NOT POLITICS but - how is the actual US president elected?

[Tonguez]

Okay I don't know (or realy understand) how the US Elections work, so can someone explain that now the primaries are finished how is the actual president elected?

and what is an Electoral College?

 

[Thunderfoot]

There was a thread about caucuses that had some good information Here.
Read it from the beginning to the end and you should pretty much get the entire process from start to finish.

 

[Tiberius]

In short, once the candidates are decided upon (typically representatives of the two main parties du jour chosen through primary elections and an assortment of chanceless "third parties"), a nationwide vote is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The ballot for this election may have the names of the candidates on it, but what people are actually voting for is electors to represent them when it comes time for the Electoral College to vote for the President and Vice President. Each state (and the District of Columbia) receives a number of electors equal to its entire Congressional delegation. For example, my home state of Massachusetts has 10 Representatives and 2 Senators, giving the Democratic candidate 12 electoral votes each election (grumble, grumble, winner-take-all...). The District receives a number of electors equal to that of the lowest state, for a grand total of 538 (at present). Most states operate under a winner-take-all system, whereby the winner of the popular vote in each state gets the entirety of the state's electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska use a different system; I'm a little fuzzy on it, but I'm pretty sure they give their state winner 2 electoral votes and divvy up the remainder proportionally.

In many states, the electors are required to vote as directed by the popular vote of their state (subject to state law); "faithless electors" can be punished for failing to vote as directed. The electors meet in their state capitals on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. At this point, they then cast two votes: one for the office of the President and one for the office of the Vice President. Despite the fact that we tend to see two-person Pres/VP tickets, the vote of the electors is not technically linked. It would be possible, though highly unlikely, for electors to reject the actual winner of either position and install someone else.

Once the votes are cast, they are sent to Congress. In a joint session before the House and the Senate, the electors' votes for the President and the Vice President are tallied. If a candidate receives half+1 of the votes, that person is elected to the office. In the event that there are insufficient electoral votes to elevate a candidate to office, Congress gets to decide. If no candidate won the Presidency, then the House of Representatives votes for a candidate (who again need not be the original contender). If the Vice Presidency remains contested, the Senate votes on candidates.

However the decision is made, the new President and Vice-President are installed on January 20. Their terms begin at noon and last for four years.

 

[Tonguez]

There was a thread about caucuses that had some good information Here.
Read it from the beginning to the end and you should pretty much get the entire process from start to finish.

Yeah I read bits of it when it first started but it gets quite convuluted and hurt my brain

Coming from a country which is technically part of the British Empire we don't actually get to elect head of state at all and the governmnet is elected using a mixed party proportional system where the leader of the party with the most seats becomes Prime Minister.
Its the idea of my vote not actually being for the candidate I'm voting for but for someone chosen as the elector that O can't get my head around but Tiberius has explained things somewhat...

 

[RangerWickett]

One of the reasons that supposedly justifies the electoral college and the 'winner take all' format is that, if you counted America just as one chunk of 300,000,000+ people, in a close election there would be just cause for tons of recounts, because apparently it's rather hard to tell with absolute certainty who someone votes for.

With the electoral college system, if the national vote is close but each state's vote has a clear margin favoring one or the other, you don't have to do a recount. Even in a situation like 2000, we just had the recount in Florida. I won't talk more about that little situation, though, because that's politics. Nasty, nasty politics.

However, don't take our word for it. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Presidential_Election

 

[Evilhalfling]

Yeah I read bits of it when it first started but it gets quite convuluted and hurt my brain
Its the idea of my vote not actually being for the candidate I'm voting for but for someone chosen as the elector that O can't get my head around but Tiberius has explained things somewhat...

Yeah it was a little convuluted from the inside as well. That was all primaries, just to choose the canidate for one party.

Rangerwicket that was a very good justification for the electoral collage.

The justification that I have heard more often is that the founding fathers did not trust the american people, and were trying to avoid having Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf1, or Stephen Colbert2 elected president.

They thought that a smaller group of people would be more accountable if "the people" elected some one stupid or unqualified.
(insert your own poltically biased comment here)


1: Won 1998 online People Maganize Poll of the most beautiful people in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_the_Angry_Dwarf

2: Who won votes to have a bridge in Hungary named for him, and a Ontario Junior league ice hockey team.

 

[Dr. Harry]

Maine and Nebraska use a different system; I'm a little fuzzy on it, but I'm pretty sure they give their state winner 2 electoral votes and divvy up the remainder proportionally.

If my understanding is correct, the remaining electoral votes are divided up based upon who won each of the Congressional districts. Suppose that Joe Johnson got the majority of the votes in Maine, primarily by winning the more populous second district. His opponent, John Joeson, lost the total vote, but won the first district.

Joe Johnson:3
John Joeson:1

 

[Thunderfoot]

Yeah I read bits of it when it first started but it gets quite convuluted and hurt my brain

Coming from a country which is technically part of the British Empire we don't actually get to elect head of state at all and the governmnet is elected using a mixed party proportional system where the leader of the party with the most seats becomes Prime Minister.
Its the idea of my vote not actually being for the candidate I'm voting for but for someone chosen as the elector that O can't get my head around but Tiberius has explained things somewhat...

Well, the system IS a little convoluted, but thats part of its charm.
The thing to remember is that the US Gov't is a democratic republic, we elect officials to do what they believe we would want them to do. This is what makes it a little messy. We have no direct say in what gets done, but have a direct say in who says it. It's a little more stable than an Imperial monarchy or dictatorship and a little less stable than a true democracy (but more efficient). All of the parts have to fire correctly for something to get done and all of the parts have to misfire in order for a truly broken system to emerge.
Unfortunately (fortunately?) what usually happens is only part of the system fires correctly or only one part misfires so you get a lot of messy politics (which is why its usually a forbidden topic except in generalities such as this one) or some questionable calls from politicians (see previous caveat). Of course the upside is that it means the people have to form an opinion and get involved, of course that is also the down side (caveat re-applied here too).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Yeah I read bits of it when it first started but it gets quite convuluted and hurt my brain

Coming from a country which is technically part of the British Empire we don't actually get to elect head of state at all and the governmnet is elected using a mixed party proportional system where the leader of the party with the most seats becomes Prime Minister.
Its the idea of my vote not actually being for the candidate I'm voting for but for someone chosen as the elector that O can't get my head around but Tiberius has explained things somewhat...

What country are you from Tonguez?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Tonguez]

What country are you from Tonguez?

Olaf the Stout

G'Day to me Mate from West Island!
me I'm from Aotearoa aka New Zealand (which according to NSW Law is still a protectorate of New South Wales)