vote for the candidate who wins the most votes in their state.

If a delegate votes against his state’s presidential election, he is considered “unfaithful.” In 2016, seven delegates voted against the will of the state, but “unfaithful” voters have not yet modified the results.

What happens if no candidate wins the majority?

In that case, the House of Representatives, the lower house of American lawmakers, votes to elect the president.

This happened only once, in 1824, when four candidates divided the electoral vote, denying none of them a majority.