What is it? When you cast your ballot for President, you are not actually voting for the president, you are casting a ballot for a group of 7 Electors who were chosen earlier by the political party of the candidate for whom you vote. If your presidential candidate gets the majority of votes in Connecticut, your 7 Electors win and they will then go on to vote in the Electoral College in Wash. D.C. in December along with Electors from all the other states. They are the ones who actually elect the president.
How does Connecticut’s Electoral College work? In Connecticut, each state party names 7 Electors at their state convention. Connecticut (and all the other states) are eligible for one Elector per state party, times the total number of US senators and US representatives in that state. Connecticut has 2 Senators and 5 US representatives, thus 7 Electors per party. Being chosen as an Elector is considered a reward for faithful party service. Whichever party wins the direct popular vote for President and Vice-President in Connecticut will determine which 7 Electors, Republican or Democrat, will vote in the Electoral College in December. Following the December vote by the college electors, the cast ballots are sent to Washington, D.C., and the official results are announced at a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate in January. In order to win the election, a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes, 270 out of a possible total of 538. If no candidate wins an absolute majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives picks the President from the top 3 candidates with each state casting one vote. Similarly, the Vice-President would be chosen by the Senate from the top two candidates with each Senator having one vote. An absolute majority is necessary to win in both cases.
Do electors have to vote for the candidates for whom they have been chosen? With rare exceptions, yes. It has basically been left up to the states or the state’s political parties to set the rules. In one third of the states, including Connecticut, laws bind electors to vote for candidates to whom they are pledged. Thus far, this has not been successfully challenged, although it appears to contravene the wording and intent of the US Constitution, Article I, Section 2.
Most states follow the winner-take-all system, which means the candidate that wins the most votes in a state gets all the electoral votes no matter how slim the margin of victory. Only Maine and Nebraska use the district method of counting votes. Under this system, a presidential candidate receives an electoral vote for every Congressional District carried within that state, plus two more for the candidate receiving the largest number of popular votes in the state. It is possible to win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote under both these systems.
Is it possible for a candidate to win the popular vote in the states and to lose the election in the electoral college?
The answer is yes - in 1888, Benjamin Harrison won the election even though Grover Cleveland won the popular vote.
Here is a list of the states having the most electoral votes through the year 2008, a number that is adjusted after each census. The last census was in the year 2000 and the adjusted electoral votes will affect the year 2008 presidential election.
California, 55; New York, 31; Texas, 34; Florida, 27; Pe, 15; Georgia 15 and Virginia, 13; Indiana and Massachusetts, 12; Missouri, Tennessee, and Washington 11.