The US Electoral System
The US presidential election due this year November 4 2008 let us look at the American electoral system. A quite number of us Filipinos or the Americans themselves do not know how the system works.
Basically, the system is not that complicated. In the simplest terms, the members of the College of Electors from 50 states and the District of Columbia get together and cast their votes for the President and Vice president of the United States. The candidates who get the highest votes win.
The electors represent the numbers of senators and congressman in each state and are selected by the individual states through processes determined by each state.
The way the electors vote us determined by the constituents. There are states where the electors are bound by their constituencies before they leave for Washington to cast their votes. There are states whose electors are not bound that way. They may change their minds.
The political parties Republicans and Democrats contend for the electoral votes in each state, it is a winner takes all situations. The winner carries all the electoral votes of the state.
