Page 12 - CALIFORNIA WOMAN - FALL EDITION 2024 - FINAL

Congress as a 2/3rds vote is required to pass and 38 States have to ratify it. Smaller States would
lose power if the Electoral College was eliminated.
Each candidate running for President in your State has their own group of electors (known as a
slate). The slates are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party in your State, but State
laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. States determine how
the votes are distributed. Some say the winner gets all their Electoral votes others (Maine and Ne-
braska) distribute the votes by the percentage for each candidate.
There is also the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), which is an agreement among
a group of U.S. States and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichev-
er Presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is
elected President, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome. Intro-
duced in 2006, as of April 2024 it has been adopted by seventeen states and the District of Colum-
bia. These jurisdictions have 209 electoral votes, which is 39% of the Electoral College and 77% of
the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force. This probably has the best chance of electing
the President by popular vote.

If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the Presidential election leaves the Electoral
College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives
elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral
votes. This is what happened in the 1824 election.

1824

Name Popular Vote Electoral College
John Quincy Adams (D-R) 122,440 84
Andrew Jackson (D-R) 151,309 99
Henry Clay (D-R) 41,222 41

William H. Crawford (D-R) 48,606 37

By the end of the 20th century, Electoral colleges had been abandoned by all other democracies
around the world in favor of direct elections for an executive president.

Linda Wilson

NOTE:
Document originally written for a presentation given by Linda at a meeting of East Los Angeles-
Montebello BPW.

BPW Essentials Trudy Waldroop Did you know?

 Although CFBPW was formed one year before National, CFBPW did not ‘”join” National until 1920.
 At the end of the first year, CFBPW had 18 clubs … Impressive back then !
 CFBPW broke with the NF in 1921. and reaffiliated in 1933 (A little research will tell you why.)
 CFBPW was instrumental in organizing the IF in 1930