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October 29, 2020 History NotesElectoral College Method for selecting a U.S. PresidentThe Election of a President is NOT determined by which candidate gets the greatest number of votes. If so, Hilary Clinton would be President today rather than Donald J. Trump. Clinton received about 2,000,000 more POPULAR votes, but Trump got the most ELECTORAL VOTES to become President. President. The information below is designed to help you understand why Trump became President rather than Clinton. Hopefully, you will soon understand the process by which we select our President. A FICTIONAL ELECTIONLet’s suppose that there are only 5 states: CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, TEXAS, FLORIDA, and TENNESSEE. Let’s also suppose that the election has already taken place and all votes have been counted. The following table gives you the total number of votes accumulated for each candidate.by state. STATE BIDENTRUMPCalifornia6,000,000 votes3,000,000 votesNew York4,000,0003,000,000Texas4,000,0005,000,000Florida4,000,0005,000,000Tennessee1,000,0002,000,000POPULAR VOTE TOTALS 19,000,000 18,000,000But the POPULAR VOTE does NOT determine the winner of the election. The total ELECTORAL VOTE from each of the states and the District of Columbia is used to name a new President. The U.S. CONSTITUTION is clear about how to determine the number of ELECTORAL votes to which each state is entitled. Just ADD the number of REPRESENTATIVES each state has in the U.S. CONGRESS to the number of its SENATORS to get the number of ELECTORAL VOTES assigned to each state.**Example: Tennessee has 9 Representatives to Congress along with 2 Senators. Therefore, add 9 + 2 to get Tennessee’s ELECTORAL VOTE total. Tennessee has 11 Electoral Votes.**All states have TWO (2) SENATORS. However, the number of REPRESENTATIVES varies from state to state. States with large populations have more Representatives than small states. So, the more people that live in a state, the more ELECTORAL votes that state will have.ELECTORAL VOTES ASSIGNED to each state for our FICTIONAL ELECTION Page 2State # Senators +# Representatives =# of Electoral VotesCalifornia 2 58 60New York 2 42 44Texas 2 48 50 Florida 2 47 49Tennessee 2 9 11IMPORTANT NOTEThe Candidate that gets the most POPULAR votes in each state gets ALL of that state’s ELECTORAL VOTES.Based on the number of popular votes received by each candidate in the 5 states in this fictional election, and given each states number of electoral votes, we can now look at the chart below and determine our fictional winner. Remember that the winner in each state gets all of the ELECTORAL VOTES while the other candidate gets 0!State # of Electoral Votes Electoral Votes won Electoral Votes wonCalifornia 60 Biden 60 Trump 0 New York 44 Biden 44 Trump 0Texas 50 Biden 0 Trump 50 Florida 49 Biden 0 Trump 49Tennessee 11 Biden 0 Trump 11 TOTAL ELECTORAL VOTES WON: BIDEN 104 TRUMP 110WHICH CANDIDATE WOULD BECOME OUR NEXT PRESIDENT based on this fictional election? TRUMP In the 2016 Election, Democrat Hilary Clinton actually won California, New York, and a number of other states. When the final vote total was revealed, Clinton received 2,000,000 more votes that Donald Trump. But she did NOT become President. Trump actually won Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and a significant number of other states. The Electoral vote won by Trump in the states that he carried were greater than the Electoral vote from the states won by Clinton. Despite note winning the popular vote, Donald Trump became our 44th President. Page 3We will seek to understand why our ‘FOUNDERS’ chose this particular method for electing Presidents when we study the Constitution in a few week. On November 3, 2020, American voters will select our next President. For those Americans who care about such things, watching televised election coverage is most interesting and sometimes tense when results are close. Below are some bits of information that will help you understand what you are seeing and hearing if you should choose to watch election night coverage. As in the fictional election above, the winner of the real 2020 Election will NOT necessarily be the candidate who gets the most ‘popular’ votes. The winner will be the candidate who wins a minimum of 270 ELECTORAL VOTES. Why 270?Each state has a predetermined number of Electoral Votes. In total there are 538 Electoral votes. (There are 435 representatives to Congress, 100 Senators, plus D.C. gets 3 Electoral votes. 435 + 100 + 3 = 538.)According to the Constitution the winner of a Presidential election must get more than half the available Electoral votes. Therefore, a candidate must get at least 270 votes to win the Presidency because 270 is one (1) more than half of 538. