The United States Presidential Elections are run by a unique set of rules known as the Electoral Collage. Instead of being directly elected via the popular vote, President's campaign in individual states - for most states, if they win a state, they receive all of that state's electoral votes. Electoral votes are based indirectly on the states population - specifically, the number is determined by the amount of a state's entire Congressional delegation (Senators + Congressmen). That number changes every 10 years with a new US census.
So, off of our update of Pocket Trivia: US Presidents - What state has the 2nd most electoral votes? Is it Texas, Florida, California or Ohio?
Showing posts with label electoral collage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electoral collage. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
What is the term for an elector in the Electoral Collage who votes for a candidate they are not pledged to?
The Presidential election is now less than two years away (weird, right?). So, we bring you this question off of our Pocket Trivia: U.S. Presidents game: What is the term for an elector in the Electoral Collage who votes for a candidate they are not pledged to? Is it a Lying Voter, Twisted Elector, Faithless Elector or Sockless Vote?
Sockless Vote? I don't even know where I got that from. I guess it sounds like something that could be true though. History is sort of random.
Anyway, the correct answer is Faithless Elector. As you may know, the U.S. population doesn't actually vote for a Presidential candidate, at least not directly. Instead, they vote for a slate of electors that are pledged to a Presidential candidate. Those electors then vote for the President - the first one to 270 wins.
In total, 164 electors have voted for a candidate they were not pledged to vote for. A faithless elector has never actually decided the outcome of a Presidential election, though it came pretty close to happening in 1796, when a wannabe faithless elector was denied the chance to vote twice for Aaron Burr, costing Burr the election. The most recent time this happened was in 2004, when a Minnesota elector voted for John Edwards for President, despite being pledged to Kerry (though this may have been in error). Since Minnesota voted by secret ballot at the time (since changed), no one knows who actually did it.
Sockless Vote? I don't even know where I got that from. I guess it sounds like something that could be true though. History is sort of random.
Anyway, the correct answer is Faithless Elector. As you may know, the U.S. population doesn't actually vote for a Presidential candidate, at least not directly. Instead, they vote for a slate of electors that are pledged to a Presidential candidate. Those electors then vote for the President - the first one to 270 wins.
In total, 164 electors have voted for a candidate they were not pledged to vote for. A faithless elector has never actually decided the outcome of a Presidential election, though it came pretty close to happening in 1796, when a wannabe faithless elector was denied the chance to vote twice for Aaron Burr, costing Burr the election. The most recent time this happened was in 2004, when a Minnesota elector voted for John Edwards for President, despite being pledged to Kerry (though this may have been in error). Since Minnesota voted by secret ballot at the time (since changed), no one knows who actually did it.
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