Questions tagged [electoral-college]
In the United States, the President is not elected directly by popular vote, but by electors chosen by each state, which can sometimes produce a different outcome from the popular vote. Use with the [united-states] tag
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USA presidential elections: Since when are candidates' names shown on the ballot? [migrated]
When the USA votes for a president, voters technically vote for the electoral college. But as far as I know, all ballots show the name of the presidential candidates.
In the 1789 presidential election,...
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Is membership in the European Parliament compatible with membership in the Electoral College for Non-Residents?
When browsing through the lists of candidates for the elections for the Electoral College Non-Residents in The Netherlands on 15 March 2023, I recognised some names of candidates who are currently ...
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In the Dutch senate elections, how is the weighting for the electoral college for non-residents determined?
In The Netherlands, the Senate is elected by members of the provincial parliaments as well as the electoral colleges for the Senate, where the electoral colleges represent voters who do not live in a ...
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How are unavailable United States Presidential elector's replaced before the electoral college meets to vote? [duplicate]
The members of the U. S. Electoral College are chosen in each state on election day in early November. They meet to cast their formal votes In early December.
What happens if an individual elector, ...
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Legal weight of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA)
I've been a bit (well, very) confused regarding the proposed Electoral Count Reform Act.
Purportedly, it apparently attempts to (among other things) do the following:
Dictate which state official(s) ...
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Has anyone published a plan for how to modernize the American voting system? [closed]
It’s been said that the American voting system is a relic of the past, with idiosyncratic features due to political negotiations and compromises at the time it was formed. Let’s say in a modern ...
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Why do the states attempt to emulate a popular vote for president?
There seems to be lots of discussion about why oh why do we have an Electoral College in the U.S.A. However, given the fact that we do have an Electoral College, the really seemingly odd thing, IMHO, ...
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How are the electors of the electoral college selected?
How are the electors for each party selected in the US presidential election?
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Argument for why the electoral clause was not violated by balloting changes related to Covid-19
The electoral clause (article II, section I, clause 2) of the U.S. constitution states:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to ...
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What is the Legal Process if Electoral Certificates are Damaged?
Plenty of interesting questions have arisen related to the unprecedented riot at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. In a recent report printed in the New Yorker, Keith Stern, a ...
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Does anything prevent US state legislatures from directly selecting electors overriding the popular vote in their state?
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution states "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors".
This seems to be a non-...
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Why does the 2021 resolution to abolish the electoral college explicitly allow voting for a candidate of one's own state?
A January 11, 2021 Congressional resolution proposes to amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish the electoral college. The resolution contains a clause explicitly allowing voting for candidates who ...
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Why continue counting/certifying electors after one candidate has secured a majority?
As I understand it, a presidential candidate needs to secure 270 electoral votes to have a majority and thereby officially win the election. As I also understand it, when the joint session of Congress ...
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What happens if the Vice-President were to die before presiding over the official electoral college vote count?
The President of the US Senate (who is the Vice-President ) is responsible for presiding over the electoral college's votes formally in a Joint Session of Congress. However, what if the Vice-President ...
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Can the US President veto Congress' decisions to reject electoral votes for the presidency?
According to the Electoral Count Act on the designation of the US President, the House of Representatives and the Senate may reject votes of some electors when they consider that these votes were not ...
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If the Electoral Count Act is repealed, would Pence have the power to throw out states' results? [duplicate]
I have just found that another lawsuit have been filed in Texas, aimed at overturning the presidential election result and seeking for the courts to invalidate the Electoral Count Act as ...
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What procedures are in place to stop a U.S. Vice President from ignoring electors?
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and President Donald Trump's defeated electors appear to be suing Vice President Mike Pence in a Federal Court in Texas. Gohmert and a handful of the electors sued Pence ...
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Must the Vice President preside over the counting of the Electoral College votes?
The Vice President, being the President of the Senate, presides over the counting of the Electoral College votes during a joint session of Congress. Following the count, the VP then officially ...
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Can Congress reject presidential electoral votes? What majority is required and can the decision be reverted?
Does "safe harbor" provision prevent Congress from voting to reject presidential electoral vote(s)?
What kind of majority is required for such a rejection?
Is it possible to revert such a ...
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How exactly was the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit supposed to reverse the 2020 presidential election?
This question seems fairly straightforward. I believe it must have been answered somewhere, or I'm missing something very trivial.
Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, ...
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When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date?
When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date?
The question is motivated by the suggestion in the last lawsuit filed with ...
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Who are the third party electors
This question is about the electoral college.
From what I understand, the way the electoral college works is that each party appoints electors for their party, based on state-specific rules that ...
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Did House Democrats "win the Electoral College" in 2020?
House Democrats appear to have underperformed Biden again. This is the third time in a row that Democrats got a lower % of the two-party vote than their presidential candidate, though the difference ...
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How might Trump still win the electoral college?
For a couple of weeks now, the betting market site PredictIt has pretty consistently shown Trump as having a low-double-digit chance of winning the election. However, I was under the impression that:
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Why were there only 531 electoral votes in the US Presidential Election 2016?
I just read this Wikipedia article.
It says Trump won with a 304 to 227 for electoral votes.
That's 304 + 227 = 531 votes.
But the total number should be 538. Where did the 7 votes go?
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Is it possible for someone to win the presidency due to faithless electors?
