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Role of the Electoral College in US Presidential Election

November 5, 2008

Well, I’m not an expert on how the election process of the United States works, far from it actually. I just found the Electoral College an interesting subject. In smaller countries like our country for instance, people elect the president and vice president directly, it more or less relied on popular voting, and the candidate having the highest vote will automatically earn the office. It doesn’t work that way in the US however, the popular election is just the first step in the process of the election, having the highest votes in the popular voting doesn’t guarantee the candidate winning the election. This year for instance, there were 538 electors in the Electoral College representing the 49 States plus the District of Columbia, the number of electors were based on the number of senators (2 for each State) and the number of representatives per State. The candidate must earn the minimum majority of 270 votes to win the presidency. The electors’ votes will reflect the people’s choice in their respective state, however, not all the States have federal law that mandates the electors to vote for the candidate they are pledged to elect.

Take for example the case of Al Gore and George Bush in the 2000 election, Gore won the popular votes but Bush won the Electoral College votes making him the 43rd President of the US. That is considered the major drawback in this system as compared to just simply declaring the winner of the popular voting, but nevertheless it also gives weight to the votes of the smaller or less populous states like for instance the State of Alaska which is one of the smallest state. It provides a fair representation for each State. This created a never ending debate over the relevance and fairness of the system. Hilary Clinton in one of her speech suggested the elimination of the Electoral College, saying that the the popular votes or the will of the people be followed.

After more or less 22 months and billion dollars spent in the campaign, America will have their 44th President. Be it Mc Cain or Obama, it’s a bit premature to say it yet.  Not until the Electoral College will cast their votes on December 15 this year.

However, news reports already declared Obama the winner, with a projected 338 electoral votes over 159 by Mc Cain based on the results of the popular voting. With this wide margin, the democrats will have nothing to worry about…The College will just be making it official this December and Obama would be the first ever African American to hold the most powerful office in the world. The 44th President will be inaugurated come January 20, 2009.

A democrat and a member of the minority himself, Obama as president will surely be an advantage for the filipinoes in the US.

Posted by dumanay at 11:24 am | permalink

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