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In the US presidential elections, you would think that Americans elect their president. But strictly speaking, they don’t vote for it directly. This has far-reaching consequences.
Hillary Clinton discovered in a particularly painful way that presidential elections do not always win with the most votes. Surprisingly, the Democrat lost in 2016 to scandal-ridden real estate mogul and outsider Donald Trump. Despite the fact that almost 2.9 million Americans voted more for her than for him. That made things really bitter for Clinton.
The case shows the peculiarity of the American electoral system: the president is not directly elected by the people. Who called Popular vote wins, that is, gets the most votes in the US overall, is being watched with interest. But in reality it is completely irrelevant.
The Electoral College is essential
The president becomes the one who gathers the majority of the electorate, that is, the majority in the so-called Electoral College owns, the electoral body. Each of the 50 states and the capital, Washington DC, can send a certain number of voters to this body. Roughly how many there are is based on population: so many seats a state has in Congress, so many voters it gets. Sparsely populated states like Alaska send three voters, while Florida sends 29.
In most states the principle applies: winner gets all electoral votes – The winner takes it all. The candidate who gets the most votes in Florida, for example, is supported by all 29 Florida electorates, even if he only won by a narrow margin there. Only in the states of Maine and Nebraska are voters divided between the two candidates based on a complicated key.
Thus, a total of 538 voters will be elected to the Electoral College on the date of the election. Whoever gathers more than half the electorate behind him, at least 270. If there is a deadlock, that is, both candidates have 269 electors, the United States House of Representatives must elect the president. However, this has happened only once before, in 1824. John Quincy Adams became president at that time.
An unusual and highly controversial body
The Electoral College is a very unusual body. In fact, it never meets in one place. Only the electors of each state meet on a certain date after voting in their capitals. There they sign and certify their election on a list and send it sealed to Washington, to the president of the Senate, who is also vice president in the United States.
The Electoral College is also highly controversial for the results it produces. But also because of the effects on the political culture of the United States. In 2016, the US electoral system led Donald Trump to clearly outperform Hillary Clinton with 306 electoral votes with 232, even though he had clearly won the popular votes. This has been the case four times in American history, including the election between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000.
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Because a candidate can become president without a majority in the population, critics attribute a democratic deficit to the electoral system. This is intensified by the fact that the “winner takes all” procedure in almost every state means that votes for the ultimately defeated candidate have absolutely no influence in the end.
Fierce battle for changing states
Proponents of the Electoral College, on the other hand, argue that it takes into account the federal character of the United States and that even low-population states have a voice. Furthermore, it produces clear and unequivocal majority relationships.
What the electoral system also produces, however, is a fierce struggle for the so-called States of oscillation or Battlefield states. This is the name given to states where there is no clear or traditional majority for either Republicans or Democrats. The race in transitional states is always more or less open to both parties. And that means that both parties concentrate their election campaign in these few states rather than in those states where it is clear in advance that they will vote for the Democrats (for example, California) or the Republicans (for example, Kansas) in a majority. .
Thus, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will care far more about concerns in the small Swing state of Wisconsin (5.8 million residents) through the Nov. 3 election than they do for the nearly 40 million Californians.
