Road to the White House

1. Road to the White House

2. How Did We Get Here? Caucus Primary Elections host a secret ballot and people vote for the candidate they want to represent their party in the national election. Meetings where party leaders and supporters select candidates through discussions and consensus. Party delegates from each state are sent to the national conventions to select the nominee. Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nevada, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, Wyoming, Texas, Utah

3. How Did We Get Here? • Convention: • The formal purpose of a convention is to select the party's nominee for President, as well as to adopt a statement of party principles and goals known as the platform • Each U.S. state party is apportioned a select number of voting representatives, individually known as delegates • Republican delegates in 2012: 2,286 • Democratic delegates in 2012: 5,556

6. Election Day • Every four years, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U.S. citizens go to voting booths. (Why this odd choice of day?) • Votes will be recorded and counted, and winners will be declared.

7. My dad was President…doesn’t that make you want to vote for me?!? No, vote for me! Vote for me! Electing a President Don’t be a fool, vote for me! I’m gonna buy Florida from Spain…Disney here we come! Vote for me! Seriously? Father of the Constitution here…vote for me! The Electoral College

8. Actually… I’m not voting for any of you suckers…I’m voting for ELECTORS! Take that former Presidents of the USA!

9. The Electoral College • Controversial mechanism of determining who becomes President/VP • Set up during the Constitutional Convention as a compromise: • Fear of a purely popular vote (Mob Rule!) • Resistance to Congress selecting President (like England’s Parliament selecting PM) • Described in Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution

10. The Electoral College • A group of electors who gather to cast their votes for the presidential candidates • When we, as Americans, are casting our votes for the presidential candidates, we are actually casting our votes for electors, who will cast their votes for the candidates • The presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each states gets ALL the electoral votes for that state except for… • Each state gets 2 (for the 2 Senators) and the number of representatives (in PA, 18 Reps)…So we have 20 electors representing PA in the Electoral College Nebraska & Maine

11. Example… • If the state of Vermont has three electoral votes, it casts all of its electoral votes for the winning candidate. • So if Diana Johnson has 4,100,102 votes and Fred Smith has 4,100,100 votes, Diana Johnson still gets all three of Vermont's electoral votes and Fred Smith gets 0.

12. Why??? • The Founding Fathers included the Electoral College as one of the famous "checks and balances" for two reasons: • to give states with small populations more of an equal weight in the presidential election and • they didn't trust the common man (Remember, women couldn't vote then!) to be able to make an informed decision on which candidate would make the best president.

13. The Electoral College • There are currently 538 electors (3 represent D.C.) • On Monday, following 2nd Wednesday in December, electors go to state capitals to cast votes • Votes are sealed and sent to President of Senate who opens them on Jan. 6th • The winner is sworn into office at noon

14. Total Number of Electors • 538 – one for each Representative (435), each Senator (100), and three votes for the District of Columbia (Wash, D.C.) • To win the Presidency a candidate must secure a majority…how many votes is that? • 270 Electoral College Votes = “magic number” • What if there’s no majority?!? • The House of Representatives selects the President

17. How to Become an Elector • Nominated by his/her state party as reward for years of service • Campaign for spot during state’s party convention

18. And the Winner is… • Usually these electors vote for the candidate they were elected to vote for. • But, it’s legal not to! • It’s even happened! • People who do this (usually to break a deadlock) are called faithless electors

19. Surprise Endings??? • But even if everyone keeps faith there can be problems • Winning the popular vote (the total number of people voting for each candidate) don’t always translate into a Presidency

20. All-or-Nothing Voting • For 48 states (excluding Maine & Nebraska) use all-or-nothing voting • Winning that state’s popular votes earns you ALL of it’s electoral votes • This is instead of a District System (Ex: Candidate A wins 60% of popular vote in State B—which has 10 Electors—and gets 6 votes

21. Winner is Not Taking All • There have been 4 Elections where the popular vote did not win a seat at the Oval Office: • 1824: John Quincy Adams won by 38,000 votes (a plurality but not a majority) so the Electoral College turned it over to the House of Representatives and he lost to Andrew Jackson (We’ll talk more about this one later!) • 1876: Samuel J. Tilden won by 264,000 votes but lost in Electoral College by 264,000 votes to Rutherford B. Hayes

22. Winner is Not Taking All • 1888: Benjamin Harrison lost popular vote by 95,713 votes but won Electoral College by 6 votes • 2000: Al Gore received 50,992,335 votes to George W. Bush’s 50,455,156 votes. But was awarded the state of Florida after a LONG and CONTENTIOUS legal battle. President Bush consequently won 271-266 in Electoral College

23. How do you feel about this system?

24. General Population’s Feelings • “Having a president elected by raw, popular vote is deep in the American psyche.” • Isn’t it wrong that a few hundred obscure electors should be allowed to reverse the people’s choice? • It’s “archaic, undemocratic, needlessly complex, ambiguous, indirect, and dangerous.” • Congress has been trying to abolish it since 1969.

25. Alan Natapoff Disagrees • Mathematician & Particle Physicist from MIT & Berkely • He contends that our electoral college system increases’ a voter’s power. • And his background in baseball helps to make his case…

26. 1960 World Series • Pittsburgh Pirates vs. New York Yankees • Yankees were heavily favored with their line-up including stars like—Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Bill Skowron! • The Yankees outscored the Pirates 55 to 27 over the course of the series. • But, the Pirates managed to squeak out 4 close games! • Who was the World Champion? • Was it fair? Why?

27. Baseball & The Electoral College • Runs must be grouped in a way that wins games just as popular votes must be grouped in a way that wins states. • Champion should be able to win at least some of the tough, close contests by every means available and not just smack home runs against second-best pitchers. A Presidential candidate worthy of office, should have broad appeal across the whole nation, not just play strongly on a single issue to an isolated block of voters.

28. Baseball & The Electoral College • Originally this was done to avoid mob rule and make voting easier in an age of limited communication and transportation • But it was a lucky stroke because it makes each voter more powerful: • Each voter’s power boils down the probability of his/her vote deciding the election—which means you have more power in this system than a raw, popular vote.

29. Baseball & The Electoral College • “James Madison, the chief architect of our nation’s electoral college, wanted to protect citizens against the most insidious tyranny that arises in democracies: the massed power of fellow citizens banded together into dominant blocs.” • What does this mean?

30. Electoral College: Pro or Con? • Keep in mind: • That smaller states get disproportionate representation. (Why?) • How do you think minority groups (those parties with less voters) would be treated in a blow out election? • What do you think?

31. Electoral College: Pro or Con? • Let’s Look at Some Past Electoral College Maps • http://www.270towin.com/