Does Your Vote Count? The Electoral College Explained

This post was originally published on November 11, 2016
The latest update to this post was made 7 years ago.

Does Your Vote Count? The Electoral College Explained

Does your vote count?  If a presidential nominee wins the popular vote, it doesn’t necessarily mean they win the election – What???  Why is this important and how does the electoral college work?  Don’t be misled!  The Electoral College is not a physical location/building.  It has members, but they never meet (same state members do) but not all members.  There are 538 members of the college and they are responsible for choosing the President Of The United States (POTUS).  So, how does it work?

When I cast my ballot at the voting station, I expect I’m actually casting a ballot vote for my candidate, right?  Not so much…  You’re actually voting for the group of electors from your state.  These electors may be third party, Republican or Democrat.  Each state has a designated number of electoral votes, which can change over the years based on population of the state.  When voters in your state have a majority vote, Democrat, in this example…  Your state will give it’s electoral count to Democrat.  If your state voted majority Republican, your state would give it’s electoral count to the Republican party.

In closing…  If you don’t really understand this whole process, you are not alone!   Even some experts and those who study it can’t quite wrap their heads around how the full workings…  The video below does a fairly decent job of explaining the process and why it is in place.  Got your own take on the process?  Let us know in the comments below!

Video: TED-ED – Does Your Vote Count?  The Electoral College Explained

Tags: #election #electoral #usa #potus #election2016 #electionday #vote