A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College. Each elector casts one vote following the general election. The candidate who gets 270 votes or more wins. The newly elected President and Vice President are then inaugurated on January 20th.
How is the electoral vote determined?
Under the “Electoral College” system, each state is assigned a certain number of “votes”. ... The formula for determining the number of votes for each state is simple: each state gets two votes for its two US Senators, and then one more additional vote for each member it has in the House of Representatives.
How many electoral votes are required to win the presidency?
How many electoral votes are necessary to win the presidential election? 270. In order to become president, a candidate must win more than half of the votes in the Electoral College.
What makes a president elect?
The president-elect of the United States is the candidate who has presumptively won the United States presidential election and is awaiting inauguration to become the president.
What does it mean to be a swing state in the election?
In American politics, the term swing state (or battleground state) refers to any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidate by a swing in votes. These states are usually targeted by both major-party campaigns, especially in competitive elections.
What is the Electoral College in simple terms?
The United States Electoral College is a name used to describe the official 538 Presidential electors who come together every four years during the presidential election to give their official votes for President and Vice President of the United States. ... No state can have fewer than three electors.
How many votes are necessary?
A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half of all electors—to win the presidential election. In most cases, a projected winner is announced on election night in November after you vote.
What states make up the electoral votes?
Currently, there are 538 electors, based on 435 representatives, 100 senators from the fifty states and three electors from Washington, D.C. The six states with the most electors are California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), and Pennsylvania (20).
What are the 3 presidential powers?
The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation , command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors.
What are the qualifications to be president?
Requirements to Hold Office
According to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the president must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.
What are the 4 requirements to be president?
Legal requirements for presidential candidates have remained the same since the year Washington accepted the presidency. As directed by the Constitution, a presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age or older.
Why do Electoral College votes vary by state how many votes does your state have?
Electoral votes are allocated among the States based on the Census. Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus a number of votes equal to the number of its Congressional districts.
What if neither candidate gets 270 electoral votes?
If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes.
Why are swing states so important?
These “swing states” have populations that are closely divided politically. They have swung back and forth between Democratic and Republican candidates in recent years. They are the battleground states that candidates will target with campaign visits, advertising and staffing.
Is Texas a Republican state?
Texas remains a majority Republican state as of 2021.
Who elects the Electoral College?
Who selects the electors? Choosing each State’s electors is a two-part process. First, the political parties in each State choose slates of potential electors sometime before the general election. Second, during the general election, the voters in each State select their State’s electors by casting their ballots.
What are 3 major flaws in the electoral college?
Three criticisms of the College are made: It is “undemocratic;” It permits the election of a candidate who does not win the most votes; and. Its winner-takes-all approach cancels the votes of the losing candidates in each state.
What can the President not do?
- make laws.
- declare war.
- decide how federal money will be spent.
- interpret laws.
- choose Cabinet members or Supreme Court Justices without Senate approval.
What is it called when senators can speak as long as they want to stop a bill from being voted on?
The Senate tradition of unlimited debate has allowed for the use of the filibuster, a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question.
How many electoral votes does New York have in 2020?
New York has 29 electoral votes in the Electoral College.
What powers does Article 2 give the President?
- Serve as commander in chief of the armed forces.
- Commission officers of the armed forces.
- Grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses (except impeachment)
- Convene Congress in special sessions.
- Receive ambassadors.
What are two congressional limits on the President?
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
Who was the youngest elected president?
The youngest person to assume the presidency was Theodore Roosevelt, who, at the age of 42, succeeded to the office after the assassination of William McKinley. The youngest to become president by election was John F. Kennedy, who was inaugurated at age 43.
What are the unwritten qualifications for President?
No Person except a natural born Citizen , or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident ...
What are presidential cabinets?
The Cabinet is an advisory body made up of the heads of the 15 executive departments . Appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the members of the Cabinet are often the President’s closest confidants.
Why the Electoral College was created?
The Electoral College was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as an alternative to electing the president by popular vote or by Congress. ... Several weeks after the general election, electors from each state meet in their state capitals and cast their official vote for president and vice president.
Why is Ohio so important in the election?
Due to a close split in party registration and its historical electoral importance, Ohio is a key battleground state. The state was vital to President George W. Bush’s re-election chances, because he won there by nearly four points in 2000. ... Ohio has been a bellwether state in presidential elections.
Was Colorado a red state?
Until the election of Barack Obama, the people of Colorado had voted Republican in every U.S. Presidential Election since 1964, with the exception of 1992 when a plurality voted for Bill Clinton, (possibly due to the effect of Ross Perot’s candidacy.)
What is the popular vote mean?
Popular vote, in an indirect election, is the total number of votes received in the first-phase election, as opposed to the votes cast by those elected to take part in the final election.
What is the difference between popular vote and electoral vote?
When citizens cast their ballots for president in the popular vote, they elect a slate of electors. Electors then cast the votes that decide who becomes president of the United States. Usually, electoral votes align with the popular vote in an election.
What does the Electoral College do?
The Electoral College is how we refer to the process by which the United States elects the President, even though that term does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. In this process, the States (which includes the District of Columbia just for this process) elect the President and Vice President.
