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What is the Electoral College? How does it work?

What is the Electoral College? How does it work?

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have spent months traveling the country on the 2024 presidential election campaign trail, vying for America’s vote to move into the White House. With every new presidential election cycle, U.S. citizens ask themselves the same question, keeping in mind the power of the Electoral College: “Does my vote count?” Local and state officials elected into office in the U.S. are able to do so by winning the popular vote. However, the President of the United States is selected with the help of the Electoral College and the popular vote. ELECTION STRAIN PUSHES 1 OF 3 AMERICANS TO LIMIT TIME WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS Most often, the popular vote and the electoral vote mirror each other, but there are few instances in history when the two have differed. Most recently, in 2016, Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. The Electoral College is the formal process in which the President and Vice President of the United States are elected into office. “The Electoral College, as we know it, was created by the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1804. Today, there are a total of 538 electoral votes, and a candidate needs at least 270 to win,” Fox News’ Todd Piro explained on “Fox and Friends” in November 2020.  In the Electoral College, Washington D.C. has its own three electors.  In 48 states, plus Washington D.C., the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral votes for that state, according to USA.gov. This is apart from Maine and Nebraska, where a proportional system is used, per the source. WHAT ARE ELECTION BETTING ODDS? EXPERT EXPLAINS WHY TRUMP IS CURRENT FAVORITE While the popular vote takes place in November, the electoral vote doesn’t take place until about a month later, in mid-December.  Who is chosen as a state’s electors, how they are chosen and when they are picked vary state-by-state, but there is a two-part system in place, according to the National Archive’s website. Slates of electors are chosen at state party conventions, or they are voted on by the party’s central committee based on state or national party rules. During a general election, voters across the states cast their ballots to select their electors who will represent their decesion in the presidential election. The names of electors may or may not appear on the ballots. Electors pledge to vote for specific candidates, though they are not legally obligated to do so. While there is no federal law in place for electors to vote a certain way, penalties, like being disqualified from future ballots, are in place. Through the years, there have been many calls made to change the Electoral College as we know it.  “Over the years, there have been hundreds of proposed amendments to change the Electoral College, but only one has gotten remotely close to being passed after the 1968 presidential election saw Richard Nixon win against Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace,” Piro said. “A 1969 bill to replace the Electoral College with the popular vote passed in the House of Representatives, and though it was endorsed by Nixon, the bill eventually died in the Senate after it was filibustered, and it still stands today.” Recently, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the elimination of the Electoral College altogether.  “I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” he said at a California fundraising event in October, according to a pool report at the event, Bloomberg reported. “We need a national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.” In order to do away with the system created by the Founding Fathers, a major constitutional change would need to be made.

Walz calls Trump a ‘dictator’ who wants to ‘overturn the Constitution’

Walz calls Trump a ‘dictator’ who wants to ‘overturn the Constitution’

Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz called former President Trump a “dictator” who wants to “overturn the Constitution” during his final pitch to voters in the battleground state of Arizona.  Speaking in Tucson, Walz said, “Momentum is on our side, but we take nothing for granted” and “We know in Arizona a vote or two per precinct could be what it takes to win the whole damn race for the country.”  “Someday you’re going to be sitting on that porch. You’re going to be in that rocking chair, and a little one is going to come up to you after being in school where they’ve been studying the 2024 election, and they’re going to ask when everything was on the line and the American experiment was on the line, and there was somebody running who asked to be a dictator and to overturn the Constitution and talk about using the military against our own people. What did you do to stop that from happening?” Walz told the crowd on Saturday.  “And you’re going to be able to say every damn thing we could, every damn thing we could,” he said.  SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE TAKES AIM AT ‘COACH’ TIM WALZ OVER SPORTS TERMINOLOGY  Walz closed his speech by saying: “Make a plan to vote. Make a plan to get out and canvass. Make a plan to take a neighbor to the polls.”  Arizona is a state that leans Republican in the presidential race, according to the final Fox News Power Rankings forecast before the election.  KAMALA HARRIS APPEARS ON ‘SNL’ IN FINAL EPISODE BEFORE ELECTION  In eight high-quality polls conducted in Arizona since August, Trump has been ahead in seven. His edge has been between 1-6 points.  Immigration continues to be a highly important issue in Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico.   In the latest Wall Street Journal survey, 25% of voters said immigration was the most important issue to their vote, higher than any other battleground. It was a “deal-breaker” issue for 24% of voters. And Arizona voters preferred Trump on the issue by 10 points.  Fox News’ Remy Numa contributed to this report.