I was watching news about the unrest in Turkey and the reporter mentioned that the President of Turkey was "democratically elected". Since many, if not most Americans believe our President is democratically elected, I thought this would be a good time to inform them: Our President is NOT democratically elected. We are the UNITED STATES of America. It is important to understand that. The President is NOT elected by the popular vote of the citizens of our Nation. The STATES elect the President. Either our public school system is not teaching this in Civics Class or the bulk of the students slept through the class! Our Forefathers devised an extraordinary method of electing our President that makes it so EVERY State actually has a voice in the process. Since I am from a small State, this process is extremely important to me and I pray it never changes. Arkansas has about 1.5 million voters who turn out. In the grand scheme of things that is not very many votes for a candidate to pursue, as there are CITIES in America that have more votes than that. However Arkansas has 6 ELECTORAL VOTES and in a close election could make a difference in the outcome. Here is how the number of electoral votes for each State is determined: The number of electoral votes each state receives is equal to the number of Senators plus the number of House Representatives. The number of senators is fixed at two for a total of 100, but the number of Representatives for each state varies with the population of the state but is always at least one. Washington DC gets the same amount of electoral votes as the state with the least (currently 3). The number of representatives that a state has is determined by the population. After the official census is completed every ten years, Congress adjusts the number of Representatives based on the new population figures. The total number is currently fixed at 435, so if one state gains in population enough to merit another representative, some other state must lose a representative. The total number of electoral votes is therefore 538= (535+100+3), so in order to win the presidency, a candidate must win 270 electoral votes which is one more than half. If any single candidate fails to receive the minimum 270 votes, then the House of Representatives will elect the president from the three most popular candidates. The Senate elects the vice president from the two most popular candidates. For example, California gets 55 votes (2 senators and 53 members of the House of Representatives) --- the most of any state. As a rule and rare is the exception, the popular vote and the electoral vote produce the same outcome. This system is still very important for the smaller States so that we will not be overpowered by the larger States. We will always have a voice. I pray this has cleared up the confusion about the Electoral College and why our Constitution dictates our President in this manner. Have a Blessed Day! ~ Brother Mike
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 14:09:16 +0000
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