Quote:
Originally Posted by privateer
My biggest question is:
Why can this electorate vote outway popular votes?
Say every voter says no to Obama when voteing.
But the electorates say Yes.
WTF?
Do we need to hang them all or what?
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It doesn't work that way. The Electoral College was originally appointed by the state legislatures, and there was no popular vote. Since the Constitution stipulates that Electors are appointed "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct", over the years the states decided that the best way to appoint the Electors was by popular vote. Early on if the states were divided Electors were appointed by proportion. The "whole state goes one way" thing came later.
If the popular vote in one state has 51% for one candidate, then the whole state goes that way. This means that on more than one ocassion a candidate has won the popular vote but lost the election.
Then there was 1824, when Andrew Jackson won both, but not by the necessary margin, so it went to the House of Representatives for a decision. They handed it to John Quincy Adams.