americans, how does the voting process work?

[High_Endurance]

why does each state have a number?
what does this number stand for?
how does the state get the number?
why is 270 the lucky number?

[NJP_MAN]

google the "electoral college" that will give you all the answers

[High_Endurance]

google the "electoral college" that will give you all the answers

im not looking to go to college brah

[BossMadOne]

In a nut shell...


You need 270 electoral votes to win.


Each state has a unique number of electoral votes.


So the goal is to win the states with the highest number.


That is the kicker about the voting system here, so someone can get MORE votes but the other person may win cause they won 1 state that had large numbers of electoral votes.

[High_Endurance]

In a nut shell...


You need 270 electoral votes to win.


Each state has a unique number of electoral votes.


So the goal is to win the states with the highest number.


That is the kicker about the voting system here, so someone can get MORE votes but the other person may win cause they won 1 state that had large numbers of electoral votes.

how is that even possible ?

[jasonjb]

are electoral votes decided by population of that state?

[Yanis]

edit: Each state have a certain amount of electoral votes. The more people live in the state the more you get. Number is based on the population. Cali and NY have a lot. If you reach 270, you win.

Romney may win more states, but because Cali and NY have too many people, Obama may get more electoral votes.

this map could be inaccurate

[hussainizzle]

are electoral votes decided by population of that state?

correct, that is why Fl, NY, CALI has such much electoral votes.

[SlavicGod]

We don't have a direct democracy, it's not whoever gets the more votes, but whoever gets the most electors. Every state has a number of electors based on their population. Once a states votes are tallied ALL of that state's electors get awarded to the party with more votes in that state. So essentially unless you're in a state can can go either way (Democratic or Republican) your vote won't even matter.

This system also makes it possible for a candidate with less actual votes to win.

[AwhYeah]

im not looking to go to college brah

Lost it

[DonSnatch]

are electoral votes decided by population of that state?

Actually, they are apportioned based on congressional representation, which mostly correlates to population. 1 vote per roughly 500k people. The senate, of course, has equal representation for every state

[Yanis]

say a state has 18 electoral votes

can a candidate win just a part of it? Say 10 and the remaining that goes to the other candidate or do u win all?

winner takes all

if lets say in south Carolina majority votes Romney, then Romney gets South Carolina

[binks09]

The basics OP (there are alot of caveats and special things that can happen, but these are the basics).

The United States has 3 branches of Government to separate federal power - executive (president), representative (congress/senate), judicial (supreme court)

What happens is, each state has 2 senators and a specific number of congress representatives based on population that are directly elected by the people.

Each state's "number" is the total number of congressmen and senators in there state.

---

For the presidential election, everyone who wants to votes and it is broken down on a state by state basis.

When a state is won, whether it be 100% to 0 or 51.1% to 49.9%, the winning candidate gets all of the electoral votes (or each state's number).

The total number of electoral votes available is 538. Thus, 269-269 would be a draw, so 270 is the winning landmark to hit.

(I won't even get into what happens when there is a tie - but there is a method)

[bezarker]

toilet flushes

[Ratamahatta]

[B_Nelley35]

Pretty much sums everything up "In plain English"