The Electoral College for Dummies

...Not that I'm calling you dummies...Amidst all of the hoopla and excitement of the election yesterday, I noticed a great deal of confusion about what the Electoral College is and how it works, so we at BossBeauties figured that it necessary to give a crash course in the Electoral College just for our readers/subscribers/followers. *hint hint*

If you haven't figured it out by now (if so, you probably live under a rock, 10,000 leagues under the sea), the Electoral College is the name given to the institution or process that is constitutionally responsible for electing the President and Vice President of the United States. If you watched the results of the election yesterday like most of America, I'm positive that you at least saw a big map that kept being updated with red and blue states; red, meaning Republican and blue, meaning Democrat. If a state is won by an Independent candidate, the state will be reflected as yellow or gray, but let's not worry about that.

The Electoral College was established in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 and 3, and was amended by the 12th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Here's how it works as of today:

As you should know from US History classes in elementary or high school, the US's bicameral legislature was made as a solution to the issues posed after the failure of the Articles of Confederation. Small states wanted each state to have an equal say in government (New Jersey Plan), whilst the bigger states wanted each state's say in government to be based on how many people actually live in the state (Virginia Plan). Compromise brought us the Senate (2 senators per state) and the House of Representatives (based on population). The Electoral College also uses this compromise to determine the amount of electors for each state.

Ok. Math lesson: There are 100 members of the US Senate, as 2 x 50 states=100. Next, since 1964, there are 438 members of the House of Representatives—435 divided between the 50 states, and 3 for Washington DC (insert Taxation without Representation argument here). So 100 senators + 438 House Reps=538, which is the total amount of possible electoral votes. Now, 538 is an even number, and a tie (which is an impossibility in the Electoral College) would technically be 269, which is why 270 (not 3, as Schoolhouse Rock led us 80s babies to believe) is the magical number. A presidential candidate must garner at least 270 electoral votes—an absolute majority—in order to clinch the presidency over their opponent.

If neither (or no...I'm not forsaking you Independents. Keep hope alive? Meh.) candidate garners a majority in the Electoral College, the 12th Amendment dictates that the members of the House of Representatives will enter an emergency meeting, where each state gets one vote. House reps must vote together as one vote, creating problems for states like Florida, which, in recent national elections, has been split near to 50-50 in percentages per candidate and party. Whoever receives 26/50 votes (another absolute majority) is elected President. This process can only occur when 2/3 of the state delegations are present to participate in this emergency session of the House. Don't worry, though; this has only happened twice—in 1801 and 1805. The deadline is January 20th, where if a president is not elected by the House, the current Speaker of the House is given the new title of Acting President until the House can sort everything out. Again, fear not—this has never happened.

Now, onto the electors. It's basically up to the states to determine how they are chosen, the only federal stipulation being that an elector cannot hold federal office (elected or appointed). They are typically nominated by their respective state's political parties. In a national election, 48/50 states, as well as Washington DC distribute electoral votes as a bloc, a winner-takes-all approach; Maine and Nebraska distribute their electoral votes by each congressional district. On election day, the public votes via ballot for the President/Vice President ticket that they choose. The electors then are supposed to vote (again, as a bloc) according to how their state's electorate votes. 28 states have laws against electors who do not vote according to their representative electorate (either for another candidate or choosing not to vote at all), called Faithless Electors. Such laws have been deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, (Check out Ray v. Blair in 1952) as each state has the right to regulate how their electoral representation works. Even then, since electors are chosen by the political parties, they run the risk of being shunned from their respective parties for their...shenanigans.

Criticisms of the Electoral college include the idea that it departs for the otherwise democratic way that our government's representatives are elected. Most opposed to the Electoral College would opt for a purely democratic election, or the Popular Vote. For those of us not hiding in a bunker, the 2000 election should come to mind, where George W. Bush won the Electoral College, while Al Gore won the popular vote. It can happen. In the case of the 2012 election, however, President Barack Obama (wooooooo!) won both the Electoral College and the Popular vote, 60,893,249 votes to Romney's 57,956,903 votes.

How's that for an explanation? Hopefully you can commit this all to memory, and in the next 4 years, I won't be seeing nearly as many "What the hell is the Electoral College" posts on various social media outlets.

You're welcome.

~Angeliqué, a BossBeauty

Finally, the BossBeauties like to formally congratulate President Barack Obama on his re-election, becoming not only the first Black President as he did in 2008, but the first Black President to be re-elected. (He also now holds the title for the most retweets on an individual tweet of all time. Go figure.) Thank you to all that voted, encouraged others to vote, pounded the pavements, and/or volunteered in the campaign. Four more years, indeed. ~BB

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