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Question
#52137. picqero
asks:
Do the US Electoral College votes, which vary from state to state, have an actual human counterpart? i.e. Are there actual Electoral College individual members?
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MrsAce
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Yes, they are each state's Senators and Representatives.
[Nov 03 04 1:42 PM] MrsAce writes:
To clarify, it's each state's US Senators and Representatives, not state.
There are 538 possible votes which is why the winner must reach 270, so as not to tie at 269. I've read that a tie has never happened, but in the event it does the vote then goes to the House of Representatives to pick the President.
Nov 03 04, 1:34 PM
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picqero
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So presumably all of the senators and representatives of a particular State must belong to the same party? - Forgive me please if this is obvious - it's not to me, I'd imagined that they could belong to different parties depending on the county or area they represented. Presumably too, the assumption is made that all the senators and representatives of a party would vote for and support their party's choice of President. I'd have thought that quite a few republicans might support the general aims of their party, but might strongly disagree with Bush's policies on Iraq and environmental issues.
Nov 03 04, 3:58 PM
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MrsAce
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No, they would, or could, belong to different parties. If the popular vote for the state goes to the Republican candidate, then all Democratic and Repulican Senators and Representatives must give their electoral vote to that candidate. There are only 2 states that I'm aware of that can split their votes and they are Maine and Nebraska. I'm not so sure how that works. In all other states the entire number of electoral votes goes to one candidate.
[Nov 04 04 2:02 PM] MrsAce writes:
It's a very confusing process, but Wikipedia explains it okay.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Electoral_College
Nov 03 04, 8:12 PM
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kevinatilusa
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Although the number of electoral college votes each state gets is equal to the number of Senators and representatives, but they are NOT the same people!
Each party has a slate of electors, people they have chosen before the election to represent them. When people vote in each state, they are actually voting on a set of electors to take part in the final vote. Those electors will usually vote for the person nominated by the party who chose them as electors. For example, since a plurality of California's voters voted Democratic, 54 people previously chosen by the Democratic party will take part in the Electoral College vote, and all 54 of them will probably vote for Kerry.
However, there are occasionally people who go against the grain. For example, one of the three Democratic electors from the District of Columbia abstained in 2000 in protest of D.C. not having full representation in congress. I do not believe these "faithless electors" have ever made a difference in the outcome of the election.
Nov 03 04, 10:39 PM
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kevinatilusa
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"Winner take all" here means that all the electors for a given state will be chosen off of a single slate (the one corresponding to the candidate with the most votes in a state).
Maine and Nebraska each take two electors corresponding to the candidate receiving the most votes in a state, and one elector corresponding to whoever wins each congressional district. For example, if Bush had taken a majority of votes in Northern Maine, but Kerry had taken a majority in the south and in the state, there would be one Bush elector chosen (for the one district he won), and three Kerry electors chosen (one for the district he won, two for the state).
I don't know if the candidates have to submit a separate list of electors for each district or if they have a single statewide list that they take electors off of for each district they win.
Nov 03 04, 10:42 PM
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