What is an electoral vote

An electoral vote is the ballot cast in the United States Electoral College by the delegates of every state in a presidential election. It is the option expressed jointly by the Electoral College, which decides the victor of ballots for president and vice president.

What is United States Electoral College?

The Electoral College of the United States is the organization that officially chooses the President and Vice President of the country by ballot once in four years. Both President and Vice President are not chosen by the voters directly. Instead, they are chosen by voters or electors, who are selected by popular election on the basis of states. Electors are allocated to the District of Columbia and to each state, but not to the United States territorial possessions. The amount of electors in every state is equal to the amount of elements of Congress to which the state is permitted, whereas the 23rd Amendment sanctions the District of Columbia the same amount of electors as the least crowded state, with three states at present. Altogether, there are 538 voters, related to the 435 affiliates of the House of Representatives, 100 senators, and the three supplementary voters of the District of Columbia.

Electors

Almost electors are vowed at all times to meticulous presidential and vice presidential contenders, while unpledged voters are possible. Apart from for the voters in Nebraska and Maine, electors are chosen on the basis of winner-take-all. This means that all voters pledged to the presidential applicant who wins the majority votes in a state will turn out to be voters in that state. Nebraska and Maine employ the congressional district system, choosing one voter in each congressional district by the accepted vote and choosing the remaining two voters through a statewide accepted vote. Even though no voter is required by federal law to respect a pledge, there have been only a few occasions when a voter voted, opposing to a pledge. The 12th Amendment, in stipulating the way a President and Vice President are chosen, needs each voter to cast a single vote for President and an additional vote for Vice President.

President and vice president

The contender, who gets a complete majority of electoral votes for the President or of Vice President Office, is chosen to that office. The 12th Amendment supports what happens if the United States Electoral College fails to choose a President or Vice President. If no contender gets a majority for the office of the President, then the President will be selected by the House of Representatives, by means of each state allocation, rather than each delegate, having one vote only. If no applicant gets a majority for Vice President, then the Vice President will be selected by the Senate, through each Senator, having one vote only.

Critics dispute that the Electoral College of the United States is intrinsically undemocratic and offers swing states uneven influence in choosing the President and Vice President. The United States Electoral College offers a numeric gain in the selection of the president to the minor states, as the smallest number of voters for the undersized states is three, when compared to one for the selection of representatives.