The Electoral College

The Electoral College

Throughout history, as groups of people came together to form organized communities or businesses, we will find that some system of voting and/or representation has been established. The "fairness" of these systems is inevitably challenged by an individual or group. Mathematical methods are, perhaps, the most convincing way to discuss the fairness of these systems.

After studying about weighted voting systems and apportionment methods I have discovered that mathematics has played an important part in the history of the USA. The Electoral College is a major example of a weighted voting system. The electors gather together every four years to elect a president. The college consists of 538 people. Each state has a number of representatives based on their population.

The Electoral College was first written into the constitution in 1845. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution says, "Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector."

On Election Day, every four years, the American population votes for a new president. But in actuality they are voting for presidential electors who then vote for a president. The electors represent each state. The amount of votes for each state ranges from 3 to 55 based on population.

Mike Martin Extra Credit

All 50 states have at least 3 votes ranging from lightly populated states such as Montana to heavily populated states like California, New York, and Texas. But there are 2 left over votes in order to equal 538 and they come from the District of Columbia.

All though the American population doesn't actually vote for the president, their votes are tallied and form a nationwide popular vote which does not elect a president but will show who the most popular candidate is. Usually the popular vote agrees with the elected president, but not always. In 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000, the candidate who won the nationwide popular vote did not win the election.

The Electoral College was made to make the elections as fair as possible. Even