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the most votes in each individual state. So, rather than looking at the grand total of votes (the popular vote) received by each candidate, it is much more important to look at vote totals in each of the individual statesOn election night, when enough votes have been counted, commentators on TV will announce that a candidate has won a particular state. Let’s say that Joe Biden has an insurmountable lead in New York. The commentator will announce Biden’s victory. At about the same time, on an interactive map of the United States, New York will then be colored BLUE. Blue is typically the color associated with states where a majority of citizens vote DEMOCRAT. A few minutes later Trump is declared the winner in South Carolina—in which case S.C. will be colored RED. Red is typically the color of states that support REPUBLICAN candidates.So when they are talking about a state being BLUE, they actually mean that it has voted for DEMOCRATS…OR…RED meaning that a state has voted REPUBLICAN. Keep in mind that because of differences in TIME ZONES, vote totals always come in EARLIER from states on the East Coast as opposed to states in the west. Usually, it will be very late before election results for far western states are known. Page 4This year results may NOT be known as soon as we would like because of the huge number of mail in ballots being cast. One last bit of information…Every seat in the House of Representative—all 435 seats—are also part of the Election of 2020. So are 33 Senate seats in various states…including Tennessee. So mixed in with vote totals for President will be results for Senate and some House seats. Just wanted you to know what to expect. NOW, BACK TO OUR STUDY OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY…ENGLISH SUPREMECYThere were 3 European nations that claimed land in what we now call the United States.SPAIN claimed Florida, Texas, California, and all of the southwestern portion of our country.FRANCE claimed Louisiana, territory on both sides of the Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes region. ENGLAND claimed only the 13 Colonies, the smallest geographic area of the 3 European countries. But England was far and away the most successful at colonizing her territory. Why was England more successful than either Spain or France?Spanish explorers after Columbus and Magellan generally came to the new world looking for wealth. They formed few permanent settlements, St. Augustine and Santa Fe being the most important. They failed to appreciate the richness of the land…forests, fertile soil, abundant wildlife They cleared very little land for agricultural purposes Most Spaniards regarded Spain, not the New World, as homeFrance likewise formed only a few important permanent settlements…New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit French traders could be found in many places in Louisiana, but they never stayed long in one place France focused on the fur trade with native Americans, causing them to constantly be on the move Frenchmen tended to call France (or maybe New France) home, not LouisianaEnglishmen, however, came to America intending to stay permanently Many, especially those who had come for religious freedom, never intended to go back to England They came to build permanent houses, clear land, and to live their lives as AMERICANS They were willing to leave their old way of life in Europe for the freedom and opportunity of AmericaBecause settlers in the 13 Colonies enjoyed their freedom and because they had put in so much WORK to build their own houses and clear their own land, they grew to love America. Page 5The 13 Colonies were by far the most popular destination for Europeans who wanted to be free and to have a chance to own land. So they came by the thousands, causing the colonies to grow rapidly. The 13 colonies soon became the most dominant, most populated, and most attractive place for immigrants to come. (E Pluribus Unum) Americans in the 13 Colonies also became the most literate people in the world as well as the healthiest. Famines periodically plagued European countries, but people in America had plenty to eat. We are still affected as a country by the events of our early history. English is our national language, and even today we are regarded as a Christian nation that provides POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS, and ECONOMIC FREEDOM for ALL. This is why today millions of people around the world dream of coming to AMERICA! And just think for a minute about how very BLESSED WE ARE to have been born in AMERICA! ................
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