The U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to carry out the laws passed by Congress (Art. 2, Sect. 1) When the framers were writing the Constitution, they decided how the president was going to be elected.
The framers decided the people were going to elect the president. They established the Electoral College for this reason. It allowed a group of people (electors) chosen by the voters of each state to officially elect the president every four years. (Art. 2, Sect. 2) Under this system, voters don’t directly elect the presidential candidates. Instead, they vote for the electors who pledge their vote for a particular candidate.
Each state is given a certain number of electors. There are a total of 538 electors (435 representatives and 100 senators, plus three for the District of Columbia).
California has the most electors with 55, while Texas has 38. The least number of electors is in Alaska, with three. This is based on the number of Congressional members in each state. Therefore, Texas has 36 members in the house of representatives and two senators in the Senate.
The candidate who receives 270 electoral votes becomes president. If no candidate receives a majority (more than 50 percent) the House of Representatives will select the president.
Silvestre Moreno Jr. Mercedes
