Within the 2000 US presidential election, the Democratic candidate bought half one million extra votes than the Republican. The Democrat misplac
Within the 2000 US presidential election, the Democratic candidate bought half one million extra votes than the Republican. The Democrat misplaced. Sixteen years later, the same factor occurred once more. Within the US, in the event you run for president, it doesn’t truly matter how many individuals within the nation vote for you. What issues as a substitute is an arcane system for choosing America’s head of state known as the Electoral Faculty.
The Electoral Faculty is the explanation the US has one thing known as “swing states,” and it’s the explanation these locations get to resolve the way forward for the nation. It’s the explanation presidential candidates hardly ever marketing campaign within the nation’s greatest cities. Extra just lately, it’s additionally the explanation that Republican candidates have been in a position to eke out victories within the presidential election with out truly getting probably the most votes.
The Electoral Faculty makes some People’ votes extra highly effective than others. In truth, that’s a part of the explanation we now have it to start with; within the nation’s early years, the Electoral Faculty helped give the votes of Southern white individuals extra weight than the votes of Northerners. The concept at its core — that sure votes merely matter greater than others — is baked into the American custom. Within the 2020 election, it might resolve the winner.
Additional studying:
The historian Alexander Keyssar’s ebook Why Do We Nonetheless Have the Electoral Faculty? takes you thru the historical past and performance of the Electoral Faculty:
For the bite-size model of that historical past, Keyssar additionally wrote this piece within the New York Instances.
The Instances has an amazing interactive function on the place the 2020 candidates truly spent cash.
Pew has a breakdown of how democracies around the globe elect their head of state, which actually reveals what an oddball the US is.
Extra on why right now’s Electoral Faculty offers Republican presidential candidates a structural benefit.
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