Suppose a presidential candidate wins over 270 pledged electors. If several of these pledged electors become faithless and cast their vote for the losing candidate, will the presidency actually go to ...
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How many electoral votes were voting more Republican than the national average in 2020 as of data right now?
Biden is leading in the popular vote by 3.8 percentage points. I am wondering about this topic of states that lean one way relative to the nation. It appears that this is helpful because it shows ...
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What happens if the GSA refuses to recognize Biden even after the Electoral College vote?
I'd like to know what legal actions, if any, can be taken supposing that after December the 14th (when the Electoral College meet and vote for Biden) the General Services Administration, instructed ...
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Who gets a state's Electoral College votes if no one gets a majority of the popular vote?
The question is pretty much in the title. Let's say in state X, there are 3 candidates: A, B, and C. A wins 49% of the popular vote, B wins 49% of the popular vote, and C wins 2% of the popular vote. ...
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Could Michigan Republicans have given the electoral college votes to Trump?
According to the news, for a brief period, Wayne county board of canvassers had a 2-2 tie over whether to certify the election results.
What would have been the effect (next steps) had the tie not ...
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Is a coup still possible in the United States?
I am aware of this question, but what I am asking is slightly different.
I remember from January 6, 2001, that during the constitutional counting of the vote of the presidential electors, to be done ...
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Certification of presidential election results in battleground states [duplicate]
I have just read the Atlantic article which describes a possible constitutional crisis in the USA in aftermath of the current presidential election.
Prevention of the election result certification in ...
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What does the December 8th deadline mean for the certification of the results of the Electoral College?
I have just read the Atlantic article which describes a possible constitutional crisis in the USA in aftermath of the current presidential election.
Prevention of the election result certification in ...
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Can Trump use lawsuits to stop the electoral college from voting in order to use the House to install him as President?
Some news sources (like zeit.de, in German only, sorry) report that Trump could use a large number of lawsuits to keep the Electoral College from voting on Dec 14th. As I understand it, all legal ...
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Is the vote count in each US state relevant after the Electoral College vote?
Some are speculating that President Trump will fight the vote count in court all the way until January 20th, when the next-term President (presumably Biden) is sworn in. But the Electoral College ...
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What is the specific mechanism of voting done by the electoral college?
When the electoral college meets to vote on the next president, how does this vote take place? Do the members fill out a ballot privately; with those ballots then collected and counted? Or are the ...
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Why is the possibility of state legislatures invalidating the popular vote being discussed? [duplicate]
It has been discussed that one of the alternatives for Trump to keep the presidency is that...
Republican legislators in states like Pennsylvania would invalidate the electoral results and simply ...
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When the US president is declared after winning enough states for 270 electoral votes, have they definitely won? [duplicate]
Watching the counting of the recent presidential election on the US, there was a point where Joe Biden had 238 electoral votes and was leading in enough states to get to 270.
If he had gotten to 270, ...
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Supreme Court decision on faithless electors question
I'm talking about this decision:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/06/supreme-court-electoral-college-ruling-states-can-force-electors-to-abide-by-popular-vote.html
I want to understand the meaning of the ...
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Why may one be "faithless" if "winner-takes-all" is already applicable?
From Wikipedia article on United States Electoral College,
All jurisdictions use a winner-take-all method to choose their electors, with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, which use a one-elector-...
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Can a third-party candidate “donate” their votes to another candidate?
Is there any provision in US constitution which allows one candidate, say Jo Jorgensen, to “donate” their votes in a given state to another candidate?
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What determines the number of electors in each state of the US
I would like to know what determines the number of electors in each state of the US for presidential election. I have read that "Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of ...
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Do any other countries have a similar system as the United States of America's electoral college?
In the United States, the Presidential election is determined by individual popular votes of each State, and the candidate needs at least 270 of these electoral votes to be declared the winner (for ...
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Can state legislatures decide to appoint a different set of delegates to those determined by the vote?
I've read that legislatures can theoretically just pick whoever they like to be electoral college delegates.
How true is this? If Biden wins by a tiny number of EC votes, could a Republican State ...
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What penalties if any can be imposed on faithless electors specifically from Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin?
Joe Biden has won and/or is projected to win in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. This would give him exactly 270 electoral votes, the number required to become the president.
In 2016, there ...
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a winner-take-all system? (What prompted certain states not to adopt it?) [duplicate]
I was having trouble finding this question here, though I'm pretty it must have been answered.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a winner-take-all system for deciding electors for a state?
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What would happen if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact was ratified between a presidential election and when the electoral college votes?
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is an agreement between several US states to award their electoral college votes to the winner of the national vote. This agreement is designed to only ...
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Where did the Clinton presidential campaign overemphasise and neglect in 2016?
I’ve heard claims that the Clinton campaign neglected either the Midwest or the “Rust Belt” in 2016, allowing Trump to win the presidential race even though Clinton won the plurality of votes.
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Do Presidential Campaigns often visit non-competitive states in the days right before the election?
According to the FiveThirtyEight polling averages, the most competitive states Trump needs to push him over 270 electoral votes are:
Florida - where Biden leads by +2
Arizona - Biden +3
Pennsylvania -...
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Where does the US Electoral College physically meet?
From what I understand, electors gather in special meetings at the Statehouses of each relevant State. Is this correct? What is the actual physical process for the College being convened and voting?
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