the situation would have influenced most voters to vote for a candidate from their home state, making it very improbable that a candidate would secure a national majority. (O’Connor and Sabato, 2000) So the Framers decided that Presidents wouldn’t be popularly elected. (O’Connor and Sabato, 2000) Instead, a group of electors equal in number to that of the state’s number of representatives in the House and Senate would be designated by appointment or by popular vote. (O’Connor and Sabato, 2000) Whichever candidate received a majority of the electors won the presidency. (O’Connor and Sabato, 2000) This means there are a total of 538 electoral votes up for grabs, and 270 of those votes are needed to win the majority. (Rosenberg, 2000) In the case that no candidate reaches 270 votes, the House would select a president and the Senate would choose the vice president. (Rosenberg, 2000) This particular situation occurred in 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr both received 73 electoral votes. (Rosenberg, 2000) The House eventually gave the victory to Thomas Jefferson.(Rosenberg, 2000) Then in 1824, 1876, and 1888 a candidate lost the popular vote, but still won the presidency. (Rosenberg, 2000) Since our nation has entered the 20th century, there have still been several crises in which the Electoral College is to blame. In the election of 1976, Democrat Jimmy Carter received 1.7 million more votes than the Republican Gerald Ford, but had a mere 8000 votes been switched in Ford’s favor, he could have still won the presidential contest. (O’Connor and Sabato, 2000) And this year’s election is another definite fault of the Electoral College. With the results of the Florida recount, Republican candidate George W. Bush could take the contest even though his opponent Al Gore has the lead in the popular vote. (Lavelle, Schaffer, Wildavsky, 2000) But even if Florida would select a winn...
