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Questions tagged [electoral-college]

Some elections are not decided directly by popular vote but by a group of electors. These electors can be selected in several ways, including being elected by popular vote. Use with a relevant country tag.

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What are the powers or functions of US electoral college of other than choosing the president?

What are the functions of the US Electoral College other than choosing the president of the United States? If it has no other power does it dissolve immediately after choosing the president?
Anshul Sahni's user avatar
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1 answer
191 views

Why don't people move to swing states temporarily to have a more significant impact on the election? [duplicate]

In most states, the requirement to be a resident and therein vote is to be living in the state for 183 days of that calendar (or tax) year. For many upper-class individuals, doing that once every four ...
BarackBarackBarack's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
717 views

Will the current vice president certify the election results also if running for and becoming elected president? [duplicate]

In the US, will the current vice president certify the election results also if running for and becoming elected president?
Mawg's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
6k views

When non-resident US citizens vote, which state does their vote count for in the electoral college?

I was surprised to learn that US citizens can vote for President even if they do not reside in the US. What State do their votes count towards with regards to the Electoral College?
Ryan_L's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
342 views

Can a state appoint Presidential electors from out-of-state to get around the difficulty of Presidents and VP's being from the same state?

The twelfth amendment to the United States constitution reads: The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not ...
ge97aa's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
370 views

If Trump picks Rubio, when would he need to move to avoid losing Florida's electoral votes, and would he then have to resign as Florida senator?

After 03:30 in the June 17, 2024 They were once rivals. Rubio is now helping Trump with debate prep CNN's Randi Kaye explains: ...it's complicated because of this provision in the constitution. Long ...
uhoh's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
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Why was the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact written not to take effect until it has an absolute majority of electoral votes?

Closely related: Does the NPVIC only take effect once enough states sign for it to have legal force? . That question asks whether, this question asks why. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact ...
Steve V.'s user avatar
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3 answers
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Are the US presidential electors the members of House of Representatives?

My question is about the US presidential election. I read that the Electoral College consists of 435 electors, 100 senators and 3 others. Are the 435 electors the members of the House of ...
Franc's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
3k views

How did Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo explain why he vetoed a bill that would ban people from acting as fake electors?

Politico's Nov 15, 2023 Nevada attorney general is investigating false electors who aided Trump in 2020 includes the following, quoting Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford: ...an American lawyer and ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Is membership in the European Parliament compatible with membership in the Electoral College for Non-Residents?

When browsing through the lists of candidates for the elections for the Electoral College Non-Residents in The Netherlands on 15 March 2023, I recognised some names of candidates who are currently ...
gerrit's user avatar
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In the Dutch senate elections, how is the weighting for the electoral college for non-residents determined?

In The Netherlands, the Senate is elected by members of the provincial parliaments as well as the electoral colleges for the Senate, where the electoral colleges represent voters who do not live in a ...
gerrit's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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How are unavailable United States Presidential elector's replaced before the electoral college meets to vote? [duplicate]

The members of the U. S. Electoral College are chosen in each state on election day in early November. They meet to cast their formal votes In early December. What happens if an individual elector, ...
DJohnM's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
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Legal weight of the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA)

I've been a bit (well, very) confused regarding the proposed Electoral Count Reform Act. Purportedly, it apparently attempts to (among other things) do the following: Dictate which state official(s) ...
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Has anyone published a plan for how to modernize the American voting system? [closed]

It’s been said that the American voting system is a relic of the past, with idiosyncratic features due to political negotiations and compromises at the time it was formed. Let’s say in a modern ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
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2 answers
578 views

Why do the states attempt to emulate a popular vote for president?

There seems to be lots of discussion about why oh why do we have an Electoral College in the U.S.A. However, given the fact that we do have an Electoral College, the really seemingly odd thing, IMHO, ...
Him's user avatar
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How are the electors of the electoral college selected?

How are the electors for each party selected in the US presidential election?
Mr. McGrath's user avatar
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Argument for why the electoral clause was not violated by balloting changes related to Covid-19

The electoral clause (article II, section I, clause 2) of the U.S. constitution states: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to ...
Fox Mulder's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
4k views

What is the Legal Process if Electoral Certificates are Damaged?

