Electoral College

Funny how a Canadian explains this.

Here's my take, and please correct me if I'm wrong; The electoral college is split up into 50 zones, the 50 states. Each state is split up into a number of regions. The number of regions is the point total that the state is worth. For example, Texas has 34 voting regions, giving it 34 points (aka: electoral college votes). Each region votes for their choice of president, and whoever wins the majority of votes in that state receives the point total that state is worth.

The fact that a candidate wins the majority of the popular vote (total amount of people who voted for the candidate in all states as one big total) is sadly not the determining factor. If John Kerry won three smaller states (in terms of electoral college votes) that are only worth 9 electoral college votes each (grand total: 27) and George Bush won one large state such as Texas (grand total: 34), Bush would still have the upper hand because he won the state with more points, whereas Kerry won three smaller states that don't add up to the same amount as the one bigger state. So basically, the big states with the most electoral college votes (California [55], Texas [34], New York [31], Florida [27], Illinois [21], Pennsylvania [21], and even Ohio [20]) all have the most impact on who becomes next president.

Personally, I like Canada's way more. 308 seats, one for each riding a candidate wins. That way, you make it in, even if the other 90% of the ridings in your province go to another parties representatives. The total number of ridings won add to your party's total number of seats in Parliament. Whichever party has the most elected candidates makes their party head Prime Minister. You vote for the candidate in your riding, he only helps the party head become Prime Minister, whereas in the States, you just vote for the presidential candidate on the ballot.