Electoral College How does the President Become the
President??
Slide 2
Election in the Year 2000 Al Gore (D) vs. George Bush (R)
National Results: Gore: 50,996,582 votes Bush: 50,456,062 votes Who
Wins?
Slide 3
How do we really elect a president? A popular vote is held
within each state and whatever candidate has more popular votes in
the state wins all of the electoral votes that state is worth What
happened in 2000s election?
Slide 4
2000 Election Expected to be VERY close Most states tend to be
Democratic or Republican Election would be decided by swing states-
states with about = # of Democrats and Republicans Florida was
swing state worth 25 Electoral Votes and would likely determine the
election
Bush Wins Florida! Bush- 2,912,790 votes in Florida (48.85%)
271 EV Gore- 2,912,293 votes in Florida (48.84%) 266 EV
Slide 9
Main Things to Know Electoral College- System by which we elect
a President in the United States Popular Vote- Number of individual
votes candidates get from people in the U.S. Electoral Vote- This
is the number of votes that determines winner of the election. Each
state is worth a number of points or electoral votes = same as # in
Congress + Washington DC = 3
Slide 10
How the Electoral College Works Main political parties select 1
candidate each to runPrimary or Caucus to determine the 1. Why
would 2 candidates from the same party guarantee a loss? Popular
vote held in each state and winner of state gets ALL electoral
votes (points) Electoral Vote total each state is worth is same as
# that state has in congress (Senate and House of Representatives
combined) Example: If Iowa has 6 members in congress the state is
worth 6 electoral votes. Whether a candidate wins a state by a lot
or a little they get all electoral votes (points) of the state Gore
won a states by a LOT Bush won states by a LITTLE
Slide 11
Electoral College 4 times a candidate has won popular vote and
lost election Census- population of each state figured every 10
years. This could change the number of electoral votes that state
is worth. Example: Iowa was worth 7 electoral votes in 2008
election but only 6 in 2012 election Why?
Slide 12
Projections for 2016? Questions to consider 1. How can they
already know which states will go to Republican and which states
Democratic without knowing who is running? 2.What states will
determine the winner? 3.What are some states worth high point
values (electoral votes)? Low values?
http://www.270towin.com/2016_election_pr edictions.php?mapid=bIrY
http://www.270towin.com/2016_election_pr
edictions.php?mapid=bIrY
Slide 13
Electoral College Problem Solving Group Work Using the
information provided you and your group should come up with an
Electoral College score for the 8 states given from the 2012
election. Answer the following 1) Who wins the election based on
these 8 states? 2) How many electoral votes does each candidate
have? 3) How many popular votes does each candidate have? BONUS:
Assuming the same results within each state, what would the
electoral vote count have been if these results were in 2008 (use
2008 electoral map)?