Plenty of interesting questions have arisen related to the unprecedented riot at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. In a recent report printed in the New Yorker, Keith Stern, a ...
Aryeh's user avatar
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5 answers
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Does anything prevent US state legislatures from directly selecting electors overriding the popular vote in their state?

Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution states "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors". This seems to be a non-...
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Why does the 2021 resolution to abolish the electoral college explicitly allow voting for a candidate of one's own state?

A January 11, 2021 Congressional resolution proposes to amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish the electoral college. The resolution contains a clause explicitly allowing voting for candidates who ...
M. Justin's user avatar
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Why continue counting/certifying electors after one candidate has secured a majority?

As I understand it, a presidential candidate needs to secure 270 electoral votes to have a majority and thereby officially win the election. As I also understand it, when the joint session of Congress ...
Alex's user avatar
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17 votes
2 answers
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What happens if the Vice-President were to die before presiding over the official electoral college vote count?

The President of the US Senate (who is the Vice-President ) is responsible for presiding over the electoral college's votes formally in a Joint Session of Congress. However, what if the Vice-President ...
Schwarz Kugelblitz's user avatar
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3 answers
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Can the US President veto Congress' decisions to reject electoral votes for the presidency?

According to the Electoral Count Act on the designation of the US President, the House of Representatives and the Senate may reject votes of some electors when they consider that these votes were not ...
Michel Fioc's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
513 views

If the Electoral Count Act is repealed, would Pence have the power to throw out states' results? [duplicate]

I have just found that another lawsuit have been filed in Texas, aimed at overturning the presidential election result and seeking for the courts to invalidate the Electoral Count Act as ...
user's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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What procedures are in place to stop a U.S. Vice President from ignoring electors?

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and President Donald Trump's defeated electors appear to be suing Vice President Mike Pence in a Federal Court in Texas. Gohmert and a handful of the electors sued Pence ...
Noah's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
4k views

Must the Vice President preside over the counting of the Electoral College votes?

The Vice President, being the President of the Senate, presides over the counting of the Electoral College votes during a joint session of Congress. Following the count, the VP then officially ...
Panda's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
724 views

Can Congress reject presidential electoral votes? What majority is required and can the decision be reverted?

Does "safe harbor" provision prevent Congress from voting to reject presidential electoral vote(s)? What kind of majority is required for such a rejection? Is it possible to revert such a ...
user's user avatar
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19 votes
2 answers
3k views

How exactly was the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit supposed to reverse the 2020 presidential election?

This question seems fairly straightforward. I believe it must have been answered somewhere, or I'm missing something very trivial. Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, ...
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
331 views

When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date?

When was the date of the Electoral College meeting established by law and how often was the meeting not held on that date? The question is motivated by the suggestion in the last lawsuit filed with ...
user's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
301 views

Who are the third party electors

This question is about the electoral college. From what I understand, the way the electoral college works is that each party appoints electors for their party, based on state-specific rules that ...
John's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
533 views

Did House Democrats "win the Electoral College" in 2020?

House Democrats appear to have underperformed Biden again. This is the third time in a row that Democrats got a lower % of the two-party vote than their presidential candidate, though the difference ...
Number File's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
800 views

How might Trump still win the electoral college?

For a couple of weeks now, the betting market site PredictIt has pretty consistently shown Trump as having a low-double-digit chance of winning the election. However, I was under the impression that: ...
Snow's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why were there only 531 electoral votes in the US Presidential Election 2016?

I just read this Wikipedia article. It says Trump won with a 304 to 227 for electoral votes. That's 304 + 227 = 531 votes. But the total number should be 538. Where did the 7 votes go?
AGamePlayer's user avatar
13 votes
5 answers
6k views

Is it possible for someone to win the presidency due to faithless electors?

Suppose a presidential candidate wins over 270 pledged electors. If several of these pledged electors become faithless and cast their vote for the losing candidate, will the presidency actually go to ...
Dev Dhruv's user avatar
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-1 votes
1 answer
151 views

How many electoral votes were voting more Republican than the national average in 2020 as of data right now?

