With the 2016 election for president coming up on Tuesday, I thought it would be a good idea to share and article that I personally have found to be very helpful in explaining the way out voting system is set up. In the United States, we have an Electoral College. The president is not chosen by number of votes from the general population, but instead by the Electoral College. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors. The next president needs to win a majority of these to be sworn into office. Each state is assigned a number of electoral votes based on congressional delegation. In most cases, if a nominee wins a state, they receive all of that state’s electoral votes, with a few exceptions. A lot of people argue that this system is broken and is in need of reform. While that may be true, getting out and voting is still extremely important. Every vote matters in order to win your state and allocate your states electoral votes to your nominee of choice.
More information about the Electoral College can be found here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/everything-you-should-know-about-the-electoral-college/.
Photo source: pixaby.com
Written by Alyssa Lemire, Class of 2017