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The page that uses the least words and yet says the most is hosted on the site run by The US Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov/). One particular page — http://www.fec.gov/pages/ecworks.htm — gives you a fairly comprehensive description. In brief, the procedure is as follows: lEach State is allocated a specific number of Electors. lThe political parties in each State submit a panel of individuals—pledged to their candidate for President—who may be elected as members of the Electoral College. lThen the major parties nominate their candidates for president and vice-president. lOn the Tuesday following the first Monday of November in years divisible by four, the people in each State cast their ballots for the party panel of Electors representing their choice for President and Vice-President (although as a matter of practice, general election ballots normally say "Electors for" each set of candidates rather than list the individual Electors on each panel). lWhichever party panel wins the most popular votes in the State becomes that State’s Electors—so that, in effect, whichever presidential ticket gets the most popular votes in a State wins all the Electors of that State. lOn the Monday following the second Wednesday of December (as established in Federal law) each State’s Electors cast their electoral votes—one for President and one for Vice-President. lThe candidate for President with the most electoral votes, provided that it is an absolute majority (one over half of the total), is declared President. Same for the Vice-President. Now all this sounds quite simple! And for an average democratic (not the party) citizen this should do for an explanation. But then there are not-so-simple citizens, too, who want to get all the intricacies of the system and its loopholes that have lead to so much noise in the current election. While the site mentioned above also has details if one wants, another site for a detailed yet lucid explanation is http://www.nara.gov/. A particular page—the FAQ section— http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/faq.html has the best matter. Is a citizen’s vote meaningful in the Electoral College system? Are electors required to vote for the candidate who won his or her State’s popular vote? What is the difference between the winner-takes-all rule and proportional voting, and which States follow which rule? (There are exceptions to almost every procedure mentioned above!) What would happen if two candidates tied in a State’s popular vote, or if there was a dispute as to the winner? Most of these questions have choked the media over the past week. This site does a good job of shedding light on the grey areas (in our brain as well as the US election system). Those with an academic bent of mind can get a complete procedural guide to the Electoral College prepared by the Office of the Federal Register at http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/proced.html. http://www.democracynet.org/ is a site that takes up various other election-related issues, too, including the latest on results and disputes. DemocracyNet—the body behind it— says it is a premier public interest site for election information. A few juicy US poll facts to wrap up: lA presidential candidate may win the most votes from the general public and yet not be the President due to the Electoral College system. lThere are differences in rules in different States regarding the electoral votes. lOver the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. lIn the mecca of technology, there has been confusion about invalid votes as some ballots have not been punched properly by the punching machines. If things are still not clear, blame
the Americans. Hats off to democracy! |
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Jeeves had links to most of the basic questions one might ask about the
poll. A lot of the links were followed up, but most were not very clear
on our query: "How is the US President elected?" A few,
however, did make things relatively clear.