Biden is leading in the popular vote by 3.8 percentage points. I am wondering about this topic of states that lean one way relative to the nation. It appears that this is helpful because it shows ...
Michael Mormon's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
358 views

What happens if the GSA refuses to recognize Biden even after the Electoral College vote?

I'd like to know what legal actions, if any, can be taken supposing that after December the 14th (when the Electoral College meet and vote for Biden) the General Services Administration, instructed ...
Megaptera novaeangliae's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
324 views

Who gets a state's Electoral College votes if no one gets a majority of the popular vote?

The question is pretty much in the title. Let's say in state X, there are 3 candidates: A, B, and C. A wins 49% of the popular vote, B wins 49% of the popular vote, and C wins 2% of the popular vote. ...
zz20s's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
803 views

Could Michigan Republicans have given the electoral college votes to Trump?

According to the news, for a brief period, Wayne county board of canvassers had a 2-2 tie over whether to certify the election results. What would have been the effect (next steps) had the tie not ...
Simd's user avatar
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-5 votes
3 answers
734 views

Is a coup still possible in the United States?

I am aware of this question, but what I am asking is slightly different. I remember from January 6, 2001, that during the constitutional counting of the vote of the presidential electors, to be done ...
robert bristow-johnson's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
148 views

Certification of presidential election results in battleground states [duplicate]

I have just read the Atlantic article which describes a possible constitutional crisis in the USA in aftermath of the current presidential election. Prevention of the election result certification in ...
user's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
679 views

What does the December 8th deadline mean for the certification of the results of the Electoral College?

I have just read the Atlantic article which describes a possible constitutional crisis in the USA in aftermath of the current presidential election. Prevention of the election result certification in ...
user's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
601 views

Can Trump use lawsuits to stop the electoral college from voting in order to use the House to install him as President?

Some news sources (like zeit.de, in German only, sorry) report that Trump could use a large number of lawsuits to keep the Electoral College from voting on Dec 14th. As I understand it, all legal ...
8192K's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
214 views

Is the vote count in each US state relevant after the Electoral College vote?

Some are speculating that President Trump will fight the vote count in court all the way until January 20th, when the next-term President (presumably Biden) is sworn in. But the Electoral College ...
PlutoThePlanet's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
317 views

What is the specific mechanism of voting done by the electoral college?

When the electoral college meets to vote on the next president, how does this vote take place? Do the members fill out a ballot privately; with those ballots then collected and counted? Or are the ...
GendoIkari's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
310 views

Why is the possibility of state legislatures invalidating the popular vote being discussed? [duplicate]

It has been discussed that one of the alternatives for Trump to keep the presidency is that... Republican legislators in states like Pennsylvania would invalidate the electoral results and simply ...
Megaptera novaeangliae's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
236 views

When the US president is declared after winning enough states for 270 electoral votes, have they definitely won? [duplicate]

Watching the counting of the recent presidential election on the US, there was a point where Joe Biden had 238 electoral votes and was leading in enough states to get to 270. If he had gotten to 270, ...
komodosp's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
266 views

Supreme Court decision on faithless electors question

I'm talking about this decision: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/06/supreme-court-electoral-college-ruling-states-can-force-electors-to-abide-by-popular-vote.html I want to understand the meaning of the ...
Ameet Sharma's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
445 views

Why may one be "faithless" if "winner-takes-all" is already applicable?

From Wikipedia article on United States Electoral College, All jurisdictions use a winner-take-all method to choose their electors, with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, which use a one-elector-...
Severus Snape's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
1k views

Can a third-party candidate “donate” their votes to another candidate?

Is there any provision in US constitution which allows one candidate, say Jo Jorgensen, to “donate” their votes in a given state to another candidate?
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
3k views

What determines the number of electors in each state of the US

I would like to know what determines the number of electors in each state of the US for presidential election. I have read that "Every State is allocated a number of votes equal to the number of ...
StarBucK's user avatar
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