The 2012 Presidential election will take place on Tuesday, November 6.
It is then that you will hear about electoral votes.
There are 538 electoral votes. Minnesota has 10.
The electoral system was created by the United States Constitution, Article II, modified by the 12th and 23rd amendments. The 23rd amendment was added in 1961 and gives 3 electoral votes to The District of Columbia; this leads to the present total of 538 electoral votes.
The number 538 is divisible by 2 (its last digit is the even number 8). Half of 538 is 269, hence, if either candidate gets 270 votes or more, he wins. Because 538 is divisible by 2, a tie is possible; this happened twice, in the elections of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams. In those days, the number of electoral votes was smaller and a tie more likely.
In the case of a tie, the President is chosen by the House of Representatives and the Vice President by the Senate.
There are many arguments for and against the use of electoral votes but one is surely true; it preserves the influence of states with small populations. You may have been in some of those states; North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana have small populations but each has 3 electoral votes.
You could add up the populations of the 4 states above and find that their combined population is less that of Minnesota, but they have 12 electoral votes to Minnesota’s 10.
To read more about the electoral vote system, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College
This is a long article, but if you stay up until the election is decided, you may have time to read it.
The electoral votes will not be officially counted until December, 2012.
